Is “waterboarding” (repeatedly holding someone’s head under water until they start to drown) torture?

It would “depend on all the circumstances of the case” say new NeoLabour:

Waterboarding and Labour

I’m a fan of Spaced, so I recognised the music on this video of The IO Brush, a rather nice digital paintbrush concept - it’s the Happy Walk music! A bit of searching, and I found it was ‘S’ill Vous Plait’ by Fantastic Plastic Machine, and was taken from the ‘Sushi 4004’ compilation CD.

Amazon has ‘Sushi 4004’ via a 3rd party Seller for… ¬£40. This is a bit too much.

So I looked for a ‘Spaced’ compilation CD, found it, it has the track, and it’s now selling for… ¬£60.

The market value of a Spaced music CD is £60!

I’m irked by the phrase “strict diet” used to describe people who only eat organic food, or vegetarians. “Strict” makes it sound joyless and limited. If someone refused to eat stale food contaminated with dog poo they wouldn’t be described as having a “strict diet”, and avoiding bland food contaminated with pesticides is no different. Well, it probably doesn’t smell like dog poo, but that’s over extending my rather weak metaphor…

Link: ‘I don’t get food I get at home’

Well, an online form to a junior Labour Party wonk really.

I would be grateful if you could confirm which particular god is guiding Mr Blair’s actions? I’ve checked the New Testament and it doesn’t seem to match Mr Blairs actions, and the Pope (considered an authority on this topic by many) feels the same way. Is it perhaps Thor, Kali, or Aries?

I am also planning to ask if the Guided By God service could be part-privatised, and made available to businesses and organisations in the UK, but I think it would be wise to first check which deity is acting as supplier. Imagine what would happen if the god turned out to be a Babylonian god of chaos, or required the sacrifice of innocents.

I wonder how many lists I’m on now?

Thanks to the excellent Hat Insurance that came with my Tilly T3, I’ve now got a replacement for half price.

This time I have written my details inside it.

Hardly first, of course. It’s worrying that the list of terrorism suspects now includes miserable musicians, actors who play terrorists on TV, pensioners who shout “nonsense!”, small children, Manchester United fans, vegans and so on.

Link: Morrissey Quizzed By FBI

On one day this week I encountered a clandestine agent of a foreign government, and the next day my building almost blew up.

If I actually gave details it would all seem far less interesting, so I won’t. My most interesting news recently has been “I lost my hat”, so I’m making the best of the mystery here.

This is a great idea: In Poland new books are advertised with dramatic trailers, as if they were films. Neil Gaiman’s excellent “Anansi Boys” has been translated into Polish, and now has it’s own Polishized* trailer. I was a little puzzled by the white Anglo-Caribean characters, until A. pointed out the probable lack of suitable actors in Poland, not known for it’s Jamaican community.

Link: Polish Book Trailer Here

(* I don’t think this is a real word.)

I have lost my hat!

Even worse, I have no idea how I’ve lost my hat. As far as I can work out it vanished from inside my bag. I’ve been wandering around the flat looking in increasingly unlikely places.

It had a £5 note in it too. And a blank please-return-if-lost label.

Curses.

Organically produced clothing made from bamboo.

Link: Shirts Of Bamboo