Today is Absolutely Today

I have decided to move this blog over to another host – Blogger.

I started this process with Blogsome back in February and I was not quite sure how long I would keep it going. Surprisingly I have kept it going and surprisingly it has been quite enjoyable and therapeutic. While Blogsom have provided a good service and while I really like some of their templates, sometimes the response from their servers is not always as good as I would like and they are certainly not a mainstream provider, or at least not here in the US (they are an Irish company and maybe they are a big thing over there). So after Google bought Blogger it seemed to be a sure indication that Blogger will be around for a while and that it would get plenty of attention and ongoing development. I created a blog at Blogger some time ago and have been maintaining the two side by side. Now I think it is time to cut loose from Blogsome and just use Blogger.

So you will find the same tedious, I mean fascinating, content over at Blogger at the address http://sjwhite.blogspot.com plus you get a picture of me – how good does it get. Adios to Blogsome and hello to Blogger.

There is an excellent interview with Eric Clapton on the BBC Radio 2 site - a two hour interview covering his entire career and commemorating his 60th year. The audio will only be on the web for a week. I am not sure why the BBC are limiting access to just one week, it seems like a very un-BBC thing to do.

Anyway, it is well worth listening to if you are a fan, and indeed I am. However, it did remind me that back in the 70’s Mr. Clapton did voice his support for Enoch Powell’s immigration policies which were by any standards a little extreme for that time and any time. Not the sort of thing that you expect from your rock music guitar legend.

Last Monday night, Clapton and Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker re-united for a Cream concert at the Royal Albert Hall. It sounds like it was a good show, I trust that they filmed it and we will all be able to see the video.

So it was with great dismay that we all learned this morning of the death of Wanky the elephant (an interesting name for an elephant, but we don’t want to go there do we?). I hadn’t really been aware of the elephant dilemma at the Chicago Zoo where it appears that 3 elephants have died in quick succession. Gillian Anderson (of X-Files fame) and PETA have been involved and there’s even an Elephant Free Zoo association to take up the cause. Although it is all very sad and I am no fan of zoos, I don’t think I will lose sleep over the matter. But what I did find interesting was the accompanying announcement that grief counseling was being made available to zoo staff. Now is that a sign of a highly evolved society or what - grief counseling for zoo workers. I wonder if they get it for any animal or if its only for the large mammals – pity those guys in the penguin exhibit, I bet they die like flies and nobody gives their keepers counseling.

Meanwhile today 16 more people were killed by a car bomb in Iraq – I doubt very much if any of the survivors will get grief counseling.