Kendrick Curtis

lieutenanth @ 2008-05-13T18:28:00

2008-05-13T17:29:06Z

Yay, Alistair Darling is going to give me even more money! Despite the fact that I'm almost in the top rate tax band! What a fucking cretin!

Buzz

2008-05-12T22:12:18Z

My new electric toothbrush has seven different language settings.

lieutenanth @ 2008-05-11T23:20:00

2008-05-11T22:20:23Z

Dear Doctor,

You've killed and tortured lots of people and committed genocide. Stop moaning.

kthx

lieutenanth @ 2008-05-06T20:35:00

2008-05-06T19:38:39Z

So my mobile phone ended up in the washing machine last night - don't try and call me. The SIM survived, though, so I still have all of y'all numbers. Might be a couple of days before I get my old phone charged up and unlocked - best to get me by email, facebook message, etc.

Now, question - I want a teeny tiny phone to replace my old Samsung x830. What should I get? I'm seriously considering a Samsung Armani (yeah) because they are so ickle and cute and yet touchscreentastic. Comments, suggestions?

Note: I don't like "candy bars" because the buttons get damaged too easily, and I don't really like vertical slider phones, unless they are springloaded like the ones in the Matrix!

lieutenanth @ 2008-05-02T16:00:00

2008-05-02T15:01:19Z

I missed this at the time, but I just caught it on iplayer - the Top Gear crew put together the EU's biggest noncommercial rocket in order to try and shoot a robin reliant into orbit. Genius.

lieutenanth @ 2008-05-02T10:40:00

2008-05-02T09:43:42Z

Breaking the 6th law of Fight Club: No shirts - no shoes.

lieutenanth @ 2008-05-01T22:13:00

2008-05-01T21:14:35Z

Spotted on reddit: space shuttle launch picture.

lieutenanth @ 2008-04-29T09:26:00

2008-04-29T08:27:13Z

When irony attacks!

lieutenanth @ 2008-04-28T14:53:00

2008-04-28T13:53:47Z

More genius from Adam Kay & Suman Biswas:

lieutenanth @ 2008-04-24T21:29:00

2008-04-24T20:31:29Z

Having mentioned ultra-Blairite Hugh Bayley the other day, I was intrigued to note that his name is on this list of MPs considered to be "wavering" on 42 days detention. Your letter could really make a difference, if you're in the City of York constituency (John Grogan is already a declared rebel).

(I will give the politics a rest for a bit now, promise)

lieutenanth @ 2008-04-20T11:10:00

2008-04-20T10:14:44Z

The Battenberg cake is NOT under threat due to the food colouring ban. Not that anyone actually cares.

lieutenanth @ 2008-04-19T13:20:00

2008-04-19T12:24:29Z

Incidentally, if you're in York and you're affected negatively by the removal of the 10p tax band, why not turn the thumbscrews on one of the two Labour MPs in the area? You are likely represented by either Hugh Bayley (City of York) or John Grogan (Selby inc York Uni), and writing to them is easy.

(I only mention York in particular because I know it has Labour MPs)

lieutenanth @ 2008-04-19T12:12:00

2008-04-19T11:13:15Z

All hail the Advertising Standards Agency:

...the [ASA] tried to assess Zara’s powers. “We considered that the claim ‘premier psychic adviser’ implied that Zara offered an objectively superior service to all other psychic advisers ... because we had seen no comparative evidence to show that Zara offered an objectively superior service to all other psychic advisers, the claim was misleading.

Best Doom2 Demo Ever!

2008-04-12T13:40:58Z

(Sound required)

lieutenanth @ 2008-04-12T11:56:00

2008-04-12T10:57:10Z

This is going to be huge, I expect.

lieutenanth @ 2008-04-10T22:19:00

2008-04-10T21:20:28Z

You probably saw this on Elizabeth's journal, but hey.

If that doesn't make you go "Awwww" then you have a heart of stone.

lieutenanth @ 2008-04-05T11:09:00

2008-04-05T10:10:05Z

New US $5 bill groundbreakingly ugly.

lieutenanth @ 2008-04-04T22:57:00

2008-04-04T21:57:58Z

Also, this sort of thing is just so pathetic. Someone was paid to make this decision, with our money. Cretins.

lieutenanth @ 2008-04-04T22:25:00

2008-04-04T21:43:17Z

Further to my enigmatic Facebook twittering, if cannabis is reclassified as a class B drug, the maximum penalty for being caught in possession of cannabis will be five years imprisonment and an "unlimited" fine. The maximum penalty for dealing will be 14 years and an unlimited fine.

The maximum sentence for rape is life imprisonment, and the average sentence seems to be around four years.

So what I read earlier was contrasting the average sentence for rape with the maximum sentence for possession. Now, I believe that if you are carrying a sufficiently large quantity of cannabis as to be able to supply others (and I don't know what that amount is), then that counts as dealing rather than possession. It follows (I think) that possessing a slightly smaller quantity than that should get you the full five years. Honestly, I can't see how holding a few hundred grams of cannabis is worse than raping someone.

But someone does: Gordon Brown.

lieutenanth @ 2008-04-01T19:12:00

2008-04-01T18:13:06Z

What's the opposite of nostalgia?

lieutenanth @ 2008-04-01T19:07:00

2008-04-01T18:07:49Z

Fafblog is back! Hooray!

Bad Science

2008-03-29T08:57:43Z

Remember all that polava about fish oil improving your brain? That study in Durham, with the kids? It has been proven to be ineffective, so that's one less supplement for us all to not worry about not taking.

Just finished watching season 4 of The Wire. It was awesome. Can't wait to watch the final season now, despite Wikipedia informing me it has been cut from 13 to 10 shows :( It feels like someone has stolen 3 hours of Wirey goodness off me! The fiends.

To anyone who works in an office job: how do you manage to avoid eating too much at work due to boredom?

lieutenanth @ 2008-03-27T21:39:00

2008-03-27T21:47:11Z

Also (and we'll see which of tonight's two posts gets the most interest), I've finally gotten round to uploading my "realism" mod for Civ 4. IT IS NOT FINISHED YET! In fact, I haven't worked on it for ages. More particularly, things will get very, very strange as you approach the modern age, since the tech tree hasn't been properly sorted out. Don't expect to be able to play a full game. Also, my new cultural borders work isn't complete yet, and the AI doesn't really understand how it works, meaning that you probably won't get a decent game unless you set it on a mentally high difficulty (ie. Deity). Finally, note that, just like in real life, startup of your civ is extremely slow. It is designed to be played on "epic" speed. No guarantees of sensible things happening on faster speeds.

WARNING! It DOES NOT play like Civ 4. The units work differently, the tech tree is completely different, and it is VITAL that you manage your now-expanded Civics properly in order to succeed.

Download it here.

Unzip into your /Program Files/Civ 4/Mods directory (it should then appear in a directory called "ThreeLions"), start up Civ 4 and then use the mod loader to load the ThreeLions mod. You will undoubtedly get some error messages either at mod-load time or at game-start time. Just click through these. And like I say, it's designed to be played on "epic" speed.

Bug reports and suggestions for improvements welcome.

Alert: Labour in "being naughy" scandal!

2008-03-27T21:00:37Z

DANGER WILL ROBINSON! Government attempting to hide rule by fiat in Constitutional Renewal Bill!

This is really important and incredibly dangerous. In brief, the government want to give Ministers the power to change the texts of existing laws at will, with as little as a 40 MP quorum, with no opportunity for amendments to be tabled. It is the total undermining of parliamentary democracy. It must be stopped. For the love of God (or Cthulu), Write to your MP and ask for the removal of Part 6 of the Constitutional Renewal Bill, pointing out the above.

They've tried this before, incidentally, in the Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill. It was unacceptable then, and it's unacceptable now. Please spend five minutes emailing your MP to raise their awareness.

kthxbye

RIP Arthur C Clarke

2008-03-19T09:04:42Z

Arthur C Clarke has died aged 90.