Formerly known as the Widmann Blog
We’ve finally got round to putting my flat on the market. See the GSPC’s info here.
It’s really a nice flat – I’m going to miss it – but it is getting a bit crowded with child #4 on its way.
For people with fewer (or no) kids, who have time to take advantage of how close the cinemas and theatres are, it’s really quite ideal, and cheaper than the equivalent in the proper West End.
It’ll be interesting to see how quickly it sells.
John Wells today has a blog posting in IPA, pointing out that Le Maître Phonétique used to be written entirely in phonetic transcription.
I think that’ll make a good basis for a blog, so I’ve just created a new blog, named after that old and wonderful journal.
If anybody wants to contribute to that blog, just send me an email, and I’ll set you up. All languages and all topics are welcome, so long as the text is entirely in IPA.
The Telegraph lists what the Labour rebels who are demanding a referendum on the new EU treaty want as their price for dropping this demand.
A couple of the items could possibly be arranged by an additional British opt-out, but the majority involves preventing the rest of the countries from doing what they want. For instance, to “drop plans for further extension of majority voting and stick with the provisions agreed in talks on the Nice Treaty in 2000” is just impossible – this is one of the major reasons for the new treaty in the first instance.
There is no way Brown can give in to these demands, even if he wanted to. So it will be interesting to see if they’ll actually force him into a referendum.
The problem with a referendum is what to do if the British vote No. The other countries might offer a few additional opt-outs, but anything as radical as this list will be turned down, and I’d say it’s likely the UK would be forced to leave the EU, possibly after a second referendum.
The Guardian has some very interesting regional breakdowns for their latest poll.
About the LibDems, it says:
In the north Lib Dem support is firm: 22% now, against 23% in 2005. But in the south – where most Lib Dem MPs are elected – it has collapsed, down nine points at 19%. That means the Liberal Democrats are now stronger in the north than the south for the first time since their formation. The party has also dropped back seven points in London. Polling day could be brutal.
The Tories seem to be going backwards in the north of England, but growing a lot in the south, so it looks like the LibDems and the Tories might increasingly be carving England up between them.
The consequence of that would be that the only realistic alternative to a Labour government could be a Tory-LibDem coalition, but of course the electoral system could make things turn out very different.
It will be interesting to see whether these results are confirmed by other polls. And I do wonder whether it will force a change of LibDem leadership – I’m pretty sure all LibDem MPs for the south of England are feeling very worried today!
Jeg fandt dette skilt på Flickr i dag.
Jeg formoder, den sorte klat skal forestille et dyr, men hvilket?
En blanding af slange og en præriehund? Et krabbemenneske? En deform søstjerne?
Jeg har aldrig været i Panamá, så jeg véd ikke, om det er et hyppigt forekommende væsen dér, men jeg tvivler nu lidt, ikke mindst da kommentarerne på Flickr også er dybt undrende.
Phyllis and I were discussing today how closely related you actually are to different people genetically speaking.
After doing some simple calculations and applying a bit of logic, we came up with the following (1/2 means that you share half your genes with that person, and so on):
| 1/2 | child |
| 1/2 | parent |
| 1/2 | sibling |
| 1/4 | grandparent |
| 1/4 | grandchild |
| 1/4 | half-sibling |
| 1/4 | uncle/aunt |
| 1/4 | nephew/niece |
| 1/4 | double cousin (child of mother’s sibling and father’s sibling) |
| 1/8 | greatgrandparent |
| 1/8 | greatgrandchild |
| 1/8 | cousin |
| 1/8 | greatuncle/greataunt |
| 1/16 | greatgreatgrandparent |
| 1/16 | cousin’s child |
| 1/16 | parent’s cousin |
Since there probably is found readers by this blog which doesn’t understand Danish, and therefore sometimes stay a little irritated about my contributions in Danish, tried I today to find an usable translation programme, which can handle Danish.
There weren’t many to choose in between, but finally I found a rather good one from VISL (I’d like to know whether Eckhard has brought a finger in the pie).
As always with that kind of programmes there is the result not always well, but if one knows Danish not at all, it’s decided better than nothing.
[This posting was written in Danish and translated by the website.]
