Veils and Threats

I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about the issues raised in October and November regarding the veils and headgear worn by some Muslim women. There's been a great deal of discussion in the media with a relatively small number of people suggesting full veils should be banned and a rather larger number arguing that their use is not necessarily appropriate in, for example, schools.

My thinking on this matter has led me to the opinion that if women choose to hide their hair or face then this is entirely their own business. This is a free country and I would not wish to constrain their rights if at all possible.

The caveat, "if at all possible", turns out to be fairly significant because there are a large number of situations when it simply isn't appropriate for people to hide their faces. These include, but probably aren't limited to, the following:
- Schools - children need to see their teachers' faces and staff need easily to be able identify their colleagues.
- Banks - most banks require wearers of motorcycle helmets to remove their headgear before entering the branch; veils would perform a similarly disguise identity.
- Airports, ports and international stations - anywhere that immigration, passport control or customs people need to be able to identify travelers.
- Courts and police stations - it is often essential to be able to see people's faces to facilitate identity checking and questioning.
- Place of Work - face-to-face communication is a requirement of almost all jobs so wearing a veil in an office, shop or factory is clearly inappropriate.

Essentially, wearing items which disguise your appearance would be inappropriate whenever facial identification or communication is necessary. In practice, this turns out to be almost all public places so, whilst I have no objection to veils in principle, in practice they should be worn only in the home or for weddings.

Jesus and Mo, Part II

Ok, I know I said not 20 minutes ago that a particular cartoon was my favourite, but this one so neatly summarises the problems with irrational belief systems that I just had to post a link.

Jesus and Mo

My brother pointed me towards a comic website called Jesus and Mo, a satirical strip featuring Jesus, Mohammad and an atheist barmaid. There are some great cartoons on this site, all of them attacking the central beliefs of the world's two largest organised religions. One of my favourite strips so far (I'm working through the back catalogue) is this one about Allah's failure to intervene in important earthly affairs...

Irrepressible.Info

I don't normally have time for Amnesty International; they come across as arrogant and, to a certain extent, other-worldly but I think in general their aims are good. One thing I spotted on the BBC website was a link to this site and I've added my name to the list (for all the good it will do).

Northern Line

The Northern Line, being the one I use most frequently, is my least favourite Underground line. This morning things were worse than normal because a signal failure at Charing Cross (while I was sitting on the train waiting to leave Charing Cross) prevented further travel on the line and I was forced to divert onto the Bakerloo and then Victoria lines to get past the signal. These lines, already crowded, were horribly busy; standing room only.

Things are looking up, thought, with new air-conditioned trains on the way: link. Not on the Northern Line, of course. That would be too much to ask.

Insulting Rants

Previously, the targets of my rants have included all sorts of groups against whom I've had a personal grievance or complaint (see entries on the earlier versions of this blog for more info). Recently though, I think I've mellowed a bit and the rants have become fewer and less rant-like reflecting, possibly, a more laid-back attitude to life in general and an acceptance that some things just can't be changed and aren't worth worrying about.

How long can this last? Well, we shall see; there are certainly plenty of recent and ongoing news items about which I could rant and, theoretically, I can write on the train giving me almost limitless amounts of time in which to draft blog entries.

Trains Galore

As I type, I'm on the Virgin Pendolino train from Wigan to London Euston, travelling First Class. I don't normally travel in anything other than Cattle Class, so this is something of a new experience. Five minutes into the journey and we've already been given complimentary coffee with the hint that food might be available at some point.

First impressions are that this is definitely the way to travel. The service is fast, courteous and comfortable. I'm not really looking forward to the South West Trains service back from Waterloo to Southampton Airport Parkway, which is bound to be slow and uncomfortable.

Update – the service ran ahead of schedule and delivered us to Euston about 7 minutes early. I’ve taken two Virgin Train services this week and they’ve both been excellent.

Delays on the Trains

Congratulations to Railtrack and South West Trains who have collaborated to produce my longest commute so far; four hours from home to the office. To their credit they did offer free coffee by way of compensation but unfortunately they only had their usual instant muck available. For a two hour delay I’d really expect high-quality beans, hand-ground and served by sultry and scantily clad maidens.

Another question; why does the fast train, which in this instance stops only at Winchester on the way from Southampton Airport Parkway to London Waterloo, make apparently unscheduled stops at Basingstoke and Woking? I’ve checked my copy of the current timetable and neither of these stops is advertised – I suspect they simply wake up in the morning and think “Woking today, just for the hell of it”.

Musings on the Tube

Funny thing, the Tube. In the space of five minutes, three trains can pull into a station, the first two packed solid, the third almost empty. Why? Who knows?

I saw a Walkman in use today. Not one of the new MP3 versions, an old cassette player. Can you still buy cassettes?

And why do trains stop at Woking, for pity's sake? Ordinarily I don't mind where the trains stop, assuming I'm not on them, but late at night, when I'm just trying to get home to sleep, the last place I want to stop is bloody Woking. In my considered opinion, there are few places less inviting than Woking; even Coventry starts to look mildly enticing when you've spent a few hours in the drizzle at Woking. Did I mention the rain? It rains continuously in Woking, a horrible fine mist, not proper rain, and it soaks through whatever you're wearing to chill you to the marrow.

Don't get me started on the town centre. The layout is mid-20th century amalgam - half post-war mistake, half enthusiastically mis-guided town-planner. Why does the train stop in Woking? It's a mystery that man is not meant to solve.

Train Journeys

You meet some interesting people on the train. As I write this, I'm sitting opposite an octogenarian travelling home to the Isle of Wight (and reading a book called "Jesus of Nazareth") and the Bishop of Winchester, who is dozing having apparently been bored senseless by his rather well-read Bible (to be fair, I think he’d suffered a long day of meetings but one should never pass a chance to have a dig at the church).

On Tuesday, the chap next to me slept all the way from Southampton Airport Parkway to Waterloo, listening the entire time to two tracks from The Verve, set on repeat. His Walkman was running just about loud enough for me to identify the music but not quite loud enough for me to listen to it. More reports of strange people in future posts.

New Job

I started my new job on Tuesday so, as I write this, I'm halfway through day three. All looks good so far; the job seems interesting, challenging and (with any luck) rewarding so at the moment I'm happy.

In fact the thing that I was most worried about before I began (the commuting) hasn't really turned out to be too much of a problem. Sure, it can take a ridiculous amount of time to get to or from work but that time doesn't have to be wasted (I have a laptop) or stressful (it's not as if I'm driving to work). My position on this might change as I become more jaded about the whole traveling thing, but at the moment it doesn't seem too bad. More news later.

Iraq

Chief of the General Staff Sir Richard Dannatt told the Daily Mail that the military campaign fought in 2003 had "effectively kicked the door in".

Looks like the cat is well and truly out of the bag. This quote, from the BBC News website, is part of a report of Sir Richard's comments today in the Daily Mail. His opinions, largely (I suspect) shared by the public, are seriously at odds with the Government's position; surely the Government can't continue with both their current policies and Sir Richard? The two positions are so opposed that reconciliation doesn't appear possible. Will the Government accept his advice or will they fire him? Time will tell.

Science and Reason

I've been reading Richard Dawkins' new website quite a bit recently. There is some fairly controversial stuff on it, particularly if you have any religious beliefs, but it's quite fun. Have a look here and see what you think.

Internet Explorer 7

Looks like Microsoft will release the latest version of Internet Explorer later this month (source). I'm never keen on these things being automatically installed as part of a patch but The Register suggests that this is what will happen. To me, IE7 is an upgrade, not a patch; it should be completely optional but I suspect it won't be and I'll have to keep taking it off the upgrade list whenever my computers try to update.

It's always possible that IE7 will turn out to be a great program but I'd prefer other people to work through the bugs - I use IE6 as my 'lowest common denominator' browser and I don't want to risk having no workable browser with which to access important sites.

Vatican Antics

This story (link) describes changes to Catholic teachings that the Pope is considering. This doesn't concern me directly as I'm not even vaguely religious but the fact that this sort of thing can be changed in an 'bottom-up' rather than 'top-down' fashion intrigues me; it makes it appear, to a non-believer, as if God set out a few basic rules and then allows his current representative to 'interpret' them as appropriate for the requirements of the time. Very pragmatic and admirable, but not really in the spirit of the "thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's glass", or whatever. If the Catholic Church can simply re-write the rules (or create new ones) whenever they feel it appropriate, what part does God get to play?

As an atheist I don't normally get to take part in this sort of argument; we're excluded from all the really juicy religious topics on the grounds that we don't take it seriously which is unfortunate because highlighting inconsistencies in religious doctrine/teaching can be great fun. You have to pick your targets with care, however. It's no fun arguing with friends or family - strangers make much better opponents.

Original Thinking

I've just been pointed to this article about blogging in the online edition of The Daily Mail. It's rather insulting to bloggers and people who use Google (surely that's pretty much everyone who uses the internet?) but does Keith Waterhouse have a point? True, much of what I write is meaningless drivel and neither entertaining nor particularly original. It's mine, though, and I write because I enjoy it.

Is Mr Waterhouse's article original? No, not really; it's been pointed out many times that the majority of blogs are pretty dull, mostly because they're written by amateurs with little or nothing to say of interest to anyone outside their immediate social circle (and I'd hold my hand up to being a monumentally dull writer, before anyone feels they need to put the boot in). I'd like to say that Mr Waterhouse's article was brilliantly written, that it makes useful and valid points about Blogging and that it strengthens the journalistic reputation of The Daily Mail but that truly would be an original piece of writing and, as a blogger, I don't do original.

Regular Blogging

The thing about blogging is that it is an activity best done regularly; if you aren't posting every few days people get bored and stop reading the site (which isn't to say that they don't get bored reading mindless drivel, but it takes all sorts). The problem is that I don't always have something worth saying but, as Lucien was kind enough to point out, that's never stopped me in the past.

So here it is. More worthless posting with no real message, humour or value. Story of my life, really.

Online Gambling

The news that the US Government has successfully tightened the laws against online gambling gave me a bit of a worrisome morning yesterday as the date for starting my new job, which is connected with online sports-betting, draws near. Further investigation and thought suggests that the changes shouldn't directly impact me or the company I'm moving to (Betgenius) but it will certainly make the industry more interesting. For a start, it'll make it more difficult (although probably not impossible) for American citizens to fund their online gambling (although off-shore clearing houses or indirect funding routes should enable determined gamblers to continue their activity).

All in all, this new law (which was attached to the end of a completely unrelated piece of legislation) looks like an attempt by the Christian Fundamentalist right-wing in the US to clamp down on an activity of which they disapprove without having to go through the rigmarole of creating completely a new Act. It's a half-baked 'solution' to a problem that arguably doesn't exist and will, in any case, continue as people find workarounds for the new rules. Online gambling, which removes the practical difficulties associated with traditional book-keeping, is simply the latest chapter in a long story.

Firefox Adverts

There are some deeply strange people in the world. Take, for example, the people who choose to film adverts for somebody else's product, as shown here: link to Firefox advert. It's quite a fun advert and it looks like they enjoyed making it, but I can't help but think that Firefox is rapidly gaining the sort of fan-boy following that would embarrass even Steve Jobs; it's just a browser, after all.

That said, the RC1 version of Firefox 2 is a joy to use; if you're still using IE6 you should visit www.mozilla.com and join us at the forefront of the digital revolution (ahem!). Oh, and I'm not a fan-boy, I'm a serious computer user who values the quality of the tools he uses (or something).

Blogging Tools

I've played with a number of blogging tools over the past few weeks, including a very basic site I built myself (www.myryama.co.uk) with a view to find a system that I like and that fits with what I want to do.

Microsoft's Live (myryama.spaces.live.com) has a ton of features and works reasonably well, but it's fairly slow to load and it is blighted by the horrible advert at the top of the page. Not surprising, given the commercial nature of the product, but still an unattractive feature. My own site (see link above) is ok, but it has none of the layout or editing tools that the serious blog sites have, essentially because I've written it myself and it takes a lot of time and effort to add features. I could, in theory, add exactly the features, tools and layout options that I want but life is too short.

Another alternative is to host one of the freely available tools on my own server but this too is fraught with difficulties and would consume valuable gaming/living time. I'll make a choice soon and resume publishing my inane ramblings on only one site...

Browsers

Earlier this week, Mozilla released Firefox 2 RC1 (which I'm using at the moment), a new improved version of the browser which has taken about a 30% market share over the last 12 months and which prompted Microsoft to launch Internet Explorer 7 before Windows Vista (rather than launch it only with Vista, as was the original plan). I've been using Firefox 2 for a few days and I've made the following observations:

1. It's faster than Firefox 1.5 - switching between tabs is quicker and Firefox 2 appears to consumer far fewer system resources than v1.5.
2. The tabs now have a minimum size; open more tabs than can be displayed in the window and navigation arrows appear at the left and right-hand ends of the tab bar to help you find the tabs that have been shuffled off-screen.
3. It restarts with your last-visited pages! Opera has done this for a while but this is the first version of Firefox to include this feature.

There are other features, but those are the most obvious ones. Is it worth upgrading or switching from IE6? Yes, definitely. Even though the code is still at RC1 it appears stable, quick and reliable.