Missing the mushrooms.

A week that has been dominated by the weather; I won't bang on about it, as pretty much everything that needs to be said has already been said. If you want to read some analysis and comment about the woeful state of South Eastern Trains, and their recent almost non-existent service, I would heartily recommend the excellent 853 Blog here. The photo above was taken by me last weekend, prior to the arrival of the snow, and shows a number of tugs moored just off Erith Riverside Gardens. Click on the picture for a larger view.

The BBC news website features a story about a woman from Chatham who dialled 999 to report the theft of her snow man. I had to read the story twice before it sank in. The woman should be prosecuted and fined for wasting Police time. You can hear a recording of the incident here.

I was due to attend a reception at the Houses of Parliament on Thursday afternoon this week, as part of one of my roles at work; unfortunately I had to give it a miss, due to the terrible weather conditions and the almost total lack of public transport at the time. I have had to work from home for most of this week, which actually has been rather productive - I found that you don' get so many interruptions and distractions as happen when in the office. Nevertheless, I had to miss the parliamentary bash, and also a meeting I was due to attend with newsreader John Suchet on Friday. I don't get to attend many jollies, and missing two in the same week was a real pain. I am sure many people have far worse tales of woe than mine. 

Ian sent me the silent video clip below; it depicts probably the worst way to test bullet resistant glass possible. I initially thought that it was a hoax, but after several watchings, I am convinced that the clip is genuine. Have a look and comment below.

I made the mistake of watching two BBC drama documentaries back to back this week, as they have just been made available on YouTube. One was filmed in the mid 1960's, and the other in the mide 1980's. Both deal with the same subject matter, but with different approaches. The programme from the 1960's was The War Game, and the one from the 1980's was Threads. I urge you not to watch either if you are of a nervous disposition. They both are utterly horrifying, dealing with the consequences of nuclear war if it had ever happened in the UK. I recall seeing Threads when it was first broadcast on BBC 2 back in 1984, and it remains the most frightening and powerful piece of television I have ever seen. 

If you still want to watch these two pieces of ground breaking television (The War Game won an Oscar for best TV documentary) - ironic, as it was not shown on British television until 1985, as it was regarded as being too shocking for the public to watch. You can find them online. The War Game is here. Threads is available here. You have been warned - they are both graphic and shocking.

A new version of the Flock social networking web browser has just been released. Flock used to be based on the Firefox code, but in version 3.5 the browser has been built using the open source Chromium web browser instead, and it certainly seems faster because of it. You can visit the Flock website here to download the free and open source application. Personally I don't do any social networking (I detest FaceBook and Twitter, and mainly steer clear of the social aspects of Flickr). I am happy with Google Chrome for OS X as it offers lots of screen real estate and is very quick and secure. Incidentally, I was checking my Flickr photo account earlier this week. I get quite a few requests to become a contact, which I usually agree to, as being a Flickr contact does not grant any special access privileges or other access escalation. I received such a request a few months ago, and half read it before saying OK. I was doing some administration on my Flickr account, and went to check my contacts list to find the following person (Not Suitable For Work) was one of my online contacts. I didn't know who she was, but once I did a Google search on her name, it turns out she does get about quite a bit! I have never met or been in contact with her, and I have absolutely no idea why she would have linked to me. Very strange indeed. I guess she is trying to drum up business for her own rather dodgy online activities, and I am just one of many unwitting advertising targets.

Google Earth version 6 was also released this week; it is available as a free download for Windows, Apple OS X and Linux. There have been reports in the technical press that have now trickled into the popular media as to how metal thieves have been using Google Earth imagery in order to pinpoint buildings in order to steal lead and copper from their roofs. You can read an account in the Telegraph by clicking here. In a related article, the Telegraph also features the story that bosses at YouTube are employing extra people to police uploaded content, looking to block pro Al Qaeda videos. Bearing in mind, approximately 35 hours of video gets uploaded every minute, this could be a difficult task. Anyway, back to Google Earth 6 - you can see a short video explaining the updated application below.

Something I originally noticed, and mentioned during the last cold snap, back in January; I don't know if you have noticed over the cold period, that however much snow and ice lays on the pavements of the U.K, there is one area that remains permanently precipitation free. Any guesses? The cast iron manhole covers over the sewerage system. It does not seem to matter where you look, the sewerage system is frost free. The reason for this is down to some fairly complex biochemistry governing the breakdown of organic matter to release nitrogen compounds. In more base terms, poo generates heat. All clever stuff - all I need to do now is work out a way to turn it into a viable alternative energy source - one could say that it was a green alternative to conventional power generation, though to my mind calling it brown would be rather more accurate. The chaps on Top Gear created a car powered by methane released from poo some time ago; if memory serves, it was not exactly that successful. Still, as the old saying goes "Where there's muck, there's brass".

I featured a story about my thoughts on the refurbishment of Woolwich Covered Market a few weeks ago; I emailed Greenwich Council and posted my thoughts on the Plumstead Integration Project website. I have been contacted by a chap called Harry who seems to have similar ideas as myself. I hope to meet with Harry in the near future to discuss what, if anything we can do to rescue the dilapidated and under used building. I'll report back with an update shortly. 

Guilty pleasures - we all have them. I know one highly educated and erudite chap at work who will not miss an episode of Neighbours, to the point he has every episode recorded in case he does not get home in time to watch it live. One of my guilty pleasures was the now defunct Mushroom Double Swiss burger from Burger King. I loved the meaty, yet melted cheesy mushroominess of the burger - okay it was quite greasy and no doubt packed to the gills with too much salt and cholesterol, but it was very tasty indeed. The burger was withdrawn from the menu in the UK many years ago. I, along with many other people wrote to Burger King UK (in the days before Email) and to their credit, the Mushroom Double Swiss was brought back onto the menu for a short time, but only to disappear for good in around 1996. Most other countries still have the burger on their menu, and some bright spark has now set up a FaceBook group called Bring Back the Mushroom Double Swiss. I wonder how it will go? I am not holding my breath.

I read that Stella Artois have had to recall a large number of bottles of their vile and gassy lager after shards of broken glass were found in some 250ml bottles. The story was reported by the BBC News website, and you can read it here. In a rather more refined and civilised manner, this weeks' main video clip is a short documentary about the making of the Fuller's London Pride TV commercial I featured recently. You can see how they recruited James May, and what went on behind the scenes as they shot the commercial. Please feel free to leave a comment, as always.

The hidden power of poo.

I have not bothered to head this update with a photo of the snow and ice around Erith, and most of Europe to boot. I think we have all already seen enough of the stuff to last for a very long time indeed. Fellow Erith resident and photographer Justin (otherwise known as Crash Calloway) has some excellent photos of the severe weather - so if snow is still your thing, and you want to see some of his photos, then click here for a look.

The photo above shows (from left to right) Abi, Jo and birthday girl Julie on the occasion of Julie's birthday celebration last night. I make no comments regarding the lager in the shot.

One side effect of the severe cold weather was the failure of the Appold Street water pumping station, off Manor Road in Erith, owned by Thames Water. The result of this was the delivery of two giant mobile pump lorries with a number of engineers who kept the things running for two whole days and nights, until repairs could be made. What an atrocious job - the temperature was averaging minus seven Celsius for most of the time. Not something I would relish.

So - why the surreal title to this weeks' Maggot Sandwich update? I don't know if you have noticed over the cold period, that however much snow and ice lays on the pavements of the U.K, there is one area that remains permanently precipitation free. Any guesses? The cast iron manhole covers over the sewerage system. It does not seem to matter where you look, the sewerage system is frost free. The reason for this is down to some fairly complex biochemistry governing the breakdown of organic matter to release nitrogen compounds. In more base terms, poo generates heat. All clever stuff - all I need to do now is work out a way to turn it into a viable alternative energy source - one could say that it was a green alternative to conventional power generation, though to my mind calling it brown would be rather more accurate. The chaps on Top Gear created a car powered by methane released from poo some time ago; if memory serves, it was not exactly that successful. Still, as the old saying goes "Where there's muck, there's brass".

Many computer and console games have a hidden "God Mode", usually unlocked with a special password or combination of joystick moves. This allows the player to alter the number of lives the character has, to be able to walk through walls, pick up all the weapons, and generally cheat like mad. The codes for God Modes are often posted online, and can be a gift, if like me you are rubbish at these kind of things, and have difficulty getting off the first level. Anyway, the recently released Windows 7 by Microsoft turns out to have a hidden God Mode too. It would appear to have been added to earlier development builds to help the programmers whilst they worked on the operating system coding, and for whatever reason it was not removed before the operating system shipped to end users. By creating a new folder in Windows 7 and renaming it with a certain text string at the end, users are able to have a single place to do everything from changing the look of the mouse pointer to making a new hard-drive partition. The trick is also said to work in Windows Vista, although some are warning that although it works fine in 32-bit versions of Vista, it can cause 64-bit versions of that operating system to crash. To enter "GodMode," one need only create a new folder and then rename the folder to the following:

GodMode.{ED7BA470-8E54-465E-825C-99712043E01C}

Once that is done, the folder's icon will change to resemble a control panel and will contain dozens of control options. See the photo below for a view of this. Click for a larger version.

As many of you will know, I have a long abiding interest in radio; in addition to amateur radio, I like to chase as many pirate music stations as I can; some of the most interesting tend to pop up on the short wave bands. If you have an old radio sitting around somewhere, there is a fair chance that it has short wave coverage - you could give it it try, you might well be pleasantly surprised as to what you stumble across. Whilst a dedicated desktop receiver with an external long wire antenna is the best way to listen to short wave, even a cheap portable radio can produce great results. Drop me a line if you would like more details.

Most stations can be found in specific parts of the shortwave spectrum, generally outside the areas reserved for licenced international broadcasters, aircraft, utility, data and military use.

76 metres: 3900-3945 kHz: This is popular with European pirates, especially in the evenings when skip is longer, and during the day in winter months.

52 metres: 5800-5840 kHz: European pirates can also be found here, overspill from 48 metres.

48 metres: 6200-6400 kHz: This is a prime area for the European pirates, especially at weekends.

43 metres: 6900-6950 kHz: This area tends be mostly used by North American pirates, but some European pirates are also found here.

39 metres: 7500-7700 kHz: Unreliable propagation means this band isn't widely used, but some European pirates can be heard here.

To see a very up to date log of shortwave pirate radio activity, you should consult the Shortwave DX Blog - a really excellent and authoritative journal of illicit radio services.

A bit of a coup in the video clip for this week; this video is meant to be viewable on YouTube only; embedding it in other web sites has been disabled at the request of Fox Studios. I have managed to get it to embed anyway, but it is entirely possible the clip may disappear at any point if the Hollywood suits find out. Why the fuss?

"Ten years ago, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground, and survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire... The A-Team".

This was one of my absolute all - time favourite TV shows, growing up as a kid in the 1980's; every Saturday afternoon on ITV we would see the outrageous exploits of this group of soft hearted mercenaries defending the weak and innocent against crooks and terrorists. Every week we would see them get locked in a barn by the bad guys, which was fortuitously stuffed to the gills with tools, cutting gear and a couple of old cars; the team would, in the space of about three minutes with a musical montage, turn whatever they had into a cabbage firing armoured car, or a flamethrower with which to finally rout the bad guys, to which Lt. Col. Hannibal Smith would round it off with "I love it when a plan comes together".  Contrary to popular opinion there were actually only three members of the A-Team. Howling Mad Murdoch was their pilot, but not falsely convicted of robbing the Bank of Hanoi as the other three were - he was instead incarcerated in the Veteran's Hospital as he was deemed insane. The other myth is that no - one got killed on screen in the entire run of the show - not true, the only person who could prove that the A-Team were under military orders to rob the bank, General Fullbright is killed by a rogue Vietnamese Colonel, who is in league with a group of international drug smugglers. The Colonel in turn is also killed. Still two deaths in five series is not too bad a body count. Where is all this going? Well later on in the year, a remake of the A-Team is due to hit the big screen. The trailer, starring Liam Neilson as Lt. Col. John "Hannibal" Smith is below - please feel free to leave a comment.