orchestra of crap!

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:18:00 +0000

/usr/bin/google

#!/bin/sh
if [ ! -n "$1" ]
then
   echo -e "Usage: `basename $0` \033[4msearch string\033[0m"
   exit $E_BADARGS
fi
string="http://www.google.co.uk/search?q="
appended=0
for arg in "$@"
do
   argsed=`echo $arg | sed 's/ /+/g'`
   if [ $argsed != "$arg" ]
   then
      argsed="%22$argsed%22"
   fi
   string="$string$argsed"
   if [ $appended -lt `expr $# - 1` ]
   then
      string="$string+"
   fi
   let "appended+=1" 
done
open $string
exit 0

check me out

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 15:18:00 +0000

Robert Silverberg wrote this:

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

David Selig
Selig Studies 101, Prof. Selig
November 10, 1976

Entropy as a Factor in Everyday Life

Entropy is defined in physics as a mathematical expression of the degree to which the energy of a thermodynamic system is so distributed as to be unavailable for conversion into work. In more general metaphorical terms, entropy may be seen as the irresistible tendency of a system, including the universe, toward increasing disorder and inertness. That is to say, things have a way of getting worse and worse all the time, until in the end we lack even the means of knowing how bad they really are.
The great American physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839-1903) was the first to apply the second law of thermodynamics – the law that defines the increasing disorder of energy moving at random within a closed system – to chemistry. It was Gibbs who most firmly enunciated the principle that disorder spontaneously increases as the universe grows older. Among those who extended Gibbs' insights into the realm of philosophy was the brilliant mathematician Norbert Wiener (1894-1964), who declared, in his book The Human Use of Human Beings, 'As entropy increases, the universe, and all closed systems in the universe, tend naturally to deteriorate and lose their distinctiveness, to move from the least to the most probable state, from a state of organization and differentiation in which distinctions and forms exist, to a state of chaos and sameness. In Gibbs' universe order is least probable, chaos most probable. But while the universe as a whole, if indeed there is a whole universe, tends to run down, there are local enclaves whose direction seems opposed to that of the universe at large and in which there is a limited and temporary tendency for organization to increase. Life finds its home in some of these enclaves.
Thus Wiener hails living things in general and human beings in particular as heroes in the war against entropy – which he equates in another passage with the war against evil: 'This random element, this organic incompleteness (that is, the fundamental element of chance in the texture of the universe), is one which without too violent a figure of speech we may consider evil.' Human beings, says Wiener, carry on anti-entropic processes. We have sensory receptors. We communicate with one another. We make use of what we learn from one another. Therefore we are something more than mere victims of the spontaneous spread of universal chaos. 'We, as human beings, are not isolated systems. We take in food, which generates energy, from the outside, and are, as a result, parts of the larger world which contains those sources of our vitality. But even more important is the fact that we take in information through our sense organs, and we act on information recieved.' There is feedback, in other words. Through communication we learn to control our environment, and, he says, 'In control and communication we are always fighting nature's tendency to degrade the organized and to destroy the meaningful; the tendency … for entropy to increase.' In the very long run entropy must inevitably nail us all; in the short run we can fight back. 'We are not yet spectators at the last stages of the world's death.'
But what if a human being turns himself, inadvertently or by choice, into an isolated system?
A hermit, say. He lives in a dark cave. No information penetrates. He eats mushrooms. They give him just enough energy to keep going, but otherwise he lacks inputs. He's forced back on his own spiritual and mental resources, which he eventually exhausts. Gradually the chaos expands in him, gradually the forces of entropy seize possession of this ganglion, that synapse. He takes in a decreasing amount of sensory data until his surrender to entropy is complete. He ceases to move, to grow, to respire, to function in any way. This condition is known as death.
One doesn't have to hide in a cave. One can make an interior migration, locking oneself away from the life-giving energy sources. Often this is done because it appears that the energy sources are threats to the stability of the self. Indeed, inputs do threaten the self: a push usually will upset equilibrium. However, equilibrium itself is a threat to the self, though this is frequently overlooked. There are married people who strive fiercely to reach equilibrium. They seal themselves off, clinging to one another and shutting out the rest of the universe, making themselves into a two-person closed system from which all vitality is steadily and inexorably expelled by the deadly equilibrium they have established. Two can perish as well as one, if they are sufficiently isolated from everything else. I call this the monogamous fallacy. My sister Judith said she left her husband because she felt herself dying, day by day, while she was living with him. Of course, Judith's a slut.
The sensory shutdown is not always a willed event, naturally. It happens to us whether we like it or not. If we don't climb into the box ourselves, we'll get shoved in anyway. That's what I mean about entropy inevitably nailing us all in the long run. No matter how vital, how vigorous, how world-devouring we are, the inputs dwindle as time goes by. Sight, hearing, touch, smell – everything goes, as good old Will S. said, and we end up sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. Sans everything. Or, as the same clever man put it, from hour to hour we ripe and ripe, and then from hour to hour we rot and rot, and thereby hangs a tale.
I offer myself as a case in point. What does this man's sad history reveal? An inexplicable diminution of once-remarkable powers. A shrinkage of the inputs. A small death, endured while he still lives. Am I not a casualty of the entropic wars? Do I not now dwindle into stasis and silence before your very eyes? Is my distress not evident and poignant? Who will I be, when I have ceased to be myself? I am dying the heat death. A spontaneous decay. A random twitch of probability undoes me. And I am made into nothingness. I am becoming cinders and ash. I will wait here for the broom to gather me up.

* * *

That's very eloguent, Selig. Take an A. Your writing is clear and forceful and you show an excellent grasp of the underlying philosophical issues. You may go to the head of the class. Do you feel better now?

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 16:02:00 +0000

The North Sea Circle, in 7 parts:

[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Sun, 12 Nov 2006 12:17:00 +0000

Click here to enter a world of wonder and delight
Note that each picture leads to a photo album, and the "File1, File2..." bits lead you to more albums.

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 19:44:00 +0000

And in the early evening, when it's cold and the sun is low in the sky, and you can see the tops of the buildings outlined sharply in silhouette against it as it changes colour slowly...

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 19:39:00 +0000

I do my duty to posterity
today I kept a diary for the History Matters project. however, the (incidentally very annoying and buggy) site does not allow diaries to be longer than 4,000 characters, and since I've written it, and my florid prose extended to closer to 6,000 characters, and I think it may be of interest, here follows the diary reproduced in full.

I was gradually woken up by my radio alarm clock, but lay in bed listening to it for a while.
I slept through the news, but the next programme was about how Iraq was escalating into civil war. There was also an announcement about HistoryMatters, which is why I am writing this now.

Being a quite idle person, I stayed in bed with my iBook propped on my chest, and watched the rest of a video demonstrating the NeXTSTEP operating system from 1992 that I'd begun watching the previous night. Commented to my friend E on MSN Messenger about how it exhibits how little operating systems have come on in the last fifteen years.
I also talked to her about a girl we both knew well at my university, and how she won't stop worrying about getting a decent job after graduating, about having enough money to put the deposit down for a house's mortgage, about having enough money to retire, even about having enough money to send her children to university. We think that this worry finds its origin in her parents. She's an only child. E said that she was glad of her parents, who wished her only to end up doing what made her happy. She is currently studying a taught MSc with no funding grant.

I had missed college breakfast by now, and finally got out of bed and went to wash in my bathroom. After this I spent a while reading about this and that on the internet: NeXTSTEP, the hardware it was built to run on, etc. until it was time for me to head off to my 11 o'clock lecture on quantum field theory.

The lecture was fairly slow-going; discussing the properties of Lorentz transformations and the Lorentz group. The only lecture course not to have got off to a slow start so far this year has been Solitons, which has been lurching real horror show through solution methods to various wave systems: the d'Alembertian and Korteweg-de Vries wave solutions, sine-Gordon kink solutions... and all in the first few lectures.

Just before going for lunch, I received an email circulated to all colleges, asking if whoever stole the dummy heron from the science site's pond could please return it. This put me in doubt as to whether i saw it standing at the edge of our college lake, but half-way to the dining hall I remembered that, no, the one I saw was a real one, because it flew away.
In the lunch queue I was approached by a member of the students' union, and signed a petition to freeze the college accommodation fees, as they have gone up 50% over the last five years, whilst student loans have themselves gone up by only 15% in the last ten. It is now the general consensus that it is cheaper to live in a privately rented house in the city and buy your own food than to live within the colleges.

The next lecture after lunch was on quantum optics, and writing this now, at 7:30 in the evening, I can't remember what it was about. Oh yes, at the start of the lecture he gave us a handout on the polarisation of light.

I felt a tiredness come upon me during the lecture, and thought that if I went back to my room and lay down, I would go to sleep, and so that is what I did. I slept for about half an hour, drifting into wakefulness occasionally and checking the time, as I had another lecture, on quantum computing, at 4:15.

So, then, I went back down the road to the science site for the third time that day. I noticed that the road markings had recently been repainted, and the leaves were now beginning to fall from the trees in earnest. I also noticed, to my amusement, that the gnome that had been sitting on a little swing in the middle of the science site pond had been removed and the metal frame of the swing left forlorn and vacant; removed, one might infer, by the same vandals who stole the dummy heron.

I am afraid I can't remember much of what was in that lecture, either, except that it was about the interaction of a two-state quantum system with a light field, and oscillations called Rabi oscillations.

After that lecture it was nearly time for college dinner, so back to college I went, and wondered if perhaps I hadn't fully woken up from that nap I had earlier: thoughts, mostly of a vague and thematic nature, floated through my mind that were associated with dreams I'd had quite a while ago, and I could remember aspects of dreams which I thought I'd forgotten quite clearly.

The steps up to the dining hall were in the process of having the ends repainted white, the better to see them in the dark, presumably for health-and-safety reasons. My meal was slightly odd - noodles and sundry stir-fry vegetables, beans and mushrooms, all an unappetising brown colour which the menu assured was soy sauce; it appeared to be an unpopular choice of main course but I chose it because I had a hunch that it might actually taste pretty good, and so it did.

After that meal, which I ate alone as I couldn't spot any of the few people I know or have struck up a friendship with at college since the start of this, my fourth year at university, I wandered back to my room and all structure faded from my day; I sat in my room idly reading internet sites about the DarwinPorts project, OpenBSD, etc. etc. and not really talking to anyone over MSN Messenger.

I have some reading to do, for my MSci project, but I have yet to get down to it. I read a few sentences but they didn't sink in. Now it is 8:00; I can hear my corridor-mates getting ready to go out to somewhere. The bar, I suppose. I don't know; the other five people on my corridor are all one group of friends that appear to go everywhere together. I have ended up not having much to do with them.

I have several hours before i should go to bed. I could fill them with reading for my project, or socialising, but I am worried that I will do neither.

Postscript: Just to make this post not wholly depressing, as it turned out I ended up listening to music for a while then reading a fair few pages of the text, and then going out with the intention of getting a pint before last orders from the bar. Unfortunately I'd forgotten that tonight was the livers-out formal dinner, so the bar was packed to the rafters with lots of drunk people whom I'd never met in my life, so I bought some pear juice from the new "healthy" vending machine instead.

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 15:01:00 +0000

i was there when they were building it...
(unfinished)

i was there when they were building it, watching under uncomfortable grey skies as the tower was constructed; watching the hunks of grey metal hoisted into place and bolted together with a pneumatic hammering fit to wake the dead.
the building which, we know, was to become the tower of the exaltation of evil, housing on its lower floors the labyrinth of madness, and above, what no mortal may wot of and retain his wits...
and at the opening, as the smiling vice-chancellor cut the ribbon before the flicker-flicker of the newspaper photographers, it is said that a darkness fell over the city, and scores of miles around: that the doors of the tower had opened but a crack and palpably sucked something from the world, and down, down, where it was lost;
and since then, the men and women of science, hiding fitfully in the buildings round about, did never again utter truth to one another, and all further attempts to make sense of their world were confounded, and ruined, until every one of them became quite mad, and as the students and townspeople began to keep away from the site, seldom was anything heard of them again...

one early story to survive was that of the doom of professor dick abram, who entered the labyrinth after damian hampshire, carrying a ball of string. but it was found that even string did turn against him, tricking him into walking round in circles until he finally succumbed: the string was pulled out of the labyrinth in an attempt, far too late, to save the professor; what was found attached to the end, it is said, was a severed hand, clutched tight around it so that no man could prise his fingers away.

but of the fate of damian hampshire less is known. there were accounts of him being seen stalking the roof of the tower, and of his appearance having changed but subtly: a black circle of darkness about his head, and great shadows sprouting from his back, that looked a bit like wings... but who could trust such stories? for atop the tower was a ring of black flame, burning colder than the icy blasts of the ninth circle of hell, which chilled the very souls of men who walked near: and robbed them of all hope, and of their sight, and finally their wits; so that they crawled on their bellies, not uttering a sound, their breath ragged, their hands and knees raw, and bleeding...

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 21:43:00 +0000

The sentence "Keep it under your hat, old man." is not on the internet; I think it ought to be.

Things I didn't take pictures of recently:
> "GORTON GIRLS KNOW ALL THE WORDS TO CHAKA KHAN SONGS" - grafitti near manchester piccadilly station
> A chinese restaurant in maidenhead called "Wu-Tang"
> I remember thinking, "Murder," in the car. Watching dogs somersault through sprinklers on tiny lawns.
> Conkers in suburban Maidenhead lying unclaimed on the grass.
> She says there's ants in the carpet, dirty little monsters...
> A pub, visible from the the train near Birmingham New Street station, whose upper floors have fallen in, and have become home to some little birch trees.
> The striking depth and symmetry in the vista of Stockport from the viaduct

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 17:59:00 +0000

The Sandman: I got hooked. Bought volumes 2 and 3 today at the Leeds Corn Exchange. It's great, but i get through them far, far too quickly

Leeds Corn Exchange: a very different shopping centre. Very intense- so much colour and vibrancy in a small, oval-shaped building. Narrow raised walkways and steep steps. The roof is dizzing and disorienting: criss-crossing geodesic ironwork coming to two points at each end.

Leeds: I've never seen the city centre before: the wide streets, the harmony of victorian and modern architecture, the street entertainers. It is quite beautiful.

Leaping on a train bound for Manchester Victoria at Leeds Station: won't get you back to Huddersfield. You wanted Manchester Piccadilly.

X6: a limited-stop bus service between Bradford Interchange and Huddersfield.

"Guided bus" lanes coming out of Bradford: not quite as cool to ride down them as you'd expect, but still

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 17:42:00 +0000

Some things-

Topological solitons in a swimming pool

Short article on the puritan work ethic
A book that I need to finish reading, about the life of a Yorkshire farm worker

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 14:45:00 +0000

Today, in a manner to which I am, worryingly, becoming accustomed, I managed to slip unchallenged onto this project on cosmic strings. I am going to be spending one-third of my time next year working with two women who I am terrified are going to find me out straight away.

Hopefully it'll be fun and rewarding though!

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Thu, 18 May 2006 22:13:00 +0000

When entering random text into somewhere

Emma: "apple banana hopscotch"
Katherine: "Quack rainbow, pineapple"
Jimmy: "Lemon juice is like snot but acidic"

I consider this to be worth recording, and this list might grow. It's taken several years to gather the information recorded so far.

[[The Oracle would like to know what you think of the color Blue.]]

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Fri, 12 May 2006 19:28:00 +0000

Five pounds fifty in change, exactly,
a library card on its date of expiry.

A postcard stamped,
unwritten, but franked,

a pocket size diary slashed with a pencil
from March twenty-fourth to the first of April.

A brace of keys for a mortise lock,
an analogue watch, self winding, stopped.

A final demand
in his own hand,

a rolled up note of explanation
planted there like a spray carnation

but beheaded, in his fist.
A shopping list.

A giveaway photograph stashed in his wallet,
a keepsake banked in the heart of a locket.

no gold or silver,
but crowning one finger

a ring of white unweathered skin.
That was everything.

Exams soon

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 17:18:00 +0000

analysis is love

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 17:13:00 +0000

http://212.78.76.244/dayvancowboy/boc-dayvancowboy.mov

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 12:40:00 +0000

tell application "ColorSyncScripting"
set display profile of display 1 to profile "Color LCD"
end tell

I will say something on this blog, eventually. I just haven't had anything to say, for ages...

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 13:42:00 +0000

A quick and easy way to have your environment variables set up properly in Mac OS X's X11- create a file in your home called .xinitrc with the following lines:

source ~/.profile
source /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

EDIT: That doesn't work properly at all.
The problem is that apple's X11 launches your shell as a non-login shell, which inherits a different $PATH variable. Personally i've just symlinked ~/.bashrc to ~/.profile . If you've got more complicated stuff than say paths in your .profile you'll probably need two separate files.

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Thu, 17 Nov 2005 20:06:00 +0000

Waitrose

Bread same.
Milk same
Tall orange similar- £1.15/litre
Appears not to be brick orange.
Bigger choice of brand stuff which costs
  roughly the same
Lots of beer.
No cheap stuff
cheapest cheese £5.49/kg
Bagged-up salad is expensive.

SCOTCH EGGS £1.35 for TWO!
Meat in general costs a
    fucking fortune
HARDLY ANY QUORN -
small bags of chichen-style pieces, and sausages.
beef & chicken-style burgers. That's it.

Lots of British produce.
Vegetables appear more
  expensive (don't know for sure)
Tomatoes       £1.09/kg
Onions             59p/kg
New Potatoes    95p/kg
Peppers (Bag)   £2.66/kg
          loose    £3.89/kg

Sushi- free samples

Cheapest ice cream £2.99
              for 2l tub

You can get sushi in ready-to-eat
  servings like sandwiches.
Costs a fortune.

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Thu, 25 Aug 2005 08:56:00 +0000

10. The Earth quakes and the heavens rattle;
the beasts of nature flock together and the
nations of men flock apart; volcanoes usher up
heat while elsewhere water becomes ice and
melts; and then on other days it just rains.
11. Indeed do many things come to pass.
HBT; The Book of Predictions, Chap. 19

Not wanting to awkwardly collapse into political opinions here, but i think that this article is worth reading and neatly describes the way I've been thinking education will go for a while now. Ultimately a bad direction, because the whole state school system is in danger of collapse.

In other news, there have been freak quantities of bilberries this year. I think the birds aren't eating them, or something, but we've managed to easily collect several times the usual harvest, without even going beyond the track up from our house. I don't know why things like this simultaneously unnerve me and give me a strange thrill of adventure.
A week or so ago i was up on the moors somewhere in Derbyshire, and noticed in an old quarry that you wouldn't know was there from the road was a congregation of african-looking people, male and female, some mothers with babies strapped to their backs, all in brilliant white robes. They started walking in single file out of the quarry, singing quietly, and their robes billowed in the wind, with the grassy wilderness stretching out behind them as far as I could see. I've got no pictures, I'm afraid: the battery in my camera ran out at just the wrong time. Which makes too much sense.

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Mon, 02 May 2005 22:33:00 +0000

not again.

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 10:37:00 +0000

Bill Bryson > Patrick Stewart. Discuss.

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Fri, 01 Apr 2005 17:03:00 +0000

Interesting things that happened on this day:

Sophie Germain, a notable female mathematician who made important advancements in number theory (in particular, proving Fermat's last theorem in the case where n=5) and mathematical physics, despite being repeatedly forced out of formal education, was born

Sergei Rachmaninov was born

Hannah out of S Club 7 was born

Marvin Gaye was shot dead by his father in 1984

The symbol "$" was invented by a New Orleans businessman in 1778.

In 1952, the Alpher, Bethe (in absentia) and Gamov paper on the big bang theory was published

The RAF was formed in 1918 with the merging of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Navy Air Service, which were branches of the army and navy respectively; thereby creating a third military service in its own right, with its own ministry.

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Sun, 27 Mar 2005 18:46:00 +0000

On the way home I pulled the last dead leaf off an oak tree.

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Fri, 04 Mar 2005 22:26:00 +0000

You just had a shower...

Well, it's taken you nearly 20 years to understand how wonderful a shower can be.
Think back over the last, oh, I can't even remember how many minutes. The soap trickling down from your hair, caressing your skin more gently than any human hand could, utterly disregarding your body's ugly shape, and quite forgiving the over-long period since your last visit.
Think of the soap building up in your ears, and your long hair clinging to the side of your face like a cocoon, smothering your hearing. Your eyes closed, so there is nothing between you and the soap.
You could feel it carrying all the filth from your body as it rinsed down into the bath; to you it was an absolution.

Robert Moss recommends LYNX® masculine hygiene products.

noreply@blogger.com (Mossy) — Sun, 13 Feb 2005 15:04:00 +0000

The following post is very boring, and is prime evidence for why I should not be allowed to write about computers, ever.
To shield your virginal eyes from my obsessive-compulsive tendencies, the text has been given an extra degree of separation from its meaning.

vObbx T4

Zl Gbfuvon Fngryyvgr yncgbc fgnegrq fybjyl snyyvat gb ovgf n juvyr ntb. Gur pnfr unq fgnegrq penpxvat arne gur uvatr, naq zl nggrzcgf gb tyhr vg hc gb fgbc gur penpxf sebz cebcntngvat nyy snvyrq. Vg jnf bzvabhf, ohg qvqa'g npghnyyl pnhfr nal gebhoyr, hagvy bar qnl jura pybfvat vg gur penpxf fhqqrayl yhepurq sbegu naq gur pnfr arneyl pnzr va unys. Vg jnf gura V ernyvfrq gung V jnf snfg urnqvat sbe gebhoyr, nf V pbhyq frr gung bar fvqr bs gur fperra unq pybfrq shegure guna gur bgure. V pbhyq nyfb frr va guebhtu gur uhtr naq tncvat penpxf naq frr gung gurer jnf ab fhcrefgehpgher va gur fperra frpgvba, whfg gjb zrgny fhccbegf ubyqvat gur fperra frpgvba va gur evtug funcr.
Vg frrzrq gung gur fperra'f bhgre cynfgvp pnfr jnf gnxvat nyy gur grafvyr fgerff bs chyyvat gur uvatr gb rirel gvzr V pybfrq gur yncgbc yvq, juvpu jnf pyrneyl n qrfvta snhyg, naq va nabgure lrne naq n unys V pbhyq rkcrpg guvf gb unccra ntnva.

Ng gur fnzr gvzr, gur QP va fbpxrg unq znantrq gb pbzr ybbfr sebz gur zbgureobneq, naq abg fhecevfvatyl guvf jnf pnhfvat hggre punbf jvgu gur cbjre znantrzrag pvephvgel- gur onggrel jnfa'g punetvat cebcreyl, naq gur pbzchgre jnf vapbeerpgyl ercbegvat vgf punetr, naq va snpg ercbegvat gung gur onggrel jnf orvat punetrq ol gur znvaf nqncgbe jura vg jnf, va snpg, qvfpunetvat, rgp.

Fb, fbzrguvat unq gb or qbar, naq gur znpuvar orvat 6 zbaguf be fb bhg bs jneenagl, V'q unir gb cnl sbe vg.
Gur dhbgr pnzr onpx sebz gur freivpr prager- £860, sbe cnegf naq 2 ubhef' ynobhe.

Gb juvpu V fnvq, "fbq gung" naq cebabhaprq vg jevggra-bss, naq ybbxrq sbe n arj znpuvar.

(Vg ghearq bhg yngre gung gur rkprffvir cevpr sbe freivpvat jnf qhr gb gur freivpr prager jnagvat gb ercynpr gur ybtvp obneq ba zl znpuvar, fvzcyl qhr gb gur bar snhygl fbyqre wbvag ba gur QP va fbpxrg. V gura unq gur dhbgr "erivfrq qbja" gb £170, ba gur tebhaqf gung v'z cebonoyl dhvgr pncnoyr bs fbyqrevat gung wbvag hc zlfrys, be ng yrnfg V xabj fbzr crbcyr jub'q or vagrerfgrq va qbvat vg sbe zr. V'yy tvir gur yncgbc gb zl fvfgre jura vg'f svkrq; fur'f tbvat gb havirefvgl, naq jvyy cebonoyl hfr vg yrff guna zr, naq jvyy xabj gb nibvq bcravat naq pybfvat gur yvq jurer cbffvoyr.)

Fb V raqrq hc trggvat n 14-vapu vObbx T4 sebz gur Nccyr Fgber. V jrag sbe gur zbqry jvgu gur "Pbzob qevir", v.r. n PQ-EJ naq QIQ qevir, jvgu gur fgnaqneq 256ZO bs ENZ naq ab oyhrgbbgu, univat urneq sebz zl ubhfrzngr jvgu n oyhrgbbgu yncgbc gung nyy ur qbrf jvgu vg vf fraqf zrffntrf fnlvat, "ner lbh oberq?" gb crbcyr'f zbovyr cubarf va yrpgherf.

V nyfb tbg gur fgnaqneq nccyr bcgvpny zbhfr, naq na vapnfr "fyrrir" yncgbc ont. Gur cevpr pnzr gb nebhaq £860... shaal ubj gurfr guvatf tb.

Qryvirel
Gur yncgbc pnzr jvguva nobhg n jrrx naq n unys bs beqrevat vg. Vg jnf rkpvgvat va n trrxl jnl, nf jura gur cnpxntr pnzr vagb gur unaqf bs gur servtug pbzcnal, V pbhyq jngpu vgf cebterff npebff rhebcr. Ng bar fgntr vg tbg fb onq gung V jnf npghnyyl ernqvat hc ba gur gbja vg jnf pheeragyl va- sbe rknzcyr, gur Vagreangvbany Ebnq Rkcerff Prager, va Neaurz (juvpu unaqyrf 5700 gbaarf bs servtug cre jrrx)... Neaurz vf gur fvgr bs gur "oevqtr gbb sne" bs bcrengvba Znexrg Tneqra va Jbeyq Jne VV, juvpu unf orra pnyyrq gur ynfg terng nyyvrq qrsrng bs gur jne.

Gur yncgbc pnzr va n obzonfgvp pneqobneq obk glcvpny bs Nccyr'f tencuvp fglyr, naq jura V bcrarq vg V jnf terrgrq ol n cynva juvgr furrg bs pneqobneq jvgu "Qrfvtarq ol Nccyr va Pnyvsbeavn" cevagrq ba vg.

Vafvqr gur obk jrer gur yncgbc vgfrys, vgf NP nqncgbe juvpu pbafvfgf bs n juvgr phobvqny genafsbezre jvgu n cnve bs arng yrtf gung pna or bcrarq bhg naq gur QP pnoyr jenccrq nebhaq, naq obgu n znvaf cyht pbaarpgbe gung cyhtf fgenvtug vagb gur genafsbezre frpgvba, naq n 2-zrger ybat rkgrafvba pnoyr gung vagrepunatrf jvgu vg, n gryrcubar pnoyr, naq na nqncgbe sbe gur "zvav-ITN" fbpxrg ba gur yncgbc, gung pbairegf vg gb n shyy ITN fbpxrg.

Gur pnfr vf avpryl qrfvtarq, jvgu cebgrpgvir cnqqvat vafvqr, naq juvyfg pyrneyl qrfvtarq gb svg n 15-vapu CbjreObbx cresrpgyl, vg cbfrf ab ceboyrzf sbe gur aneebjre vObbx. Gurer vf n cbpxrg ba gur sebag sbe gur NP nqncgbe, ohg vg qbrfa'g jbex nf jryy jvgu gur ovt oevgvfu cyht nf vg cerfhznoyl qbrf jvgu na nzrevpna bar- vg fgvpxf bhg n snve ovg.

Gur zbhfr vf avpryl ohvyg, jvgu na vagrerfgvat bcgvpny vyyhfvba rssrpg pnhfrq ol gur ubyybj, genafcnerag hccre frpgvba (juvpu nyfb npgf nf n fvatyr, ovt zbhfr ohggba). Ubjrire gur pnoyr vf irel fubeg- bayl nobhg 2 srrg ybat. Vg'f pyrneyl qrfvtarq gb or cyhttrq vagb gur shyy-fvmr nccyr xrlobneq (juvpu unf n HFO cbeg ng rnpu raq) naq juvyfg vg pna or hfrq ba gur evtug unaq fvqr bs gur znpuvar (gur cbegf ner nyy ba gur yrsg fvqr) vg pna'g or zbirq irel sne, juvpu pna trg fyvtugyl veevgngvat. Ubjrire vg qbrf ryvzvangr gur zbhfr-pnoyr-pngpuvat-ba-fubr guvat jvgu zl ynfg zbhfr gung jnf pbafvqrenoyl zber veevgngvat jura vg unccrarq.

Gur yncgbc vgfrys vf 13 vapurf jvqr, ohg srryf pbafvqrenoyl ovttre sbe fbzr ernfba. Vg vf fuval juvgr cbylpneobangr ba gur bhgfvqr, jvgu whfg na nccyr ybtb (vyyhzvangrq ol gur YPQ fperra'f onpxyvtug) ba gur gbc. Gur vafvqr vf yvtug znggr terl, naq vf dhvgr n cyrnfnag grkgher gb or erfgvat lbhe unaqf ba sbe ybat crevbqf. Gur xrlobneq vf avpr, gubhtu qvssreragyl ynvq bhg gb gur nirentr yncgbc xrlobneq, naq gur genpxcnq vf fgenatryl dhvgr ynetr, jvgu n ovt fvatyr ohggba ba gur obggbz.

Znp BF K vf na bqq bcrengvat flfgrz. Vg'f irel rnfl gb hfr, fbzrgvzrf qrcerffvatyl fb, (V npghnyyl zvffrq gur svqqyvat nobhg gb trg guvatf jbexvat vaibyirq va trggvat fbzrguvat jbexvat ba bgure bcrengvat flfgrzf), ohg vg frrzrq irel nyvra ng svefg. Nccyr cebqhpr gurve bja jro oebjfre naq znvy pyvrag, juvpu ner obgu tbbq rabhtu abg gb rire pbafvqre ercynpvat (V'q tehqtvatyl nterr jvgu nccyr'f obzonfgvp pynvz ba gurve jrofvgr gung gur Fnsnev oebjfre vf "gur orfg oebjfre ba nal cyngsbez"). Gurersber, abguvat vf snzvyvne, naq lbh svaq jrveq pbairagvbaf gung qba'g rkvfg ba bgure cyngsbezf, yvxr qbjaybnqrq fbsgjner cnpxntrf orvat va qvfx vzntrf gung lbh zbhag nf qvfx ibyhzrf naq vafgnyy sebz gurer, glcvpnyyl ol whfg qenttvat gurz vagb n qverpgbel pnyyrq "Nccyvpngvbaf" ba gur uneq qevir.
Gurer'f nyfb gur hafrggyvat fvzcyvpvgl naq dhvrgarff nobhg vg nf jryy. Gur yncgbc bayl unf 4 yvtugf ba vg (abg pbhagvat gur onggrel yvsr vaqvpngbe ba gur onggrel) - ahz naq pncf ybpx, n pbyyne nebhaq gur QP pnoyr vaqvpngvat gur onggrel'f punetr fgnghf, naq n fznyy qvfp bs juvgr yvtug ba gur sebag gung chyfngrf jura gur znpuvar vf va fhfcraq-gb-enz. Gurer vf n sna vafvqr, ohg vg'f arire orra ba fvapr v'ir unq vg, naq gur uneq qevir vf fb dhvrg gung lbh unir gb chg lbhe rne ntnvafg vg gb urne nalguvat.
Gur ynpx bs n uneq qevir be PQ npgvivgl yvtug sryg irel bqq gb ortva jvgu, ohg nsgre n juvyr v qvqa'g zvff gurz ng nyy, orpnhfr jura lbh guvax nobhg vg, gurl qba'g npghnyyl freir zhpu bs n checbfr.

Naljnl, gung'f dhvgr rabhtu.