Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

My new phone system has been set up for a while now, and I’ve been meaning to blog about it, but I keep getting distracted by news stories of zombie spiders or chocolate powered cars. It all began a couple of weeks ago, when I blogged about my house phones, that, after being mistreated and left around the house by the family, were suffering from some sort of slow-beeping-death. The battery ran out in a matter of minutes, and they beeped a lot when they were off the hook – sometimes even when they were on the hook.

Indeed, it prevented me working on a number of occasions, so loud was the beeping. You see, when it comes to writing, I’m an awkward type: for some reason I can’t focus on the job at hand unless there is absolute quiet in the background (or nice music). A monotonous, and really very loud beeping in my ear didn’t help the productivity very much.

For a couple of weeks now, I’ve had this new system installed. The engineer, when he was fiddling with the necessary wires, told me that it’s a series of digital DECT cordless phones – I nodded, not wanting to appear like a fool, but didn’t really know what he was talking about. A quick Google turns up this, which is both informative and enlightening.

So, somewhat helpfully, there is now a peaceful air about the house, and I can sit in peace, no longer disturbed by the sound of a phone in pain. It also means that I can work – or, at least, I should be able to. I should perhaps add that, usually, when I settle down to work I procrastinate, and true to form, I’ve been procrastinating in this newfound quiet with interesting results.

I have found this story, for instance, telling us about cars in Stockton that are acting strangely. And it’s quite wonderful – especially so if you have read or heard Neil Gaiman’s poem “The Day The Saucers Came”, which turns it to from a story about strange cars to a story about omens of Armageddon or Ragnarok.

But now, I think, it’s to get back to being productive.

Today, two things have caught my attention. The sort of things that seem to roll around, taking up more space than other thoughts, and demanding to be thought, or spoken, or written. So it seems to make sense to write about them now in the hopes of freeing my mind up for other things.

First of all, credit cards. Now, there is quite an interesting article here that touches on them, and the charges that they might or might not inflict upon us for using them over the phone, among other things. The credit card companies themselves don’t like the idea that they could lose out on a bit of extra money, of course, but I tend to agree with the voice of the article: I think that things becoming more transparent and fair to credit card users is a good thing.

The whole credit card thing is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now, because I find myself debating whether or not to get one – weighing the pros and cons, quietly, in the back of my mind. Up until now, I’ve managed to make do with debit cards. But the fact remains that there are benefits to credit cards that debit cards simply can’t offer. It would be nice to have one just in case I need to use it. And, apparently, there are even cards you can get that pay you money for using them.

And secondly, here are a couple of videos documenting some unnecessarily violent police actions, and they make for quite disturbing viewing. What it boils down to is this: some policemen near the Mexican border have beaten up and used a taser on a Pastor – but all the while his actions were fully within his constitutional rights. Yes, he was being deliberately stubborn, but he had a right to be, and the brutality of the police was not necessary.

Following on from the leak and uproar I wrote about yesterday, another minister is paying back some money, this time to the tune of £41,000. It’s worrying, because it’s ridiculous money, and I just find it astonishing that anyone can even think of spending that much of taxpayers’ money…

However, our world is not just made up of disappointing people and detestable actions, as this article shows.
Phil Packer has completed the London marathon on crutches, after being told he might never walk again due to an injury he sustained in Iraq. He has proved doctors wrong – emphatically. But it’s just one step in his three-pronged quest to raise money for Help for Heroes, and to top it all off, soon he’ll be climbing a mountain in America.

His willpower is incredible, and inspirational.

Which leads me rather nicely to an interesting piece on what is being called the “willpower spot” in the brain. For the first time, we are able to see what it is that makes some people resist (for example) chocolate, and others not.

Recently, stories have started to come out about members of parliament using tax money to pay for all sorts of things; things ranging from helicopter pads, to cleaning moats – evento replacing light bulbs. And it all comes at a time when Gordon Brown is unveiling his new strategy to combat crime. It’s quite ludicrous.

Of course, now that it has all come out, MP’s are rushing to refund their expenses. Only because it has come out, mind you. I assume that, previously, this sort of thing has been going on for years. David Cameron plans to crack down on it all. He has called for an “emergency meeting.” But, somewhat laughably, he himself is guilty of such ridiculous tax claims: it is the taxpayer, after all, who is paying for him to bring his family to London when he wants to work. It’s all very well the MP’s frantically trying to sort it all out after we’ve found out about it – but why was it happening in the first place when it’s quite obviously very dodgy stuff? Have we got a load of crooks in charge of our country?

It’s ridiculous. And why it’s only just coming out, I don’t know.

In addition to this, our MP’s are claiming money back on work in and around their so-called “primary homes”, and many are then selling the houses off, and pocketing the bonus cash. Of course, they aren’t always primary homes, and there is always a “secondary” home to fall back on. And sometimes this sort of thing has been done more than once. And it begs the question: how long have people been dodging like this?

Crack down on this rubbish, please, Gordon, instead of asking policemen to walk people home if they are worried or scared (which, surely, a good police officer should do anyway.)

Yesterday I wrote about horrible, giant spiders. And today it seemed only fitting that, after finding another Giant Creature story, I should write about it, too. Rather worryingly, and whilst the spiders weren’t real, these snakes have been spotted – and spotted frequently.

In fact, they have been seen as far back as 1976, where a “super-snake” was reported by Mr Norman Dodd. More recent sightings are of snakes that are apparently 14 feet long, and mention the creatures having a “powerful head” – lending it something of a dinosaur-like feel. But then I suppose it’s quite natural for a 14 foot long snake to have a big head. If it’s true, though, I don’t particularly want to see the fangs – presumably like kitchen knives.

The interesting question is: are they actually snakes? Or are they something different; something mysterious and ancient. Certainly there is something about them, to be able to survive such harsh winters. Interesting stuff.

Finally, I’ll wrap the blog up in quite depressing fashion. This news article, which, for those in the UK is disturbing in a different way altogether.

Today, my mind has been on giant spiders. Now, partly this is because Eight Legged Freaks was on the other day, and the images it conjures are images that stick with you for a little while. It’s a reasonably good film really, if you don’t expect too much from it and just sit back, and enjoy the entertainment. Of course, the plot is fairly basic – poisonous spiders are exposed to a substance that makes them grow to abnormal size – and these huge beasts very definitely steal the show.

There’s certainly no shortage of them. The film is packed with small spiders, and quite big spiders, and very big spiders. They’re all over the place. Eight Legged Freaks delivers on what the title promises.

Giant spiders. Horrible things. But it’s all very far-fetched, isn’t it?

Well, as it turns out, no. In Greenland, wolf spiders have grown over the years as a result of global warming. Indeed, in “one warm year” they can grow by 10%. And that is a skin-crawling thought. In fifty years time, we could have more to worry about than warm weather and rising water levels.

Eight Legged Freaks knows what kind of film it is, and it’s light-hearted and sometimes quite funny. But just the thought of these man-eating, bullet-proof monsters is the stuff of nightmares.

Yesterday I wrote about football – soccer, to those outside the UK – and today, unfortunately, I will do the same. I said before that I don’t usually watch it, but when the Champions League rolls around, I find myself tuning in on Tuesday and Wednesday regardless. There’s just something about it this level of football that is awesome to watch. But not today.

Today’s semi-final was horrible to watch. It wasn’t the football itself – although I must admit, that was boring – but the reaction of the players afterwards; the way they carried themselves, and spoke to the referee – it was horrible.

I say “spoke”, but it was far more than merely speaking. One Chelsea player, substituted earlier in the game, ran onto the pitch at the final whistle, and verbally assaulted the referee. And on top of this, during the match, Michael Ballack chased after the poor man, arms outstretched in disbelief. He quite literally chased after him, arguing.

It was so bad that, at the end of the game, the referee had to be escorted off the pitch, so ferocious and unexpected was the abuse he received.

Mostly, it was over a couple of penalty decisions that went Barcelona’s way. Ultimately, though, whether they were penalties or not, the reaction from Chelsea was disgusting to see. And it was an embarrassing advert for English football.

There is an air of destiny about Arsenal tonight. Or so one of the commentators thought, prior to the semi-final of the Champions League; the biggest competition in club football. How very, very wrong he was.

The match flew by, so exciting was it: the football was fast-paced and free-flowing; end to end stuff, with lovely passes and no shortage of shots. For me, as a neutral spectator, it was brilliant.

And then, after just 11 minutes, Man United crushed the opposition. One of the goals; a sublime strike from 41 yards out, proved unreachable. And it was hilarious, too, in a way … hilarious, but great that Ronaldo has the confidence in himself to look at the tiny speck that is the goal, 40 yards in the distance, and say yes, I’m going to score from here. It really was brilliant stuff.

Now, whilst scanning the sports news, I also came across this story of a racing car powered by chocolate. It’s a strange thought, certainly; but apparently the oils they use enable it to perform at a similar level to a more mundane car.

I will also point you in the direction of this, to wrap things up. It is an image of what people are calling an alien skull. If nothing else, it’s an interesting one; and it does appear to have eye sockets.

Last weekend, I had a lot of friends visiting, and we in turn visited a lot of pubs. It was fun, but it has caught up with me. Time for an early night, I think.

The internet has become so huge that it’s posing a problem to itself. With the huge demand for more that is seen in practically everything, the “energy footprint” of the net is growing by 10% each year.

Nearly 1.5 billion people, in fact, are connected to the internet around the world. Naturally, it takes a lot of energy to provide for this sort of internet hunger. In fact, this Guardian article notes that the computer industry’s carbon footprint is becoming larger than that of the airline industry, which is heavily associated with global warming.

But I can’t see the snowball slowing. The internet is just too useful, in too many ways. This news story demonstrates just how useful it can be – and it will be very difficult to handle the risks of its explosion. To add to that, it’s becoming frequent on devices outside the world of the computer. These days, phones are so advanced that they have reached a level where you can happily browse the internet on them. I’ve recently upgraded to a smartphone, and it means that even when I’m not at a computer, I’m browsing the internet. It’s an incredible thing, to have that sort of power in your pocket; being able to check emails whilst walking to Tesco is brilliant. And it emphasises just how big the internet snowball has become.

As an aside, and speaking of carbon footprints, it’s great to see these sort of Envirophone websites that allow you to pack up and send off your old models (and even get paid for it.) Previously, my old models have just been lying around; it’s great to know I can get rid of my old phone and feel good about doing it.

As far as the “perfect storm” that is brewing with the internet – well, it will be interesting to follow. Currently, it’s getting bigger and bigger, and I don’t really see it slowing down.

There was an article that irritated me a little bit in The Independent this week. Perhaps I’m making more of it than I should, but the way it was worded rubbed me enough the wrong way that I thought I’d write about it. It was about the Childrens Laureate: they have chosen a list of supposed best reads for kids, but it’s missing … well, the best reads for kids.

The article itself didn’t irk me – but the way the list was interpreted, and the way they portrayed it did. The headline, for example, was “Forget Hogwarts, vintage is the best children’s read.” It was just not very well phrased, in my opinion. “Forget Hogwarts, vintage is the Laureates favourite children’s read” is more accurate.

Some of the books they list – Ballet Shoes and The Famous Five, among others – they might have been the best books for kids once. Ten years ago perhaps; twenty, thirty years ago, maybe, they might have been the best children’s books around. But children these days don’t want to read about kids who say “Oh, rather, mother. Jolly good, I shall be there in a jiffy.” It’s an exaggerated example, but even so, the children of The Famous Five, to a modern audience, are more comedic than they would like to be. And the book itself – none of them – are books that, now, can make people put down their Xbox controllers en masse and read.

Times change, and those books have had their day. They might be some people’s favourites, but they’re no longer the best. The best books for children are what children like to read. Books like His Dark Materials, Skellig, The Graveyard Book, and, certainly, Harry Potter, are some of the best of today, and they’re not mentioned at all. Neither is anything by Roald Dahl. And Harry Potter is responsible for an unprecedented boom in reading: it consistently sold 11 million copies in the first 24 hours of going on sale.

There is a distinct difference between “favourite” and “best”.

And that was why it annoyed me a little bit.