World of Mike Nutworth

America and Britain are World Police - so why not help out in Zimbabwe?

2007-02-28T21:52:00.000Z

I have often wondered why, if the U.S. and Britain are so hell-bent on spreading democracy, freedom and general good things across the world, they don't simply invade any countries with problems. Take Zimbabwe, for example. Here's a kind of solution which I think the U.S. and the U.K. ought to pose to Zimbabwe:

Dear Mr. Mugabe,
We, the coalition of Britain and the United States of America, have noted with deep regret the widespread reports of various civil and political human rights abuses throughout Zimbabwe, in particular against opponents of the government. We'd like you to know that we fully deplore all human rights abuses within the country, with particular reference to the arrest, torture and mistreatment of 15 trade union activists in Zimbabwe on September 23, 2006. We, being the great multinational imperialistic superpowers that we are, have observed that Zimbabwe’s economy is in a state of hyperinflation, with an inflation rate of 1,593.6% in January 2007, and in our opinion that's causing real issues for your poor old citizens.

In fact, being brutally honest, we think your whole regime is corrupt and we don't think you're very good at doing the whole fair, free democracy thing. That's why we've decided to take matters into our own hands.

That's right Mr. Mugabe, we're gonna invade. Unless you do the following: (N.B. if you don't want to read this bit, it's a list of stuff we want you to do to stop human rights abuses within your country, most of which we know you're at best unlikely to comply with)

Take all necessary steps to ensure that the police, armed forces, and other security forces in Zimbabwe abide by Zimbabwe’s obligations under international law, including respect for the rights to freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention, and from torture and other mistreatment.

Acknowledge and condemn excessive use of force on the part of police and other security officials during demonstrations that have taken place in the past year.

In accordance with the Zimbabwean constitution, ensure that all persons taken into custody are brought before a judge within 48 hours and have the right of access to family members and legal counsel, in addition to other due process rights.

Publicly condemn the use of torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment by police officers and other law enforcement agencies, including through a public information campaign to increase awareness that torture is forbidden under Zimbabwean and international law.

Conduct independent investigations into all allegations of arbitrary arrest and detention, excessive use of force, and torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by police and intelligence officials. All those who are implicated in such abuses, whatever their rank, should be disciplined or prosecuted as appropriate.

Establish an independent civilian police body to investigate complaints against the Zimbabwe Republic Police.

Provide appropriate training to police and other security forces on human rights standards and the rule of law. Ensure that the training curriculum for police includes comprehensive training on human rights issues, such as non-violent methods of crowd control and the appropriate use of force. All training must be consistent with international human rights standards, such as the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.

Ratify the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and request a visit to Zimbabwe by the UN special rapporteur on torture.

Issue invitations to the UN special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the special representative of the UN secretary-general on the situation of human rights defenders, and the African Commission special rapporteur on human rights defenders.

Respect the rights of human rights defenders to do their work in the promotion of human rights, as articulated in the Declaration on the Right and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universally Recognized Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

Repeal or amend all national legislation that is incompatible with international human rights law and standards, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. In particular, repeal or substantially amend repressive provisions of the Public Order and Security Act.

So, Rob (if you don't mind the informal tone). There you have it, buddy. Sort that stuff out, and we'll leave you alone. With love, Tony & George
xxx

...So why don't they do it? I'll tell you: NO OIL IN ZIMBABWE!

Joey Barton transferred to Liverpool!

2007-02-22T08:15:00.000Z

Below is a screenshot I took of a BBC article about Joey Barton's transfer to Liverpool. (Click the picture to get a full-size shot, at present half the article is missing!)
Unfortunately, the article itself seems to have completely disappeared from the website! Please can someone let me know whether or not the article is correct; is Joey really off to Anfield?

Please note the above story is false and only a little joke.

American Foresight - horrifyingly admirable

2007-02-21T13:29:00.000Z

All this talk about 9/11 conspiracy theories has set me thinking down a rather interesting and thought provoking route. Contrary to my post about the BBC 2 programme on 9/11, I have always tried to step back from subscribing to conspiracy theories and, rather than believe either the official story or the conspiracy theory, I like to believe neither and treat each as equally credible/incredible.

But let us now suppose that a group of top-ranking individuals in the American government (or CIA, or FBI, or whatever you choose to believe) did indeed concoct a plan which, through the instillation of fear in their people using false flag terrorism, would provoke such an atmosphere in which they could justifiably demand greater powers. Let us assume that they used this atmosphere as a pretext for the invasion of Iraq.

Let us also assume (which may or may not be the case) that they plan to further use this atmosphere to invade other middle-eastern countries, notably Iran and other countries on president Bush's "Axis of Evil".

Let's imagine that the reason they did/do this is not really to seek out WMDs or liberate downtrodden people or to aid regime change etc. What if the only reason were to gain control of the oil (and other resources) in order to safeguard the security of America and its worldwide interests.

It points to a rather interesting conclusion. What if America has looked into the future (say 100 or even 1000 years), and has decided that the only way to ensure its country's survival; to ensure that people continue to live the American way of life, is to control the world and its resources. It's a remarkable thought and, I think, horrifyingly admirable.

As this thought occurred to me I wondered whether there was a reason that Europe seemed to be taking a different tack and not looking for global domination. I thought that perhaps it was because Europe has survived the Second World War and has come to understand that nothing can be achieved by coldhearted aggression, but cohesion and international relations are instead the way forwards.

I was struck by one final thought. Suppose America has made its master plan. Suppose it is planning on world domination (or at least the domination of the middle-east and its resources), and is unstoppable. Suppose that George W. Bush (or someone like him) has come to the conclusion that "a few thousand of our own citizens' lives are worth the safeguarding of American interests for the next 1000 years".

Having abandoned all morals for the survival of the American race, is there really anything left living for?

BBC 2's Conspiracy Files on 9/11. Hardly investigative journalism...

2007-02-19T18:15:00.000Z

Last night, at 9pm, I sat down to watch BBC 2's Conspiracy Files on the 9/11 attacks, which I had hoped would bring major doubts concerning the attacks to the forefront of the mainstream media.

Since watching a film called "Loose Change 9/11", which detailed many of the unanswered questions concerning the September 11th attacks. If you are unaware of any of these unanswered questions, I urge you to watch the video (search it on youTube or Google Video etc.) and find out for yourself. Alternatively, if you live in Britain, you may wish to watch a similar film called "Mind The Gap", which details some of the unanswered questions concerning the 7/7 tube bombings.

If you don't have time to watch these films, let me briefly say that they discuss in detail problems with the official versions of these events. In both films, the outcome is that there are so many unsupported claims or official confusions that the evidence seems to point to false flag terrorism attacks. That is to say, our own governments perpetrated the attacks and used them as a pretext to invade Iraq and Afghanistan in the search for oil (wealth and security), as well as invoking the kind of atmosphere of fear in domestic territories in which the government can justifiably demand greater repressive powers.

At first glance, you may not agree with this and will probably think that I'm talking crackpot rubbish, but I urge you to watch these films (they express the whole idea much better than me).
Of course, it's important to take such things with a pinch of salt, and I have done...yet the films have cast doubt into my mind about these events and I wondered why it was only non-mainstream media (blogs etc.) which seemed to be reporting on the matter. Surely there ought to be a mainstream public debate?

Recently, having been reading a book on The Myth of the Liberal Media (see my earlier post), I discovered why the mainstream media were so reluctant to talk about the matter (i.e. they are completely controlled by corporate and government interests- to know more you can buy the book here).

When I saw the upcoming BBC2 Conspiracy Files documentary, I thought that perhaps the issue would finally be brought into the public eye. But no. I was disappointed to see that the ideas were portrayed as crackpot and ridiculous, and that individuals were labelled with the now derogatory term "Conspiracy Theorist". Even in the blurb on the article here, you can see that the program isn't receptive to the ideas. The language "Incredibly some believe that..." immediately suggests that because the ideas are incredible (literally 'unbelievable') they should not be taken seriously or given credit. The blurb claims that the show "tries to separate fact from fiction.", but in fact this is a complete lie: while the programme ridicules almost every theorist and theory, it allows the claim that a red bandanna and hijacker's passport were found at the crash site of the plane which came down near Shanksville.

Think about that for a moment (I know, it's a long post, but force yourself to use that brain now). A passport made of PAPER. And a bandanna made of FABRIC. Two perfectly destructible items. Which supposedly survived the crash of a plane whose body and all of its passengers COMPLETELY DISINTEGRATED. It doesn't add up to me. Yet the BBC documentary (which purports to be investigative) simply glossed over this as if it were fact.

Shame on the BBC for allowing this to happen. It toed the official line and ridiculed the more than plausible theories about what really happened that day. So, it looks like the mainstream press will continue to be as stubborn as they currently are. What a shame.

It's Valentine's Day!

2007-02-14T21:57:00.000Z

...but does anyone really care? Not I.

But enough of that. Let's talk about me.
Yup, we had snow last week. Thick and heavy. You can imagine it! 700 public school boys ruched out to play and to be honest, it was a brilliant laugh. Some built giant snowmen, others giant snow-phalluses. Our house decided to build an igloo.

You see, in a recent recycling drive, the house had been issued with 63 blue plastic recycling bins. Which is fine, but we recycled before we got them. So the bins sat in a pile for a few weeks, somewhat neglected. That all changed, of course, when the snow arrived. The bins were the perfect size for igloo bricks, and they were put to good use. We built a magnificent (if rather puny) igloo.

We were very pleased with it, and were smugly wandering round as champion igloo-builders. Until a frightful menace came, as if from nowhere, and destroyed our wonderful creation! What rogues! "Villains! Hooligans! We'll show them!" I hear you cry from behind your TFT monitor.

But alas sweet friends, hold forth you anger. For these knaves were none other than the boys from the local sixth-form college. The destruction of our igloo was an act of war.

Sure enough, on Friday afternoon, they showed there faces on the school campus once more. And this time, we were there to face them. 300 or so boys chased the villainous crew, hurling snowballs at them, right out of the grounds. We chased them down the steep bank towards the river, across the bridge and into the town, where we paused in the local park (The quarry), to begin our slaughter.

The sky by this time was thick with snow, the sun blotted out by the volley of icy projectiles. All the ways grew dark. I can still hear the screams of the enemy as they ran, defeated, from our snowballing superiority.

I confess we had the strength of numbers, so in many ways it's a hollow victory. But all in the name of good clean fun.
See you soon,
Mike

Snoooow!

2007-02-08T18:45:00.000Z

AHHHHHHH! SNOOOOOW! It's unbelievable! While the rest of the UK got a nice layer of up to 6 inches, here in Shrewsbury we got three or four giant balls of snow! WOW!
We were absolutely gobsmacked, but after a few hours of standing round looking at the "SNALL", as we called it, we quickly put the balls to good use, blocking the door of our housemaster. Truly inspired:
Isn't it incredible? Has anyone else had such weird "SNALL" experiences? If so, send them to me at mikenutworth@gmail.com. I'm thinking of beginning a research society into these odd meteorological occurrences.
Mike

The Myth of the Liberal Media

2007-02-04T22:29:00.000Z

I've had a startling awakening. Take a quick look at this book. For those of you who can't be bothered to click the link, or who refuse to click it for fear of navigating away from this wonderful page, it's called "Guardians of Power: The Myth of the Liberal Media". It's all about how our media is controlled by international corporations due to advertising and overlapping interests. I was vaguely aware of this idea, but having read the book this week (borrowed it from the school library), I am terrified by the notion. I suggest you buy the book, for two reasons:
a) You will discover what I have discovered; the horrifying truth that the ideals of freedom of speech which we believe are valiantly upheld by the mainstream media are disregarded almost entirely.
b) It's an Amazon Associates link, so in the process of buying it from any of the above links (or even this one) you will earn poor old mike a good 40p or so. Go ON! It's a good read!

Shocking. Read it. You'll never watch the six o' clock news again without a good dousing of salt!

In other news, I've had a rather dull week, as my weeks go. My highlight was probably going to Birmingham Cathedral yesterday to sing a service of evensong there. It was a lovely cathedral, and a nice service, but the choir (called the Schola Cantorum Salopiensis) outnumbered the congregation by 16 to about 12. Can't have it all I suppose. What surprised me a little was that after the service, a verger asked how many of us were over 16, apparently for some census for the Archbishop of Cantebury. Can anyone explain more about this? Very curious.

Had a jam with my jazz band today, for the first time in ages. It was awesome! You can hear us by logging on to blazeband.blogspot.com or, possibly, by following this link. We're called Blazé, but sadly you can't put acute accents into URLs. Let me know if you like what you hear, it would give me the most enormous pleasure!

Bye for now,
Mike.

The Accidental Death...Lives(?)

2007-01-29T14:59:00.000Z

Woohoo! Unbanned for the second time this term! And the play's all done. We performed it on Fri 26th and Sat 27th and it was really stunning! The picture above is of the cast (I'm not in it; I'm directing so behind the camera :-]). From all the feedback we've had, it really was quite a production. I tried to make it relevant for the modern day while retaining the 1970s colour. I made a little something and tried to juxtapose the Strategy of Tension in 1960s Italy to the one which could potentially be happening in the modern West. Here it is:

Any thoughts? it's not quite right to compare Pinneli to De Menezes, but I think it's quite interesting.

Thought-provoking at least. I notice that while I was banned, my PageRank increased to 3 and managed to break the 1000 mark! Maybe this blog will be OK!

I spent the weekend in a near-coma after a small party in the house of one of the guys in the play; we certainly had quite a laugh, although groggy doesn't come close to how I felt on Sunday morning!

But it was back to lessons today, and I've got coursework galore to be getting on with. Just come back from a Spanish oral practice and I've got Maths, Music, English and Spanish coursework to do this week; it seems I got a bit behind when the play enveloped my life!

Gotta roll for now, leave me a comment or email me (mikenutworth@gmail.com) if you've got any thoughts on the Strategy of Tension thing above.
Mike.

Pride before a fall

2007-01-20T14:57:00.000Z

Once again, I find myself apologising most wholeheartedly for not posting in AGES! The thing is, I got banned AGAIN! So I'm posting this via email. So sadly, that means there are no pics as I can't figure out how to do it through the email client. So let me explain what's been going on.

I got the results back from all my mocks, I managed to clinch the top grades that I'd been hoping for; I got the full rack of 10 A* grades which, as you can imagine, I'm pretty pleased about.

But my academic stuff has really fallen by the wayside since we started rehearsing for the play (Fo's Accidental Death of an Anarchist) last week. The performances are next Friday and Saturday, which is so incredibly scary it's untrue. But the cast are really good and helpful, they do what I ask them to and they're pretty nice about learning lines till 3 AM etc.!

A couple of nights ago I made the error of giving them tea with 3 spoons of sugar in in an attempt to liven them up, and the result was catastrophic! There was an immediate sugar-high, followed by an insanely depressing sugar-low as the insulin kicked in, and the whole rehearsal went pear-shaped. But we managed to claw it back. Tonight is our first run through and I'm going to take some photos to put up on here.

Usually when house plays are performed, there is a staff director, who can get props and stuff as well as doing all the hard work. But there isn't one for our play. So I've been amassing the props. There are some really weird ones, such as False hands and legs, so I turned to eBay (where else!). Unfortunately (and here's the rub), eBay is banned at school. So I got hold of a staff password from a friend and got hold of all the props we needed. Then a real situation arose. The IT manager, who banned and unbanned me only last week, noticed that I was using the staff password and went crazy. He informed the senior master (the one in charge of discipline) and banned me from using the Internet again! So I'm in a bit of a pickle. But nothing I can't get out of, don't worry.

I'll get some photos of the play as soon as I can!
P.S. The visitor counter is steadily growing :-), keep watching out for that big 1000!
Bye for now, Mike

No longer am I banned!

2007-01-11T13:54:00.001Z

Hey, sorry I haven't posted for nearly a week, but I went back to school (boarding) and within 2 days I got banned for using a proxy website. For those of you who don't know what a proxy is, it's a site which allows people to bypass blocking software and internet censorship by encrypting their IP address and all the data they send and receive, including website addresses and so on. So, because the school ahs banned social networking sites like bebo and facebook, a lot of pupils use proxies such as twodollarporsche.com and sneakthrough.com to access the sites.

Of course, when the IT chaps find out, they ban everyone who's used proxies from the network altogether. Therefore I was deprived of my internet access for a couple of days for accessing sneakthrough. However, and this is the crux of the matter, I was the victim of a terrible misunderstanding! My mate was messing round on my laptop and went on it, but didn't actually use the proxy to view anything.

A quick email pleading with the head of IT and I found myself uninhibited by the restrictions. Thank the Lord! It made me realize how much I use the internet though, and I have to admit it shocked me a bit. It's probably not a big problem though. I dunno.

So anyway, since Monday we've been wading our way through these mock exams I was telling you about. They're going OK so far, although tomorrow I have 4 really tricky ones: English Lit, Music, Spanish Oral and Latin Prose Set Text (Virgil's Aeneid Book 4). And they're over on Saturday!

Yesterday I had a free afternoon and I went out and began my gradual destruction of the house budget on props for the play, An Accidental Death of Anarchist. I have some really weird stuff. You should have seen me and two mates go into a shop and ask if they had any handcuffs! Of course, the only ones he had were "Love Handcuffs" so they had to do!

Also (wow, I have lots to tell you) I have officially fallen in love...with High School The Musical! My little sis (9) got the DVD for Christmas and I recently downloaded the soundtrack and I really do think I know all the words... and other fanatics out there?

Bye for now,
Mike.

Shovelling manure...not THAT much fun.

2007-01-05T18:23:00.000Z

I say it's not that much fun, but to be honest, I think it's a load of sh*te! (geddit) I woke up this morning looking forward to a day of much-needed revision. Last night I drew up a substantial schedule detailing 7 hours of hard work with breaks in order to stimulate my learning experience. This, I had hoped, would be my ticket to cruising the upcoming mock exams.

Not so. My mother informed me that a trailer of manure had been delivered, and that I was the lucky sod who was going to shovel it all over her vegetable patch. Brilliant.

So I did it. I got very smelly (and still reek of the stuff even after 2 showers), but it is now complete. Then I got in the house and commenced with my mammoth revision task to include Spanish, Latin, Biology, Chemistry and physics. I'm about halfway through now but I needed to take a break so I thought I'd tell you all about the merits of manure. I do hope you enjoyed it.

Nearing 1000 visitors

2007-01-04T17:32:00.000Z

As I write this, the counter on the right hand side is nearing the 1000 mark. If you're the lucky person who sees the magic "1000" in that box, email me mikenutworth@gmail.com for a prize of some description. If you're reading this and you're not that lucky person...email me anyway! It'll be a laugh and I want to make friends with you!

So now I'm aiming high: 10000. Yup, I want to add another zero to that counter. It'll be tough. But when the going gets tough, the tough get going!

So would you perhaps like to help? Well, if you've read this far I'm guessing you wouldn't mind too much...so please link to me! You can do it manually, or if you're on blogrolling.com then Blogroll Me! It would really make my day and I'd be ever so grateful. And if you do decide to link to me, which I hope you do, then I promise to link back to you. So you might as well. Drop me an email to mikenutworth@gmail.com with the name of your blog and the URL. Of course, I'll then go and visit it, so you're getting a link and a visitor. What's the worst that could happen ? (quiet, sceptics!) It's a win-win situation and you'd be making me happy.

So, to sum up, please Blogroll Me! or link to me any other way you like. Here's a banner for encouragement. To add this banner to your blog or website (and it'll come out 468x60), please add the following code: .

That should work, I think.
Again, if you're thinking of linking...GO FOR IT!
Then let me know.
And I'll link to you.
Cheers, Mike.

Accommodation for the TT centenary?

2007-01-04T01:01:00.000Z

Okay, I won't lie: there's only one place you can truly want to stay when you visit the Isle of Man for the centenary this year. And that's the TT Village! I know, you're loving it already and you haven't even clicked the link yet. Oh no, I'm not trying to sell it to you. Absolutely not. I hate the thought of posting purely for the purpose of selling something to you! That's tantamount to treason! Oh, but this is all blather and bluster! What you need to do is click that link. Or perhaps this one! Or even this one! Whatever. Just check it out.

Seriously though, if you're coming over to see the monumentous 100th TT motorbike race in the Isle of Man, this is the place to stay. No joke. Book early to avoid disappointment. (BTW the above picture is of Port Erin, the nearest town to the TT Village...looks great eh?)

Addicted to blogging...

2007-01-02T20:27:00.000Z

Oh dear, I think I'm officially addicted to blogging! Does anyone know at what point it stops being a bit of harmless fun and becomes n unhealthy addiction? I'm beginning to think I may have made that transition, and to be honest I'm not sure whether I'll be able to drag myself back over it. Let me give you the full tale of woe and despair:

As you can no doubt tell from the blog archive, I started this blog a not-very-long time ago. 15th of December if I remember correctly. It was a bit of a laugh. But this whole advertising thing has got the better of me. Adsense, AdBrite, Clicksor, Expoactive, Adengage, In blogads, commission junction... they all seem to be luring me in with phrases like "earn a living from your blog". Well, I don't know about that. So far I've earned a total of $3.03 from Adsense. Hardly a goldmine.

But the real thrill of it seems to be coming from the counter. It goes steadily on up, especially after I joined traffic exchange sites like blogmad and blogexplosion. People are genuinely reading (or at least visiting) my blog...Amazing! So now I just want to spend all day just sort of...looking at it.

In itself that's not a problem. But you have to understand I'm a pretty busy (nearly wrote "busty" there!) chap. I have a lot going on. Anyone who's read my post about my upcoming play, Dario Fo's Accidental Death Of An Anarchist knows this. Plus I have mocks coming up, and my real GCSE exams in the summer! I ought to have been revising today but I hardly did ANY and I feel very screwed.

But it looks like blogging, by it's very nature, is addictive. I suppose it's meant to be. There's something about it which is AWFULLY attractive. Like a lovely bottom. Exsquisite. But I think I must draw myself away, somehow. Any advice?

Me being geeky again...

2007-01-01T22:02:00.000Z

I know! I'm a geek! But look at this

"Vista doesn't provide any other pagefile encryption, and will quite happily page banking PINs, credit card details, private, personal data, and other sensitive information, in plaintext. The content-protection requirements make it fairly clear that in Microsoft's eyes a frame of premium content is worth more than (say) a user's medical records or their banking PIN"

Now THAT's worrying. I don't know whether there's any truth in it or whether it's just some guy who wrote a controversial article for lots of traffic, but the full article is extremely lengthy and lucks to have expert knowledge behind it... The thought in the back of my mind is that SURELY microsoft wouldn't do something as stupid as that unless they had a security system which was absolutely bombproof preventing anyone with malicious intents from getting hold of it. I mean, I know everyone in the online world (particularly mac users) love slagging off Microshaft as they call it but for me, it simply doesn't click. What do you think?

Revision is no fun...especially on New Year's Day!

2007-01-01T16:06:00.000Z

From the warm glow of Christmas to the cold, icy showers of revision for my mocks (in 7 days time!). The weather outside is extremely windy with frequent bursts of hail and I am in a cold room (the boiler has burst) learning my Spanish oral "perfectly" as our slavedriver teacher told us to. He's a seriously good teacher and you're pretty much guaranteed an A* in his set, but he really does work us hard. Anyway I'm making steady progress with it but I'm now facing the daunting task of learning everything including an entire book (book 4) of Virgil's Aeneid. I'm genuinely a little bit worried in a way that I've never been before by exams.

In addition I'm facing the prospect of directing my first play, The Accidental Death Of An Anarchist by Dario Fo (left). It's a house play, I cast it in early December and when I go back to school on the 7th Jan I will have precisely 3 weeks to get it to performance standard. Very Scary. Especially when the lead role (the "MANIAC" for those of you who know the play) texted me last night to say he's struggling to learn his lines. Help!

Anyway, must get back to that icy shower (no, not the hailstones, the revision!). Bye for now.

Back From Austria (and very salty)

2006-12-31T13:43:00.000Z

Well I'm back from Austria and once again I've given you a summary shot of the holiday. We may not have had as much snow as last year but we were certainly blessed with fantastic weather. The food was brilliant although I now feel like I've spent a week in a salt mine. My favourite part of the holiday was learning to snowboard, which is rather ironic as most of the time was spent on my knees or bum. However, after a few days I've become a little bit proficient and I'm now genuinely looking forward to going to a winter paradise again so I can get back on a board.

My least favourite part of the holiday was the journey back. We were due to fly out from Salzburg to Manchester on the 29th but sadly as we arrived at the airport and checked in, a heavy fog descended on the area and the flight didn't even land in Salzburg.

So, after a few hours of deliberation, Thompson Fly (who should be commended for this) put all the passengers up in a very nice hotel in Salzburg and flew us out the next day. A good bargain I suppose, given that we only paid 49p (+airport taxes) for the return flight. All in all a great time was had and I'm thinking of going on a mountain biking holiday in the area with a few friends during the summer (after my GCSEs yay!)

Snow At Last!

2006-12-18T23:10:00.000Z

It's what we've all been hoping for...Finally there is snow in Rauris! I thought we were doomed to hours at the poolside or wandering the towns of Austria, but today, the day before we set off for the beautiful land, snow has fallen! I can't tell you how excited I am!

In addition my big sister Natasha returned home from University yesterday and I was very pleased to see her as it's the first time I've done so since July! Very much looking forward to racing her down the slopes...When I return I'll have many pics of Austria for you to enjoy. Bye for now, Mike.

Big Pyramids of Bottles

2006-12-17T01:10:00.000Z

Wow, I love this picture. I found it at Never Stop Questioning and I have to say for some reason I am incredibly satisfied by triangle numbers, especially when set up like this. Maybe its my geekiness coming out. I dunno.

Is it Me or Them?

2006-12-17T00:36:00.000Z

Discovered this blog today using the random blog function. It seems to be some sort of exploration of the worlds 'hunky' men in Spanish (I'm not certain on this, however as my Spanish isn't great. Maybe it's a condemnation of the men who look like that. I don't really know). I have to say I navigated away from the page fairly quickly as I felt rather uncomfortable looking at those pictures. It seemed to work in terms of getting traffic though; over thirty-five and a half thousand hits! That's just crazy! And my counter looks very sombre by comparison. Still, I suppose I could try it out; maybe I ought to start posting pictures of my naked torso on here to boost the visitor count...

Now that's more like it!

The French for "Geek"...is "Geek"

2006-12-17T00:22:00.001Z

Just thought this was quite amusing, saw this phrase and laughed:
N'empêche que pour une soirée "Geek", c'était vraiment sympa
I don't like the idea, but I think I might be a closet geek. I recently bought 3 books on C++ programming. Is it a bad sign? Mike

Snow Joke when there's no snow!

2006-12-16T22:59:00.000Z

My excitement is mounting about my forthcoming holiday in Rauris, Austria. But sadly (as shown by above photo, there is not enough snow to ski on yet! I sincerely that there will be a big snowfall in the next few days because last time we went (this time last year) it was magical. It was so lovely to take a look at a real traditional Christmas rather than our over-commercialised nonsense which is evermore based (sadly) on the American model. One of the best moments was attending midnight mass on Christmas Eve.

The hotel in which we stayed (and are returning to this year) is called Hotel Alpina, it is truly fabulous. Family run and headed up by Frau Fensl, it is brilliant to the last detail. The accommodation, the food (traditional Austrian) and the friendly attitude of those in charge. The highlight, however, was on Christmas eve following the sumptuous 5 course meal prepared by Herr Fensl, whereupon the whole family performed traditional Austrian things for the guests. They sang carols, played music and danced, wearing traditional dress and it was fantastic.

For me this photograph sums up the holiday:

I took this myself while skiing and I just think it's fantastic. A really brilliant experience in a wonderful resort.

A Final Ride in the Isle of Man

2006-12-16T15:11:00.000Z

I was lucky enough to awake this morning to glorious sunshine and my first thought was of my slightly neglected bike. The last week has barraged us with truly awful weather and this made it impossible to get out on the hills. For my last ride in the Isle of Man before the new year, a friend and I went up to my favourite ride, Cronk ny Arrey Laa. It's a tough (but on-road) ascent followed by a bit of uphill to the glorious summit, from where you can see the whole of the South of the Island. Then it's all downhill right down to fleshwick. I took the pics on this post right from the top.

YouGov

2006-12-15T20:48:00.000Z

This is an easy way to earn cash and very attractive to me as a student:YouGov Survey
I highly recommend this system; like many other you get paid to carry out surveys but there is a slight difference to most of the heavy corporate American surveys we usually find on the web- this is a highly respected UK company and you will even see the results of the surveys in which you take part in newspapers etc. If you decide to do this please help me out by using the link on this post. Thankyou!

Christmas Rush

2006-12-15T15:09:00.000Z

I'm not really going to rant at Christmas, mainly because I quite like it, though I will say a little bit about how much Xmas adverts on T.V. in NOVEMBER annoys me! But that's beside the point. Yesterday I realised that I'm going away on holiday and I'll be in Europe from early next week. Then I realised that I have no christmas presents for anyone! I find it really tricky to look for xmas presents for friends and family. So instead I got them all Amazon gift certificates!

They are great. Perfect for everyone (except the elderly, my grandmother recently started a computer course and she struggles with the concept of an "on" button) and SOO simple. Everyone will be getting these from me this year!

Thoughts on colds...

2006-12-14T23:56:00.000Z

Every year I get a cold, and every year it comes at a massively inappropriate time. For the last two weeks I have coughed and spluttered with no end in sight. I have tried the homeopathic cures of ecchinacea, honey and lemon drinks, rum(!) etc. as well as traditional symptomatic relief like exspecterant, but to no avail. Still I cough and tonight, as I sat through a film, I felt really embarassed as I tried in vain to stifle my violent exhalations. And now, to add insult to injury, I watch the Ashes 3rd test 1st day (good performance against the damned Aussies with great prospective opportunity for tomorrow) and of course it's beautifully sunny while outside my window it's Gale Force winds with rain and heavy cloud. Great. Still, there's a silver lining to every grey cloud and mine is that I was meant to be singing in New York with a choir over the last week, but it was cancelled for fear of terror attacks. There's no way that I would have been able to sing in this state and I'm actually quite grateful. The choir, ironically, is now planning a smaller-scale tour in the Isle of Man (!! see my post on Pronto). It is a beautiful place though. Here's a photo I took while mountain biking there in the summer.

Sorry about the ranting...but not if you're American!

2006-12-14T22:42:00.000Z

I'm terribly sorry that this blog has turned into a bit of a ranting ground, but I have a REAL problem with the "American dream". As a Brit, I know all about the bad reputation of Americans over here. I understand, of course, that this is an incredible generalisation and is stereotyping to the extreme, but at the same time I fear that this anti-American post is going to be the first of a great many.

Let me begin by explaining how this particular irritation was brought on. I confess that I have held this sentiment for some time, but tonight I was tipped over the brink. I went to see a showing of the Al Gore film "An Inconvenient Truth". I actually thought it was a terribly good film with a fantastic message, but it reinforced in my mind some (admittedly very generalised) thoughts about America and its people. I apologise if you are American; I am about to be rude about you.

Firstly, how terribly insular they are. They seem to think about things in terms of America, America's interests, America's people. They seem negligent of the entire international community, and I think this is reflected in their foreign policy (Iraq!!) and also in the fact that "just 22% of Americans own a passport". Maybe I'm the one that's at fault and in fact it's me who's got the shoddy attitude. But I just feel that, having watched much American media including films and Internet content, they simply think of America as "the world" and everyone else as the irritating neighbours. I was most put out when Mr. Gore's film portrayed the E.U. as a single country!

Which brings me onto the next part of my problem with those chaps across the pond: why can't they use the English language properly? I'm not just talking about the ridiculous misspelling of morons in the photo at the top of this post. In the Al Gore (U.S. Vice president from 1993 to 2001) film he talked at length of Anarctica (missing 't'!). They use 'z' where 's' is more than appropriate (for example in the word realise. U.S. spelling is realize). They pronounce, among others, the word "harass" wrongly (British pronunciation is huh-ras, U.S.'s is har-uhs), but not only that, they have caused, through their seeming media indoctrination of the U.K., our proud nation to take up that pronunciation. This brings me nicely to my third point about Americans- but this is something that I believe we Brits need to take action on.

American culture has a nasty habit of spreading across the Atlantic rather quickly and Britain is gradually becoming a miniature U.S.A. I wouldn't be that bothered if it wasn't for the growing obesity problem. I apologise again if it's just me being awfully narrow-minded but I went to Florida a few years ago and the sights I saw there really troubled me; mainly those of enormous women who simply couldn't walk and had to drive or be pushed between restaurants in wheelchairs and so on. I just don't want Britain to end up like that.

I could go on. I dislike America's imperialistic style. I remember hearing that if you want to make a documentary or drama series about ancient Rome (not that anyone would with so many American sitcoms on British TV), it's very difficult to go and shoot on location in Italy. But it's more than possible in America. Take a look at the U.S. capitol Building:

And compare it with the Capitol in Rome:

See any similarities? Anyway, that's just me being British and silly. please ignore me.

That Annoying "Printer Queue" thing...

2006-12-14T17:33:00.000Z

I really am not sure I need a "printer queue". I've got one, it seems, and mine is not happy, which in turn is making me unhappy. I have no idea how this thing thinks or does what it does, but it is getting me unimaginably frustrated. It simply won't print- it just keeps queuing things up. I thought, in my simple, humble and innocent naivety, that there must be some problem with the one at the front of the queue. This would be a little bit like a situation in a supermarket. You're desperate to get home (perhaps to try out your soon-to-be-bought condiments or snacks) but some unruly individual (usually an elderly person) is chatting to the till attendant. As a result, none of those queuing can be served and problems mount up.
Now, some people, I'm sure, really do need print queues. No doubt the endless help that people have gained from such intelligent queuing systems is enormous to the point of elephantine proportions. But I just don't need a print queue. I don't even have a printer!

Manx Pronto

2006-12-14T16:25:00.000Z

Manx Pronto has really got me irritated. It's the ONLY mobile phone network in the Isle of Man, a place I visited not so long ago, and I truly believe that it is the least flexible phone company in the entire world. I wouldn't be so irritated if they had just TOLD me that texts cost 50p if you pop over there using your o2 sim card. But nobody bothered. When I turned my phone on at the airport, I got a very pleasant message from o2 roaming telling me that all phone calls cost 35p/min throughout Europe (a claim which turned out to be false in the Isle of Man), but no mention of text messages being about a billion times more expensive. I apologise for my hyperbolising, but I am quite irate. The only way that one can get standard 10p texts while in the Isle of Man is by joining the pronto network. Which means changing your number (they don't let you keep it for some reason) and purchasing a SIM card for £17.95. The irony is that I spent more than that on texts while I was over there! Didn't find out of course, until I got my bill through. They have plundered my pockets of a substantial amount of money without breathing a word. By the time I realised, I was already sixty miles away accross the Irish sea. It is the perfect crime, and let my tale be a warning to anyone who would like to use SMS while in the land of the three-legged people! I certainly won't be returning there PRONTO! (geddit?)

Abebooks.com

2006-12-14T16:14:00.000Z

I don't want to give abebooks.com a bad name, but I want to have a little rant. I have been trying for a few weeks to get a copy of a book by David West called "The Aeneid: A New Prose Translation", partly because I wanted to read Virgil's epic tale but also because I need this particular text for my Latin GCSE. I had been struggling for some time until I came accross abebooks.com, recommended to me by a friend, and it seemed to be the perfect solution. It's a bit like eBay; booksellers put up their books and people like me buy them. Its a really good source for secondhand textbooks or out of print books. After Amazon wanted some ridiculous sourcing fee for it, the price of £5 including p&p seemed pretty appealing. So I went ahead and ordered a copy, hoping that it would arrive before I go on my skiing holiday next week.

I waited for two days before the seller cancelled the order, presumably because he'd sold it to some other fellow in the real (as opposed to virtual) world. So, undaunted and hopeful, I ordered the same book, through abebooks.com, from another seller. Two days later, and the exact same thing happens again.

Now I'm just irritated. Even if I order another one, it won't arrive in time for my holiday next week. So I'm going to have to go without Virgil. My complaint, therefore, is not with people selling books in the real world, but with abebooks.com. Surely there is a better system of doing things which ensures that innocent philomathic punters like myself are not sent to the slopes without classical literature?

Mike Nutworth: An Introduction

2006-12-14T16:08:00.000Z

Hi there, I'm Mike Nutworth. This blog is, like many other blogs, a little piece of my mind put on the web for the world to see. I have no idea what I'll talk about, but I hope you'll at least occasionally see what I'm on about. I will tell you about anything I care to tell you about. Enjoy!