Not the easiest place to find though. First you've got to find the right exit from the 2,227 at Bank stations, then work your way through the blank fractal geometries of that part of the City. Then work out that the apparently empty staircase marked "Restaurant" is actually the pub in question, then track your way through to the right place in three floors.

Actually not a bad pub, not too crowded on a Friday night, interesting decor. Beer selection a bit limited on that floor, but they've got more further up. Certainly makes round-buying a bit easier.

Tried to introduce gazbo to the music of William Shatner, but he didn't seem totally convinced. Not sure he actully heard it though: turned out the headphones' volume control was turned way down.

Usual stuff. There was some talk about us Southerners crashing up to one of the Northerners' meets. Not too sure about that though: I've heard it's awfully cold up there, and quite hard to get a Decaf Caramel-Mocha Frappucino at short notice; plus my new diet of gluten-free wheat, isotonic free-range chicken breast and retro-glycemic carb 'shakes might be a problem...

Me
Pretty busy at work. They're trying to push project A through before the great Christmas collapse. On paper we can do it assuming nothing else goes wrong, but I think there's just too much new, untested, high-risk stuff to manage it. Plus I've lost a week and a half after being moved to project B. Somewhat stressed. Plus the ever-present political battles are intensifying after our team grabbed one member of another team: their team leader is retaliating by complaining about us. Gah.

Since this is the guy who took our live, revenue producing service down for days after releasing a change without testing it, he'll probably get his arse handed to him; but all this crap takes up time.

Web (contains politics: so sue me)
Stolen from Memepool: Tired Japanese businessmen. That's me that is.

Stolen from Metafilter: interesting analysis of the Lancet's report on the alleged 100,000 Iraqis who died after the invasion. Turns out that including errors gives you a figure somewhere between 8,000 and 194,000. Even that relies on assumptions that contradict earlier Lancet research.

After that and their MMR fiaso, seems like the Lancet really needs to get its act together.

Some nice election analysis here and comment on it here.

True, it found the largest single block of voters identified "moral values" as the "most important election issue" -- a much cited factoid -- and that 80% of these respondents voted for Bush. But that hardly makes this election a triumph of theocracy. In the first place, "largest single block" turns out to mean 22%, meaning 78% of voters -- including two-thirds of Bush voters -- named some other issue

...fully one-third of Bush's vote came from non-Republicans -- the same proportion as the "moral values" voters.

...For example, we might also note that Bush's support increased significantly among women (at 48%, there was effectively no gender gap: indeed he led Kerry 55-44 among white women), among Hispanics (44%, a record for any Republican candidate), among blacks (okay, it was only 11%, up from 9% last time...), among Jews (at 25%, a one-third expansion), and among Catholics (where he beat Kerry, a Catholic, 52-47).

When a candidate draws increased numbers of votes from groups not traditionally identified with his party, we usually call that "broadening the base." So why the fascination with zombie hordes of theo-cons?