Prices, United Kingdom, 1970-71

9.20am local time, 29°C (84°F), super humid and pissing down

MY old man and I occasionally kept strange records to show where and how our bread and honey went.

While I’m still hacking Part 3 of my Elle Ess Dee story, I thought this might be interesting to some.

The Rolodex: “in which low-tech trumps high-tech”
(via Shane Burnett)

What’s for din-dins?

ANOTHER EXCITING (and excitable) episode of The Naked Listener’s Weblog on what was for dinner tonight.

Presenting…

Crap Pseudo Irish Stew a la Canto-pop du Boeuf Derriere with el vino tinto barato español with Hongkie (i.e. Hong Kong-style) bagels

Yes, in-picture labels to help those suffering from terminal dementia photocaptionitis disilliteratis.

For those interested in the recipe, here’s another suitably labelled photo:

Preparation: Lump the lot together, cook, then eat. (C’mon, I said it was Pseudo Irish Stew.)

Why the crappy din-din?

Well, y’know, the Hong Kong stock market sank 770.26 points (or 4.38%) today, so there is now a certain need to be frugal.

Srsly, it’s serious business. Crappy meals are only professionally and ethically acceptable for people in the printing business. So there.

Trivia: El vino tinto barato español (“the cheap Spanish red wine”) was HK$17.90 (US$2.30 or £1.48) for a 750cc (25 US fluid ounce) bottle — mainly to drown my financial sorrows. Price yesterday was HK$29.90 — there’s market responsiveness for you.

More trivia: I also bought 200 grammes (7 ounces) of Molinari salami (for tonight’s repeat of “Paranormal Activities” and “Centurion” on telly) — also on discount — there’s also market responsiveness for you.

So there.

© The Naked Listener’s Weblog, 2011.

Roundup for Week 5

Roundup for the week of 31 Jan – 06 Feb 2011.

* * *

THAT WAS THE WEEK THAT WAS

The Year of the Metal Rabbit (兔) began at 16.00 hours GMT on 3rd February 2011.

Two features on The Naked Listener’s Weblog:

• What the year of the Wabbit would be like
• What the Wabbit person is like

The Wabbit year runs from 3rd Feb 2011 to 22 Jan 2012.

* * *

Global food prices hit record highs in January 2011, the United Nations says. The UN price index of 55 food commodities has been rising for seven straight months and the inflationary pressure is likely to continue for many more months. [via Bloomberg TV news item, 3.40am, 04 Feb 2011]

• Read The Naked Listener’s post on what’s happening [link].

* * *

Hong Kong’s newest political party, New People’s Party (新民黨), spawns from the pretentiously named thinktank Savantas Policy Institute. Ex-security tsarina Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee (born 1950) heads both the party and the thinktank. Target constituency is the Hong Kong middle class (rather than ‘grassroots’) and (wouldn’t you guessed it) the civil service. The NPP is described in many quarters as centre-right and pro-Beijing — which is another way of saying you couldn’t tell your right hand from your left.

• Here’s what The Naked Listener told us previously [link].

* * *

The World Wide Web is running out of IP addresses. Come the World IPv6 Day on 8th June 2011, Google, Facebook, Yahoo and some other organisations and ISPs will switch over to the new addressing system called IPv6 for a 24-hour global test drive. Currently, we’re still on IPv4 that was developed back in the 1970s. Today, IPv4 is only left with 117 million IP addresses to spare.

• Test your IPv6 connectivity here: http://test-ipv6.com.

* * *

Toughest-ever organic material created is stronger than Kevlar and stainless steel. Scientists at Tel Aviv University and the Weizmann Institute for Science created a printable ‘nanomaterial’ made up of millions of submicroscopic spheres of N-tert-butoxycarbonyl-protected diphenylalanine molecules. [via Smarter Technology]

• Predictably, first mention for the new material is of military application, such as high-tech exoskeleton for use by soldiers carrying heavy loads.

* * *

The U.S. government is testing a new email system that can bypass Egyptian-style cutoffs, that is, if a foreign government cuts off the country’s news and Internet communications with the rest of the world. [via eWeek.com]

* * *

Algeria’s 19-year-long state of emergency may be lifted soon, president says. Algeria instituted the state of emergency ostensibly to fight Islamist insurgents and al Qaeda. [via France24]

• How could you have a state of emergency for 19 years if not actually for the purpose of controlling your own population?

* * *

Google received a record 75,000 job applications worldwide for its hiring spree this year of 6,000 job positions worldwide. Google says that’s 15% more than it received last year. [via Bloomberg TV, 3.58am, 04 Feb 2011]

* * *

Political discontent in the Arab world appears to be intensifying. More than 20,000 Yemenis on 4th February filled the streets of capital Sana’a demanding change in government. [via France24 TV, 04 Feb 2011]

Demonstrations lineup: Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Yemen and Bahrain (unconfirmed) to date.

Demos soon to come (not in order and not necessarily reportable): China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey and Australia (after the Oz settles down from their floods and moving on to their lack of human rights Internet-wise).

• And to think the astrology camp is still insisting the Year of the Rabbit is going to be a calmer, more peaceable year. Open eyes and engage brain, please.

* * *

TIP OF THE TONGUE

“The police here is just as responsible for what’s happening over there. After all, they described themselves as the world brotherhood of police officers.”

(Pub, 2.44am, 01 Feb 2011)

* * *

“They say it’s gonna happen here sooner or later.”

(Johnny re: Egyptian police beating people up, 9pm, 31 Jan 2011)

* * *

“I did this thing for years just for you. And now you say you don’t know what to do???”

(Man, apparently in divorce proceedings, to his lover, in a cafeteria, 7pm, 31 Jan 2011)

* * *

“If you want to make it, you need two things: talent, and lots of smart friends.”

(5.10am, 04 Feb 2011)

* * *

“See? I told you. It’s another middling fortune stick. Years and years of this. Nothing’s ever right from these officials.”

(Friend re: top official drawing a No. 11 fortune stick for Hong Kong, 8.25pm, 04 Feb 2011)

* * *

“Can you join the New People’s Party if you are an old person?”

(Voice in the background, 04 Feb 2011)

* * *

Images (all pilfered and used without permission):

• Rabbit graphic via Wikipedia
• Rose-tinted glasses via Radio Prague

© The Naked Listener’s Weblog, 2011.