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Hacking at the joint Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Matt C" journal:

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July 13th, 2009
03:05 pm

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What the hell is this stuff btw? )

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July 5th, 2009
09:54 pm

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The Power of Nightmares
Has anyone else seen this BBC documentary series about Al Qaida and the Neoconservatives?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2798679275960015727
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4602171665328041876
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2081592330319789254

Might be worth looking at if all you can think of watching is Family Guy episodes or porn with a cool soundtrack....

*cough* Aythan *cough*

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July 2nd, 2009
09:11 pm

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2 months left
I somehow managed to get a cold in this ridiculously hot summer we are having (not helped by the fact that sunlight lasts for more than 18 hours here)

However: I am coming back to live in Edinburgh in 2 months! (so I will thankfully be avoiding the coming days with 6 hours of sun this time)

Out of interest: does anyone else follow Jim Rogers, Peter Schiff or Max Keiser?

Stuff that they say about economics and investing seems to be fairly common sense and rest on things which are fundamental anyway (although I tend to take Mr Keiser's emotive rantings with a pinch of salt)

I've also recently read a book called 'The Grand Chessboard' written by Zbigniew Brzezinski (former US National Security Advisor) in 1997, where he talks about the need for the US to gain influence in all the 'stan' countries in Central Asia, like Afghanistan, but especially the newly independent ones like Uzbekistan. I think I still need to digest that a bit though.

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June 8th, 2009
11:46 pm

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Uncharacteristically uncontroversial
Reductio ad absurdum one of my favourite forms of argument.

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May 28th, 2009
08:26 pm

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Draw an MS Paint of what you wanted to be when you were six years old compared to what you are now
I tag Alice, Eva, Guy, Geth, Leanne and Chazpants )

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May 24th, 2009
12:05 pm

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Indefinite Detention Without Trial
IT'S A TRAP

Do I get to shout 'Wake up sheeple!' at the top of my lungs yet?

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May 15th, 2009
08:01 pm

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Irresponsible media
You know, I think it is really irresponsible the fact that respectable main stream media outlets like The Guardian have reporters admitting that the secretive elitist Bilderberg Group exists. It just drives delusional conspiracy theorists like me nuts, especially when the reporter in question makes an appearance on the Alex Jones' delusional conspiracy theory radio show talking about how he was detained by the police for being in the general area of the meeting and is being followed the day afterwards.

On a serious note, the existence of groups like the Bilderbergers really does blow away the idea of the 'Yes Minister' model of what goes on behind the curtains in power structures around the world.

(I will add the disclaimer that Alex Jones doesn't speak for me and I don't agree with him on everything, but he is a very good source of information and links to official documents and newspaper articles)

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May 5th, 2009
04:06 pm

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Random words about dialect
I just worked something out that had been puzzling me for some time. Thanks Wikipedia!

I've shown myself to be quite easy to influence in terms of accent for pretty much my whole life - I have a memory from when I was tiiiiny of some kids in the playground laughing at my pronunciation of 'bug' ('oh' instead of 'uh') which I had learned up from my mother (who grew up in Cheshire).

Later on when I had been living in Edinburgh for a few years, I started to sound a bit more scottish and northern english because of the 'new' dialects I was interacting with. This fact was reported by my southern relations and friends without fail, but I also had another rather odd set of comments about me sounding like a devonshire farmer, which collectively left me nonplussed due to my lack of acquaintances from the south west (with strong accents anyway).

Anyway, from I read today, what could be the answer is simply that I moved from a non-rhotic region to a rhotic region, was influenced by the 'r's, but retained enough of my original accent to sound generally southern therefore placing me in the southwest to some ears.

hrrrrm

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April 21st, 2009
10:26 pm

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Palestine Israel conflict
From a conversation I had with a pro Israel colleague about Israel Palestine posted here because I love recalling pwning people in arguments )

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10:09 am

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You may have heard about the verdict against Sweden's Pirate Bay. There seems to have been a bit of a reaction to it (people are saying it is incompatible with Sweden's constitution) and some of my Norwegian friends were asking me to join in a ddos attack on the IFPI website (my particular version of it had a suggestion to make the message text "NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP").

I also heard on the radio this morning that Sweden's "Piratpartiet" (Pirate Party) had swelled in rank to more than 30,000 (basically more than doubling overnight) and that the Norway's own pirate party was fast closing on the 5000 signatures needed to become a recognised political entity here.

My personal view is that the injustices of this verdict will probably somehow stick or at least manage to make life difficult for the founders of Pirate Bay for some time and in the end the commotion will probably die down. I would also predict that new ways of distributing music legally for example Spotify (and, I hate to say it, i tunes, for different reasons) will probably both decimate the ranks of the pirates and cut away a lot of the fat from the music industry dinosaurs.

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April 10th, 2009
04:37 pm

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Global Warming not Due to CO2 Emissions
NASA employee to get in trouble with 'Settled Science' boss

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April 9th, 2009
04:30 pm

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American Left Finds out Obama Worse than Bush for Privacy
O SHI...

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April 8th, 2009
01:13 am

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Is there literally no limit to how retarded PETA gets?

This one gets a general *facepalm* from me. Don't watch the video, it's stupid.

< completely unrelated >

The SEO Rapper

Loooool! (These are actually really good tips too)

(11 comments | Leave a comment)

March 20th, 2009
01:39 am

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House of cards
Can anyone show me how what the central banks are doing is not a house of cards?

I haven't been following the mainstream news apart from glancing at the financial newspapers that are left in the office - it's funny how this guy that owns a shipping firm here is always calling people 'thieves and traitors' lately haha. Any insight is appreciated.

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March 16th, 2009
12:17 pm

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contagious cross-web-platform memeage
Leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember. Don't send a message, leave a comment on here. Next, re-post this and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses...

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March 8th, 2009
10:21 pm

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Burning The Hijab
I translated another Norwegian newspaper article. I think she kind of looks like a bit of a political opportunist, but it is interesting to think about the general public opinion she is reflecting. So I found this a bit sad and funny at the same time:

Burning The Hijab )

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February 14th, 2009
12:50 am

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*Geekgasm*
matt@cr4k:~$ date +%s
1234568929


I caught the time at 1234568929 seconds past the Unix Epoch because 'The Google' reminded me of the auspicious event. I think it would probably have been more difficult (and geeky) to catch it at:

matt@cr4k:~$ date +%s
1234567890


(I would have had to have remembered it for one thing)

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January 18th, 2009
10:45 pm

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It's snooowiiiiing! )

I don't think I will ever get over how awesome snow is.

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December 15th, 2008
08:30 pm

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How other countries view our big brother state:
To stay in practice, I translated an article from a Norwegian IT industry newspaper which I get in my postbox every week (Computer World)

Read more... )

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December 12th, 2008
04:13 pm

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Christmas/New Year
Hai guise!

I booked my train ticket from London to Edinburgh a while ago and didn't really think too much about the timing. Anyway, is there someone around on the 27th of December in the evening or are you all coming back later? (You could also leave me the date you are arriving in the comments or send me a message so I can plan my trip better)

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