Cool travel time tube map

I love the multitude of clever ways that information can be displayed. This is a great example, an interactive London tube map that distorts according to the time to travel from the selected station. Not a great explanation, but check it out. tube_map_travel_times : Built with Processing: via http://infosthetics.com

King Kong

Its a big monkey movie, but its a very good big monkey movie. clearly the star of the film is Kong, an absolutely amazing mixture of performance capture and computer graphics. Without a doubt it raises the bar for all cgi heavy films to come. The interaction between the CGI elements and the real elements is draw dropping. This is brilliantly illustrated when Kong picks up or pushes around people. It certainly is a long film at 3 hours, but it is such a ride particularly the last 2 hours, which just don't stop. Certainly well worth the price of admission for the T-Rex fight seen alone even at the outrageous £9.00 of west end cinemas. O.K so some of the dialog is pretty stilted and there are some enormous problems that aren't dealt with in the film, how did they get that monkey on the ship for example. But it doesn't detract form what is surely the best adventure film in a very very long time.

Technorati Tags: film, king kong, review

Schneier on Security: The Security Threat of Unchecked Presidential Power

Schneier on Security: The Security Threat of Unchecked Presidential Power: Fantastic summary of the Bush wiretapping story over on Bruce Schneier's blog. I strongly agree with his viewpoint that this is an example of unchecked Presidential power, specific checks were in place through FISA to prevent exactly this type of action. Furthermore the legal standing of these wiretaps seems to be weaker by the day, certainly a reliance on the constitutional powers of the president during war time is a stretch in so many ways. The President does not and must not have unlimited executive authority this is the purpose of the separation of powers that lies at the heart of American democracy. Brusce Schneier also points to this quote from Bush on December 18, 2000 which is just plain frightening.

"If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I’m the dictator."

(video and transcript)

Upgrading...

The site is being upgraded to wordpress 2.0, obviously it is now ugly and needs work, but bear with me. Update, Ok thats better.

Limits of presidential powers

This is a second try at this post, the first was rather naive and ill informed, though I believe was trying to make the right point. It appears to me that the fundamental question over whether President Bush has the authority to approve wiretaps without a warrant is a question of the limits of the war powers of the President. There is plenty of debate over this by some much better informed people, there is a great comment thread worth reading here The Attorney General, stated that

"Our position is that the authorization to use military force which was passed by the Congress shortly after Sept. 11 constitutes that authority,"

The authorization of force seems specific enough, and does not immediately make you believe that it was intended to allow for surveillance of domestic citizens.

Whereas such acts continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

The powers of the president during war time are vast and necessarily so. However in a conflict such as the war on terror which has no definable end, no one to surrender, and may go on for a very extended period of time should the President be able to set aside peacetime laws as he pleases. More importantly perhaps should he be able to do so in secret. The citizens of a country have a right to know how they are being governed and what measures are being taken in their name.

Frost Fair

Had a great walk through London on Friday, heading to the Frost Fair being held on the south-bank. The fair itself was pretty disappointing, some food-stalls the obligatory candle stall etc, but, the walk down and back was fantastic. London is a beautiful city and it was the clearest of winters day, with nothing but blue skies. I took the camera and with chilly hands took a bunch of photographs. Its easy when you are living in your hometown, not to appreciate or photograph the place as you would a city you were only visiting. The flickr set can be found here.

Writing for Millionaire Asia

Believe me, I am aware of the irony.

Fat Freddys Drop

13122005(003).jpg
Originally uploaded by jkprime.

Caught Fat Freddys Drop at the Hamersmith Palais last night. Very cool New Zealand Dub band with a trombonist, trumpeter and sax. Really cool chilled out beats, would have been absolutely ideal for a sunny day in the park, not so ideal for a dark Hammersmith Palais at 1am. The band didnt come on until after 11, which meant a late night was inevitable. Was a very slow start this morning!

Dean Gray Tuesday: Save American Edit mashup album!

Wanted to add my voice to the protest against Warner Brothers attempt to censor Dean Gray's American edit album. Its been said elsewhere but it bears repeating msh up albums aren't going to hurt the original works, they are more than likely going to get people interested in the music being sampled in the first place. Cory Doctorow writes a good article on it over at boingboing. Boing Boing: Dean Grey Tuesday: Save American Edit mashup album!:

What is the Bush legacy after half a decade? Six top US commentators deliver their verdict

Some good commentary on the 5 years of President Bush. With commentators from both the left and the right putting forth their views. I find that the right wing commentators have to work a lot harder and look beyond the obvious to find positive notes in President Bush's performance. None of these comments are ringing endorsements of 5 years work, despite the attempts to compare him positively with Reagan and Truman. Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | What is the Bush legacy after half a decade? Six top US commentators deliver their verdict:

Buncefield Fire from my window

Originally uploaded by jkprime.This is the plume of smoke you can see from the Buncefield fire. According to google earth its about 17 miles from here.

The year in ideas

From the New York Times a list of the 78 most noteworthy ideas. Haven't read it yet, but its high on the list for tomorrow, and I will comment once I have been through it all. Link

Christmas Lights!

Ok, so i am not best known for my festive nature, however, I am liking these rope lights from Ikea. They come with a cool spindle that you can wrap them round to make a table lamp, or like me casually drape them across whatever furniture comes to hand. Good movie watching illumination. P.S. How is it when you are feeling low, all the tunes in your party shuffle end up being by Radiohead, and Nick Cave, thats just not healthy.

Great article on the onion - Terrorists and plutonium

Fantastic article on the onion,

HEDAN, IRAN—Yaquub Akhtar, the leader of an eight-man cell linked to a terrorist organization known as the Army Of Martyrs, admitted Tuesday that he "doesn't have the slightest clue" what to do with the quarter-kilogram of plutonium he recently acquired.

And my favourite bit,

Not knowing where to turn, the eight men consulted the Muslim holy book the Quran, which proved unhelpful. Said Akhtar: "Even Umar Abd al-Malik, who interprets the ancient scripture more freely than the rest of us, could not find an instructive passage."

Blasphemous? Almost certainly, funny? Very definitely. Link: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43012

Chateau Saint-Germain Bordeaux Superieur 2004

Picked a couple of bottles up at half price at sainsbury's from 8.99 to to 4.50. My conclusion well worth it at under a fiver.Very smooth, fruity and not too heavy, with a very pleasant finish. I could probably have figured this out after a single glass, unfortunately in this case it required a single bottle. Would drink again though I think at 8.99 a little pricey.

Ze new car

The new car
Originally uploaded by jkprime.

The very shiny new car, not mine I hasten to add but ze parents.

World map distorted to show how far you can travel

http://www.personalworldmap.org/ is a great way of visualising your ability to move around the world. By entering how much you can afford in time and money, it then dostorts the world map to show you which destinations you can reach. Quite an interesting way of planning your next trip!

Synergy2

I finally got this great application working. Synergy2 allows you to use one mouse and keyboard across multiple computers over TCP/IP no KVM hardware required. One computer acts as a server with the keyboard and mouse attached, and the others as clients. By moving the cursor to the edge of the screen it moves the control across to the next computer. Very handy and much cheaper than a KVM as its free! What makes it really killer for me is that is cross-platform, meaning I can use my mac to control the PC-server on the network, great. Synergy2 can be found at http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ If you are using a Mac I ighly reccomend QuickSynergy it makes the set-up process much much less painful.

Gig at the Legion, Old St

Just got home from a good gig at the Legion Old St. First time I've been to the venue, and its not a bad place. I have definitely heard better sound systems but it was pretty acceptable. Friendly staff which is always nice, and a fiver to get in. The line up was fairly good I went to catch a friend playing with the band sing sing, pretty good, nice female vocal, acoustic guitar and lovely resonant cello accompaniment. Lighting and sound didn't do them jsutice, but good nonetheless. There were a couple of other bands on the bill, the last of which was pretty good, and |I will try to write some more tomorrow.

Wolf Blass Red Label Shiraz Greanche 2004

I think this was good, unfortunately I drank it last night and I am writing it the next night, no details then, it was nice, would drink again.