« October 2005 | Main | December 2005 »

November 26, 2005

Britpubs, Britclubs.

8-12pm: pubbing

In England, Wales and soon in Scotland, the barriers to 24-7 drinking in selected bars are falling - up to now, the last round was called at some point before 11 (or 12 in Scotland). They're hoping to get people to abandon the habit of binge-drinking: "make sure you're wasted by the time the pub closes." Looking to Europe where long hours have been the standard for decades, politicians wonder if they can get the British to drink less.

I know that prohibition doesn't really work in general. But I'm not sure if long hours are going to make things better. Getting drunk slowly is probably not any less detrimental to people's mental health. A British judge recently said that having long hours would only do the job if we had continental European drinking habits: sitting down over a glass of wine or a beer and having a good conversation. What's happening here (and even more so in Ireland): people, with pints in their hands, scream at each other standing in overcrowded pubs.

12-3am: clubbing

Here's a warning for all fellow Edinburghians. Avoid the City Club at all cost. Embarrassingly I admit I was there last night, joining the Love Train at their 70s party. I should have checked what's on...

You may safely ignore my warning after passing the following check-list:

1 Your IQ has been reliably measured and you're sure it's below 90.
2 You have had at least five pints.
3 You are dressed appropriately for the occasion, so you don't run the risk of receiving tonight's Polyester Award. (I didn't get it, thank god.)
4 If you're a medic student and up to 21 years old (at heart), you are exempt from check 1 and you may skip check 2 (probably holds true anyways).

Posted by dr at 4:37 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

November 17, 2005

The, uh, speech, the President's, I mean, the US-President's speech

Linguist Mark Liberman has an interesting - and amusing - analysis of hesitations in George Bush's speech. The bottom-line is: the President is speaking more slowly. And from the quotations and audio clip in the article I gather that his words don't make any more sense:

Obviously, the extent to which uh [0.295] the Japanese government wants to give reconstruction money to Iraq is up to the Japanese government, and [pause 0.187]
to- to the- and I- as to the- [pause 0.205] the- the uh deployment of troops, it's up to- [0.421] it's up to the government. [pause 1.237] 's what happens in democracies -- government makes decisions that uh [pause 0.598] that uh that they're uh capable of living with, and that's [pause 1.966] that's what we said, ((we)) said, do the best you can do; [pause 0.530] make up your own mind, it's your decision, not mine.

Oh well. Google knows what to reply when you're looking for examples of failure.

Posted by dr at 3:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 15, 2005

Zopa's Peer-to-peer Banking: spread your dough ...

Preamble: David's too busy to write much here - well, I have written up stuff, but only to shelve it because it's way too confrontational. Those who know me know that I'm always happy to be confrontational - but obviously I'd like to make sure I'm right. And surprisingly (or not), I'm not always right.

Proper Blog Entry:So while you wait, take a look at a brand-new business model that has the chance to stir up the money lending market. One of the reasons I haven't bought an apartment in the UK when I moved here was that as much as 80 percent of my monthly mortgage payments would go to the bank in interest. No freakin' way! Besides, as a new resident in the UK, you don't have a credit rating, so it'll be pretty hard to get a good deal. Maybe Zopa is different. There's a somewhat uninspiring article in the Guardian today, but here's the low-down: Zopa is a peer-to-peer bank. You can lend or borrow money directly from other people on the site. They screen you (a bit) in case you'd like to take out a loan, and if you want to lend money, they'll reduce your risk by making sure that every borrower will take money from 50 lenders. You can set the interest rate for your loan yourself when you're lending.
Do you want to try out Zopa? Let me recommend you to Zopa - either for lending or borrowing! Send me an e-mail please - they have a pretty good referrals program. (You need to be in the UK.)

Posted by dr at 3:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 5, 2005

Letter from Sydney

Is anyone reading this anyways? Does anyone ever bother to look at my pictures?
It seems so.

Hi,

I have no idea who you are, or where you
are from but I feel the need to tell you
that you have inspired me to travel and
explore. Starting today! I was browsing
the net for pics of the Sydney Harbour
Bridge and I came across one of your
images. That led me, of course, to your
page of pictures and places you have
been. Your pictures are beautiful,
absolutely beautiful. I have lived in
Sydney all of my life and never, until
right now, have I felt the need to
explore the fair city. I can't thank you
enough.

Cheers,
xxKyliExx

Posted by dr at 6:25 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack