Speaking of lonely-hearts ads, my next attempt to use an affiliate programme to add to my income has just gone online. After the success of ringamoby.com, which is making about £130 a month net profit, I thought I'd try another. This one is an online dating agency, findaflame.com. I'm keeping registration prices low at the moment since there are so few members yet, and maybe permanently, depending on how the economics works out. So, if you're single and need a partner, why not give it a try?

One thing about both of these sites: they cost me money to set them up, and on my money page I say that I don't like schemes where you need to pay up front to join. Is this a contradiction? I'm not sure. These sites qualify on the basis that there is a genuine product, not just sales nonsense or copyright text for sale. As genuine businesses, some set-up costs are to be expected. It is not the same as a "pay to join" or "pay me for this great info which I am not going to tell you anything useful about until you cough up" sort of thing.

Here's a funny news story: A struggling tea-shop owner in China helped her business along by placing lonely-hearts ads, and arranging for the rendezvous to be in her tea shop. She would always order the most expensive food, and was eventually arrested when she ordered kitchen staff to beat up a suitor who asked for a discount!

There's money in consultancy. The University in Bradford has paid
GBP21000 to a consultancy to come up with a suitable name for it. The
consultancy has come up with three possibilities:

Bradford University
University of Bradford
The University of Bradford

Need a job, anybody?

I was amused to see, briefly, before the BBC quickly cut to a more polite
scene, a bunch of Iraqis holding up a sign saying, "Go home US human
shields, you wankers."

I suppose the HS's were well-meaning, but I hope they will get a clue from
scenes like this: naive pacifism is the road to slavery, not freedom. Need I
say more?

I see that the allies are expressing outrage about the Iraqi violations of the Geneva Convention, in which captured US soldiers have been shown on TV. I didn't see it, but I understand that one soldier was shown being interrogated and was obviously afraid, and another was clearly badly injured (blood was visible). I don't support this treatment of prisoners of war, but I think that the allied whining about it is hypocritical. I have seen Iraqi POWs on the TV several times in this war, with their faces clearly visible, and nobody that I heard complained about that. That too was a violation of the Geneva Convention. Then again, during the war on Afghanistan, I remember seeing POWs packed tightly in a prison. I remember seeing one kneeling on the sand, hands tied behind his back, being interrogated by a CIA officer. That was in contravention of the Geneva Convention as well. Next, we have the US prison camp, "Camp X-Ray" at Guantanamo Bay, in which the prisoners are defined as "combatants" but not as "POWs" by the US so they can be held without access even to lawyers, including people who are almost certainly not terrorists. So, allies, make up your minds: do you support the Geneva Convention, or do you only support it when it suits you?

I see people are still saying the war in Iraq is not justified, and some 150,000 to 250,000 (depending on who you listen to) marched in London yesterday on this basis. Even the pope is against it. But... I am still convinced that the war is a (relatively) good thing. Nobody is denying that the Iraqi government is causing the deaths of 150-200 people per day on average (55-75k per year). Around one family in three in Iraq has had a family member tortured or killed by the Iraqi government. Recently one witness reported seeing 30 people executed by being fed into a plastic shredding machine (a bit like a meat mincer). Another report described tortured prisoners being killed with what appeared to be mustard gas sprays, including a 12 year-old boy. And the war isn't justified? I think it is.

OK, the war has started. Good, I think: the sooner Saddam is removed from power, the sooner he will stop killing people. I see that a big anti-war rally is planned for tomorrow, but I feel that this is disloyal, and moreover, dangerous. The anti-war people have lost the fight for "peace" (at the expense of innocent Iraqis), and any anti-war rallies now will only give encouragement to the other side, and thereby increase the risks for our own troops.

Right! I've finally added some short stories to the Tucana site; they can be accessed via the Sci-Fi Novel page.

So, the war in Iraq still hasn't happened yet. Should it? And shouldn't it be a war against Iraq, rather than in Iraq? Anyway, given that Saddam is causing the deaths of some 150-200 people per day, that is, 55,000 to 75,000 per year, it seems like a good idea to me. Leave him in power for another (say) 10 years and let some 500,000 people die, or get rid of him now at a cost of say 100,000 lives (as per the official figures from the last war) and save 400,000. The arithmetic speaks for itself.

But what of the possible consequences? The end of the United Nations? Well, if it doesn't work, do we need it? Perhaps it is time to discard it and come up with a better, less corrupt and less corruptible system. After all, do we really respect the opinion of countries like China (of Tiananmen Square fame)? Or France (whose premier, Chirac, has said he will veto a war against Iraq no matter what)? Or Russia (prosecuting a very dubious war in Chechnya)? Each of which countries stands to gain from oil deals with Iraq if sanctions are lifted and Saddam stays in power, but not otherwise? What if there is a new anti-Western jihad? Well, I hope not, but we would win it in the end, at a cost of perhaps 20,000,000 lives. Not worth it, unless the risks to democracy and freedom are greater by not fighting it, of course. What are the odds of jihad? Small, is my guess, based on nothing much. So, worth it again, if my guess is right (you have to play the odds, I think, but more than my hand-waving would be needed to figure out just what those odds are).

Hmm... yes, but photos can be "art" anyway...

Well, 'tis done anyway. I think it needs the names anyway (See yesterday's blog (below) if you don't know what I'm on about). Now, I just need to decide where to host the site. Tucana is getting a bit full... Wherever it is to be, it has to be free, or already paid for, anyway.

That's a lot of anyways. Anyway... next.

Ringamoby made GBP230 in February (the previous "last month" figure turned out to be for January). Well, it is getting there, but one of the pay-per-click advertisers, Overture, is increasing its rate so I doubt that it will be profitable - I will probably have to drop them and rely on Google AdWords for my advertising exclusively. That may mean fewer visitors, but on the other hand, it seems that only about 1 in 5 visitors are coming via Overture's service anyway.

Still pondering "Sinkland"... got a few photos already. I'm wondering if I should name the continents with on-picture text, or not. Hmm... I think I should. Yeah. Then it becomes "art" doesn't it?

I'm thinking of adding some short stories to the web site today. I'm also thinking of adding "Sinkland", a page of pictures taken of the soapy continents and galaxies that form in my bathroom washbasin. I might even paint some of them...

If you're looking for windows wallpapers, http://www.nationalgeographic.com might be a good place to look. They have lots of great photos.

Well, Chapter 11 (version 1) of the sci-fi novel is done. Yesterday I started on a small painting. Should be finished in a few days, then I'll try and figure out how to sell it, post it to the customer if any :-) and start thinking of what the next painting might be.

I was reading "Consciousness" by Rita Carter yesterday, and discovered that scientists think that our brains can actually do some of the amazing things that so far only autistic savants and the occasional genius seem able to do, such as multiplying large numbers, recording scenes in detail, remembering and calculating timetables and so on. The difference with normal folk is that our brains have built-in filters to prevent the results of those computations reaching consciousness! So, when you look at some dodgy maths on the page, your brain will have computed the answer in a flash, but you're not allowed to become aware of the answer!! It is thought that the filters are in place because your consciousness would quickly become overwhelmed by needless info: a person can only hold around 5 items in awareness simultaneously, and how many apes need to know the technical details when being chased down by a lion anyway? Consciousness seems to be needed for broader judgements. Still, ever since the invention of writing, and perhaps a bit before then, such abilities would have been pretty useful (if they could be switched on and off at will). However, that period of time is a tiny fraction of the time that our lineage has been in existence, so natural selection hasn't had long enough to do anything much about it anyway. So for now, all that capability is being edited out of our awareness. Sigh.

OK, I've just gone out and bought a whole load of painting kit. It set me back £150, and no doubt I've forgotten something, so we'll see how it goes. Mind you, I'll still be unhappy to sell a painting outright: I'm such a hoarder. On the other hand, it will make it interesting to see my stuff spreading around the world and getting lost. I'll keep a digital record with my trusty digital camera anyway.

Ringamoby.com earned me a gross £180 for last month. That may be a small net profit: I won't know until I go through my bank statements and check how much the advertising has cost... could be months before I know: usually I only go through my bank statements when my tax return needs to be done ;-)

So, how's the old sci-fi novel coming along Martin? Well, not bad. I've just finished chapter 10 (first draft). I guess I'm averaging about a chapter a year so far :-) but I'm writing much more lately since I'm off work at the moment.

Actually, I'm trying to retire from regular JOB (Just Over Broke) type work and am hoping to become a property tycoon instead. Anybody want to buy a nice 4-bed 2/3 reception 2 bathroom end-terrace Victorian house suitable for letting or conversion in Leyton E10? £250k to you (offers considered). You can check out the spec on http://www.rightmove.co.uk

I'm also considering taking up the old painting again, this time to supplement my living and not just for the archives. I just balk at the expense of buying all that paint and stuff... It could set me back several quid!

Hmm... well, this blogger thing is working, but I've had a few hiccups with it so far - like what's happened to the other stuff I typed? Anyway, I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon enough.

Now. I can't help wondering if I'm just a sucker for whatever the powers that be want me to believe. But then again, we'll never know, will we? All the news you and I hear is second hand, that is, hearsay. Colin Powell's "evidence" at the UN was no better. He could have been showing pictures of anywhere, at any time, or cartoons drawn by schoolchildren. Who would know the difference? I think that one just has to make a judgement as to which is more likely to be true: which people are lying the most.