the corner office

You can work with some people, but there are assholes on both sides of the border who take things too far.

An interesting read: The tiny islands where Canada and America are at war".

Two things I overheard while walking around London this week.

The first, a father talking on his mobile to his son (?):

"Well... OK Charlie, I can tell you're not in a conversational mood at the moment..."

(that made me a little sad)

And the other, a little boy to his father:

"Daddy, do you actually know where you're going?"

(that one made my day)

Yes, yes, Greece, but this tragedy is closer to home: Bubble Wrap firm sparks backlash from fans after creating new model which does not pop.

You'll be feeling a little panicky and in need of a hug as the enormity of this development sets in. But then you can jolt yourself out of it by reading one of the final paragraphs:

Bubble Wrap was originally created in 1957 by the co-founders of Sealed Air who were looking for a new kind of wallpaper when they realised that their invention could be used for packaging.

Bubble wrap wallpaper! For reals?

I avoided commentary on the outcome of the general election (roughly along the lines of WTF??). I could say it was down to me waiting to see whether the plagues of locusts would materialise, but in truth life's been taken up by other stuff.

But fair to say that Ed achieved the heretofore-considered-impossible and proved himself to be even more of a disastrous Labour leader than Gordon Brown. And then he did the honourable thing (ie. patronised voters by saying they weren't listening hard enough to his message, and then resigned). And now we have a Labour Leadership Contest.

This has been a fun distraction from the harsh realities of the Tories preparing to come and claim firstborn &c &c. After a few false starts, the field has been narrowed down to 3, no 4 people.

First, Andy Burnham, who's the strongest candidate, everyone says, (as long as you don't call him Andy "MidStaffs" Burnham, I guess), followed by Yvette Cooper, who has as a selling point the potential to become the second female British Prime Minister (as long as the Tories can be prevented from pointing out that the person who'd then be running the country is someone who willingly chose to tie the knot with Ed Balls, say no more), and then Liz Kendall, who's touted by some as the best hope for taking on the Tories, and vilified by others for being on the right wing of the Labour Party (there is such a thing, apparently)

And that makes 3. Indeed, it looked to be a 3-horse race, but at the last minute people managed to nudge Jeremy Corbyn into the starting gates as well. This was done so that the Labour Party could have a "debate" or something. "What does the Labour Party stand for" "Erm, whatever gets us elected?" "Yes yes but what is that?" "Erm, I dunno, all that stuff about being nice to the working classes we learned about when we were at Oxbridge?" "Sod the working classes, they've all gone to UKIP, what else?" "Ok then, buggered if I know, maybe we need a debate about it. Pass another canape, please."

And so now there Will Be A Debate, and we have Jeremy Corbyn. One might say that he is to the left of the Party, or a few other things (bearded Hamas-loving nut job and peril to all that is proper and decent, for example), but anyway.

I digress. The point of this post was really to point out that Corbyn is now on the leadership ballot. And Labour, bless them, despite believing that the world runs best when clever people (preferably theirs) are in charge telling everyone else how to live their lives, have not quite mastered the principle of Unintended Consequences. So it is that Labour made a big deal about how their leadership elections are open to anyone who cares to join the Labour Party (for just 3 quid), and a lot of people have spied an opportunity to keep Labour out of government for another generation: get Corbyn elected as leader of the Labour Party. It's got its own hashtag and everything now: #ToriesForCorbyn.

I love this country.

How will we program our driverless cars to react in situations where there is no choice to avoid harming someone? ... Do you want your car to kill you (by hitting a tree at 65mph) instead of hitting and killing someone else? No? How many people would it take before you'd want your car to sacrifice you instead?

How we see the world and right and wrong is a collection of nice round holes; the trolley problem is a big square peg hovering menacingly above them.

Lots of people standing on the pavement, staring up at the clouds and wondering which direction the sun was. Then it got even gloomier for a bit, then everyone went back inside (muttering 'typical').

Perhaps any sufficiently advanced logic is indistinguishable from stupidity.

Alex Tabarrok, The Rise of Opaque Intelligence.

Let the record show there was a dusting of snow on the walk home tonight. Not as much as I was lucky enough to experience in Hull a couple of weeks back (which wasn't a great deal, either), but anything is better than nothing. Would it be wrong to wish for a little more?

Already a week into the new year. Happy New Year, dear Reader.

January is a time for all the 'New Year New Me' BS. Sadly, in my case, there are a few pounds of 'new me' still hanging around after a wonderfully indulgent festive season. And frankly, I'll be quite happy to go back to the 'old me'. I'm doing my best, promise.

The blog was down for a bit as a server rebuild took a little longer than planned thanks to a hosting provider's sysadmin not being as diligent in reading my support request as he should have been.

Looks like we're back in business, and I can now continue not blogging much.