1,2,3,4, I declare a Tech WAR!

Musket versus Computer.

Ready, Aim...

Some thoughts on currency

I've heard some people complaining recently about the dollar being worth so much less than it used to be, and that making our exports to the US too expensive. And that Something Should Be Done.

The bizarre thing (to me) is that these people seem to think that it's somehow something that the UK is doing that is imbalancing its trade with the US. But compare our value to the Euro and it's doing better than us (we've gone from 66c to the pound to 70c to the pound over the last year), the Brazillian Real (to pick a currency at random) is likewise up about about 20%, the Australian dollar is up about 10%, Canadia is up about 18%, etc. China's about on a par (but then their currency is fixed in various complex ways to both the euro and the dollar), and the Yen is about on a par too.

So to complain that the pound is overvalued compared to the dollar is rather silly when the pound is undervalued compared to pretty much everyone else. There's nothing that the UK can do to rebalance its weighting regarding the US without utterly destroying its trade to the rest of the planet - and as our exports are nowadays more European than US-based it would make pretty much bugger all sense to do that.

You still wake up sometimes, don't you? You wake up in the dark and hear the meowing of the kittens.

Jack's off to the vets at 8am to have his bollocks chopped off.

This means we're not allowed to feed him as of 8pm earlier tonight.

Which means there's a very unhappy and confused kitten roaming the flat meowing piteously.

I may not sleep well tonight.

(Of course, I'm not making a good start...)

Scary Biscuits

I've finally seen a trailer for The Mist (Frank Darabont doing a scary Stephen King story rather than Shawshank Redemption or The Green Mile).

Looks good.

One of my favourite kinds of stories/films:

Put a bunch of people in an enclosed space.

Apply pressure.

Wait for the explosion.