2004 November « steven’s blog

Finland

November 30, 2004 — Steven

I am wondering where to emigrate. Finland sounds like a good place:

1. Finland has one of the most successful education systems in Europe.
2. The Finnish government has advised people not to use Internet Explorer and adopt a different browser, until various security issues are resolved. A good idea. I wonder whether the UK government knows of any alternatives to Internet Explorer.
3. Santa Claus lives in Finland.

Posted in education. 1 Comment »

Short Jokes

November 23, 2004 — Steven

Short jokes are good because they are easy to remember. Here are some examples:

Q: What did the ghost teacher say to her ghost class?
A: Look at the board while I go through it again!

Q: What did the zero say to the eight?
A: Nice belt.

Q: What is Rupert Bear’s middle name?
A: The.

Q: How does Good King Wenceslas like his pizza?
A: Deep pan, crisp and even.

If you know any other short jokes, please leave a comment…

Posted in jokes. 2 Comments »

Rice and Rice

November 16, 2004 — Steven

I missed Radio 4’s Food Programme on Sunday, so I just listened to it via the BBC website. It is pretty cool that you can do that.
Also on the BBC website: for a trial period you can download the latest edition of In Our Time in mp3 format – so I can listen to it while I am out jogging (yeah, right). This week’s programme was about Zoroastrianism – I’m still not sure whether it was the first ethical monotheisitic creed – but it may well have been the first to espouse the golden rule.

But I digress – I am supposed to be writing about rice. I learned from The Food Programme that 2004 is the International Year of Rice. Halfway through November and I find this out – a lot of time to make up.
Almost 3000 million people share the culture, traditions, and untapped potentials of rice – the same number of people that live on less than one euro per day; I wonder how many belong to both groups…
There is some really interesting information on the International Year of Rice website and some fun stuff too, like the art gallery with contributions from children around the world.
As someone somewhere once said, "Rice is good when you’re hungry and want 2000 of something."

But I digress – I am supposed to be writing about Rice. Condoleezza Rice has just been appointed as US Secretary of State. From what I can see she is a yes woman and as hawkish as the other people in Bush’s inner circle – as opposed to the retiring Powell, who seemed to be the only vaguely reasonable person around. In 2003, Rice was asked for suggestions on how the US should treat European opponents of the Iraq invasion; her answer:�"Punish France, ignore Germany and forgive Russia."
And on the Israel/Palestine issue, Rice’s views seem to be closer to Bush’s than Powell’s were – she is committed to a two-state solution and will hopefully�have the vision to help bring this about during the next four years.