I've just been reading on slashdot about a competition, run by Search Guild and Dark Blue, to get the highest Google ranking for the search term ' nigritude ultramarine'. As this site somehow does quite well in Google I thought I'd give it a try. I'm not going to put any effort into it, I'm just interested in how I fare against those who really try.

Full details are here, and so I'm part of the competition, here's the image I have to display:

Inspired by a comment on Daily Kos, this is my prediction of the scene as George W Bush and Dick Cheney arrive for their joint appearance at the 9/11 commission.

Happy Easter

...according to the BBC. Repeat after me, 'I don't have to use it if I don't want to'. FFS, no-one is forcing anybody to sign up - if you don't like the terms and conditions or the way it works, use something else.

After reading about the fire in Manchester's Guardian Underground Telephone Exchange, a formerly secret telephone exchange built 34m underground during in 1954, I decided to do some digging to see what else is out there (digging, get it?). Sorry, I know this will bore some people to tears, but for some reason this really interested me. Well, it seems that the UK is awash with underground tunnels and rooms, some still in use, but many lying disused.

The most widely known are the London Underground tunnels that, for one reason or another, are no longer used. In many cases they are just sealed up, and the stations almost become time capsules, untouched for years. For further reading, Underground History has a very comprehensive write-up and accompanying photos.

Staying in London, there are also an extensive network of tunnels used by the government, some that are officially acknowledged, such as the Cabinet War Rooms, and some that are not. Outside of London there are ancient tunnels in Glastonbury, a secret British Military Installation at Rudloe Manor near Bath, which is rumoured to be the UK Government's new nuclear command centre.

I found a few good sites with extensive information - take a look at Urban Underworld, Darkplaces, Subterranea Brittanica and this page on freerepublic.com.

This link will probably die soon, but over at Google's new beta email site, Gmail, there's a link to a page wishing April a happy birthday, love Paul. Presumably Paul works on Gmail, and April is his other half. How sweet. I wonder if this will start a trend - who can wish their other half a happy birthday in the most public way?