Welcome to this Researcher's Journal. If you'd like to comment on anything they have written here, just click the relevant 'Discuss this Entry' button.

Would you be offended by Atheist adverts on buses?
Oct 23, 2008

I subscribe to a spoof news website (The Daily Mash  - It's News to Us), and yesterday wondered what the "real news" source was for one of their entries (BLASPHEMING BUSES WILL BURN IN HELL, SAY CHRISTIANS)http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/...ell%2c-say-christians-200810221343/

After some surfing I was better informed.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7681914.stm is a good starting point.

To summarise Ariane Sherine, after seeing two buses in a short space of time advertising with biblical quote, with a weblink to warning that not accepting Jesus would result in eternity in Hell, blogged on Guardian comment is free website her counterproposal that if a few thousand atheists chould put up a fiver or so then an ad could be put on some other London buses for a month saying "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and get on with your life."

This resulted in a campaign website being set up on 21st October in association with British Humanist Association and Richard Dawkins, hoping to raise the £23K or so needed to do this. They reached this total in ten hours, and now on 23rd October the total is running at over £80K The London buses won't get the ads until January 2009. They plan to extend the advertising to other cities.

Personally I was cheered by the knowledge that I am not alone in my atheism. It gets my back up when people with an evangelical streak imply that by not being a Christian I have nothing to keep me moral - that Christians are somehow better at being good, and will be rewarded for it.

Original blog:
Atheists – gimme five: Since when is it OK to spread the fear of God from the side of a bus? Let's get together and distribute reassurance http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/20/transport.religion

To see the current total and find links to where the story has appeared in press around the world:
http://www.atheistcampaign.org/

(3 replies, Latest reply: Oct 23, 2008)

Titanic - - - - - ...
Aug 27, 2008

The Manx Operatic Society have had their first meeting to start off the next production - Titanic the Musical. We prefaced this by inviting all interested members and prospective members on a cruise up and down the coast from Douglas in the MV Karina last weekend. Fortunately the day was sunny, and a good time was had by all, we saw some seals in the bays going north, seagulls followed us, waves sprayed those reckless enough to stand at the prow, a couple of the men jumped off the boat into the clear water once we had tied up by the harbour steps.

It didn't prepare me for the number of people who'd turn up for the first night. We had to put out quite a few more chairs.

Fortunately the place was spick and span as the Social Committee had organised a tidy up of the rooms on the Bank Holiday . We even have had a nice new flat screen TV installed (with the intention of using it to provide feedback on rehearsals by linking it to a camcorder).

We eased people into the show by listening to then singing some parts of the boarding song (which finishes with Godspeed Titanic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4qRPWML1BE we just did just the first minute) and the New Rag (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2OftuSkaGQ&feature=related from about 1 min into clip). It is nice to be doing a musical with a musical director who breaks down the harmonies and has us repeating the parts until they sound right, then putting it all together to make a glorious sound (the rehearsal room gives nice acoustics )
--:M ---:O ...:S - our new website is easy to remember the initials dot im (for Isle of Man)

Now I have to sort out the application forms...

(34 replies, Latest reply: Dec 25, 2008)

Disco Inferno
Sep 30, 2007

"I put the 'pop' in 'pop music', baby!"
After a gruelling day of auditions the cast has been chosen for the next production on stage at the end of February 2008.
The day started at 10am for most auditionees and finally finished after 8pm. I had been working ealrier to complete a final list of auditionee commitments for the period of rehearsal.
This was a detailed task as I had created a form for each of them to complete giving a calendar from now to show date to cross off days with other commitments, and space below to detail what the commitments were (work, holiday, other). I then collated all the forms onto a 10 page summary with a line for each person going across the page, with colour coding to show weekends, christmas break, when the director was over and what type of commitments had been given. It was very pretty

We started with a vocal warm-up, then practice for the dance auditions, then had the dance auditions in groups of five to a piece that had been set on Friday evening by the director, and had been practised by most of cast at optional reharsal on Saturday afternoon, so when we came in on Sunday morning most people were ready to complain about aching hips, bruised kness (there was a knee spin movement). I have to confess I thought I was pretty dreadful, but I was by no means the worst. Yes, it was some of the men (particularly those over 35) who stood out as struggling to get into the groove.

Each small group had to do the ensemble singing audition after they'd caught their breath following the dance. Those who clealry said they were auditioning for a principal role were excused singing solo in this - I didn't make it clear and had to sing a couple of lines of "blame it on the boogie", without being entirely sure of the words I struggled through OK though

Then there was the waiting I eventually got to audition for the part I was interested in about 3pm. First I read the set pieces (to some pleased amusement from committee for the expression I put into it )for my role (which comprised nearly every word the character has - it isn't a big role ) with some non-auditioning members standing in for the other roles in the dialogue. They then left and I sang to the audition committee alone (all five of them - Director, Asst Director, Chairman, Musical Director and Stage Manager). I fluffed one or two lines, but it was better than some auditions I've done. Useful that the song is mostly speaking in rhythm, rather than musically demanding - Pop Musik by M people (Talk about Pop Music, Pop pop pop Music!) After the audition I managed to excuse myself for a couple of hours to go home.

To cut a long story short I've got the role
The director in his closing remarks made clear that we have our work cut out for ourselves in this production, due to the number of inexperienced castmembers - unlike previous shows he was not able to cast it easily and be happy that he would be able to fulfil his vision of how the show should be. He was particularly disappointed by the poor reading several auditionees gave, that gave him no idea of how they interpreted the part (so I don't think I came in that sad category - I got a out of them)- if he'd wanted it just read aloud without expression he would have asked. It will be up to us to reach the potential the Asst Director assured him we have.

(25 replies, Latest reply: May 3, 2008)

bread matters
Jul 18, 2007

Just finished a letter to a local magazine.

It's a long story.
My wife (who I'll call Mrs Pimms on this thread) decided to set up her own baking business over a year ago, making bread to organic principles (you can't legally say you are making "organic bread" unless you have a recognised organic certification). It started small, supplying to a single Farmer's market weekly and has been a learning curve for both of us. Currently she sells at three markets (that is all there are on the island), one health food shop, is preparing for upcoming shows, and has other irons in the fire.

The name she gave her business is The Good Loaf, a pun on The Good Life, and unsurprisingly we found someone else had already used it for the dot com, so we had to go for thegoodloaf dot co dot uk as the next best site. I drew our logo in a few minutes (and have had to redraw it several times since, taking a lot longer ).

In the last year Mrs P has been on two breadmaking courses to become more professional, and gradually expanded her equipment to cope with increases in demand. Realising the need to promote her business more she approached the local magazine and offered to submit a local interest story about why she set up the business. This duly appeared, but in retrospect was possibly a little negative about the alternative to her methods of baking...

In the next issue a letter was published from the chairman of the local mill who started by saying it was a bad idea to badmouth your competition, and then proceeded to do exactly that mentioning Mrs P by name seven times with various slighting or sarcastic comments. He took as a personal affront comments Mrs P had made in general about mass-produced bread in the UK

Mrs P initially wanted to disappear - certainly not provoke further attacks by responding to the letter. I however was not going to sit by and let his comments go unchallenged. So I drafted th response and emailed it to our key supporters to ensure that I'd set the right tone - we weren't going to apologise, and Mrs P didn't want to be antagonistic or descend to his level of snide abuse.

My letter however, in order to address his points, provide references for my facts and achieve a balanced view (h2g2 entry writing having rubbed off a bit ) was over 1000 words, which could have been too long (it can be found on our website). Further drafts reduced this to less than 600, though at one point it was *too* amiable, and I had to get it a bit more steely in tone. I don't know if advocacy is a role I am well suited for, but researching this letter got me pretty het up

(20 replies, Latest reply: Dec 27, 2008)

Bone vampires
Jun 29, 2007

For a few years I've been on the Anthony Nolan Trust register for potential bone marrow donation. I give blood regularly, the register seemed like a harmless additional tick in the altruism box - I didn't expect there to be a match.

Last week however I heard from ANT asking for me to confirm I was still content to stay on the register and go forward to a next stage, as there was a second stage match with the blood sample I gave when I registered

Yesterday I received a jiffy bag with bulky mailing cores, sample tubes, forms to complete, a 15-page information leaflet and a disposable needle. I immediately scanned the letter, booked an appointment with my doctor's surgery to get the samples collected and then read the information leaflet closely and filled out the Medical Update form.

The Information leaflet is pretty comprehensive in saying what the next stages would be if I prove to be the match they need once they have worked with these second stage samples. At this point they say it is about 25% likelihood that I'll be the match they require - so three out of four chance it may go no further this time

My wife was concerned when I read out the following line from the leaflet:
"Theoretical risks [...] include rare [...] reactions including death." This was about general anaesthesia while they stick a big needle in the hips to extract the bone marrow. I've had GA before (for a hernia op) so I'm not too worried about my ability to survive it.

While there is the alternative process of several daily injections to boost numbers of stem cells in the bloodstream, which can be filtered off in a couple of lengthy bloood donations, I currently prefer the needles in hips under GA drawing a litre of fluid off, then a week off work

See A789618 for entry on the person who set up ANT, or A197192 for a personal view of someone who has actually donated bone marrow.

I'll let you know what happens - but usually it takes a couple of months after getting the second stage samples back before they can decide whether a potential donor is a match (they have to do various tests on the blood of donor and patient which can take a good deal of time to get a definite compatibility result)

(18 replies, Latest reply: Oct 5, 2007)