Can I just break from all the consumerism to wish, in the spirit of the season and against all indications, for Peace.

As part of the ongoing move to criminalise anyone who isn’t a Texas Republican, thousands of immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries are required to submit to fingerprinting. Never ones to pass up an opportunity, the authorities used the registration to arrest hundreds on the flimsiest of reasons.

I’ve found something else I want. Actually, I suppose I’d want the interconnectivity to be digital, but the amplification to be valve based. Something just doesn’t seem right about that. With the digital connections, I could theoretically have something the size of mobile phone to handle all my audio needs, but then it would have to be half the size of a TV to handle the transformers and various heat-sinks for the valves. But what a sound it would make.

I really need to proof read my posts before I publish them. Unfortunately the spell checker is no use if the typo is also a valid word. I had considered fixing the spelling and not mentioning it, causing people to think Alan had lost the plot.

Don’t know about you, but Brian’s idea of building a PC using near-living tissue sounds great as long as it’s not mine. Might be better to have a look round at some of the organisations involved in that type of research in the US. I remember the Foresight Institute being quite vocal a fews ago with Eric Drexler’s main work. Before that, at least in terms of public profile, there was the RAND corporation. Remember me mentioning military sci-if, Jerry Pournelle wrote a series called Janissaries as well; he was also part of RAND along with Larry Niven.

But my techno-lust still carries on. I want a decent car. Probably needs to be the Espace since it’s large enough to carry some good looking British guitars, guitar amps and groupies round in (I can hope!). I want an old building so I can put on band nights on.

Some people really should have never been allowed to live in the commercial world with those sorts of ideas. It’s obvious that many don’t live in the real world.

The stress of watching penalty shootouts can induce heart attacks in football fans. It would be distasteful to say that anything that cuts down on the number of football fans is a good thing.

Even if it is true