Weather Alarums

Having got a bit tired of being unpredictably rained on lately and/or being too hot thanks to wearing too many layers, I just checked out the Yahoo weather forecast for Beijing (interestingly, Yahoo Hong Kong is (ineffectually) blocked from the mainland).

Today's weather: Smoke.

Smoke? I realise Beijing overtook Mexico City in the pollution stakes some time ago (though it's still not the most polluted city in the world, that's some industrial pit in near Manchuria or something), but "smoke"? As a weather forecast?

Joke Receptacle

Two jokes I have heard recently.

In South Africa, a gold miner was rescued from a disastrous cave-in, but unfortunately one of his legs had to be amputated. The man was distraught.
"Who's going to want a one-legged gold digger?" he wailed.
Suddenly, the phone rang.
"Hi," said a voice, "Paul McCartney here."

---

What's red and white and goes "beep... beep.... beep"?
Arsenal's open-topped bus reversing back into the garage.

Cinema History a Blank Void to Paul Bettany, Apparently

From the Guardian, Paul Bettany on his upcoming appearance in the film adaptation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion:

"I'd love to make a movie that shakes the world and offends people, but I really," he says, with a slow shake of the head, "didn't think it was going to be this one. I think next to The Last Temptation of Christ it's Tonka Toys. Nobody seemed to get offended by Martin Scorsese's movie, no one seemed to get offended when Francis Coppola made a movie where he suggested that the mafia and the Vatican were in cahoots. Nobody picketed that."

Actually Paul, people were offended by and picketed both of those films. However, even they were less offensive than the one you're in, because they were explicitly fiction. Still, nice try.

More Myspace fun

Once again I'm too lazy to code a website properly, so recordings by our instrumental trio, the Tyrell Corporation, can now be heard and downloaded here.

Oh and, er, did I mention that I got engaged recently? Because I did. I'm as surprised as you are.