There is overbooking and lots of passengers are simply being bumped off.

I’ve had a stressful month, but in the end it was all well worth it. I spent most of yesterday on my bike dodging rain (and even hail at a couple of times) as I was number-running for my ward, so I’m not quite sure how I found the energy to stay up for the count, but I suspect adrenaline played a large part, replaced after a while by a bit of euphoria.

Yesterday we did a very good job in bucking the national trend and gained four seats off the Tories to put Colchester Council back into no overall control. The first key result was in my ward (Castle) where we saw off the Greens yet again, with my colleague Henry Spyvee increasing our vote as he got re-elected with a bigger majority than me. After that, we were in the Chinese whispers part of the election count with everyone trading box counts and tallies back and forth as we tried to work out how we were doing.

For a while, it seemed like we were going to have a so near and yet so far night as we missed out in Prettygate by 30 votes (after a 9.6% swing to us from the Tories) and in Berechurch by 55 votes (with a 10% swing from Labour) but then came the biggest win of the night as Martin Goss stormed home in Mile End by over 700 votes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a candidate who’s worked as hard as Martin has over the past year and it was a thoroughly well-deserved victory over a member of the Council’s cabinet.

After that, the coin-flips started landing in our favour - Jon Manning followed up on Mark Cory’s win last year to turn Wivenhoe Cross all gold, Laura Sykes won Stanway and then finally, after several recounts, Nigel Offen unseated another member of the cabinet to take Shrub End and leave us all with great big grins on our faces. On top of that, our sitting Councillors all did well and Mark Warner did a great job in Labour’s St Andrew’s heartland with a swing of almost 11%.

As for me, I’m now having my recovery day - my legs are reminding me of how much work they did yesterday - and looking forward to our first new group meeting tomorrow for the 23 of us.

Full results here, if you’re interested.

When the first European ATV was launched to the International Space Station last week, I noticed that it had been named after Jules Verne and wondered if the ones that follow it would be named after authors too. While there are a number of objects and other things named after him in the stars already - both in reality and fiction - I think it’d be fitting for the second ATV to be named after him

So, here are some pictures of the Comedian, Rorschach, Nite Owl, Ozymandias and Silk Spectre from the Watchmen movie.

Of course, as anyone who’s seen series 7 of The West Wing will remember, if the links continue Obama may find it hard to persuade anyone to be his running mate, and if you happen to live near an American nuclear power plant, it might be a good idea to think about moving something soon.

In related news, I’m thinking that what the world needs is an objective ranking of TV show quality, and I’d like to present the Stupid Stick as a way towards developing that objectivity. Basically, the Stupid Stick ranking is a count of the number of times when something happens on screen that can only be explained by the character, writer or both having been hit hard on the head with said stick. For instance, on last night’s Primeval, someone (the blonde girl who was in S Club 7) is part of a team looking for strange creatures and has seen several herself in the past including, it seems, owning one as a pet. She’s on a boat with a couple of other people who are looking for a strange creature in a canal basin. She sees something in the water that rises up towards the boat and then moves away, which scares her. Does she (a) say ‘hey guys, I think I saw something’ to the other people on the boat with her, or does she (b) say nothing - even when her teammates on the boat question her exclamation of shock - and then stand up very close to the edge of the boat thus making it easier for said creature to grab her.

Yes, it’s (b) and we score 1 to the Stupid Stick count. Sadly, my Stupid Stick measuring device just gave up and exploded during a later scene with a conveniently waterproof machine gun.

When I was growing up in the 70s - or before Chernobyl which may be important here - nuclear power was still something exciting, new and not really understood, so I’m sure I can’t be alone in having thought that they generated power from some semi-magical process, something on the lines of making uranium glow and then hooking it up to the National Grid. Indeed, I’m pretty sure I’m not alone, as there are many cases in 60s and 70s sci-fi of electricity from nuclear power being somehow special and different from conventionally generated power.

So, to get to the point, what I’m wondering is how many other people found it a bit of an anticlimax when they discovered how a nuclear power station actually works, and that it’s merely another (and expensive) way to boil water?

BRITONS are leaving the country in record numbers—thanks to spiralling levels of IMMIGRATION

Yes, because of all the immigrants, they’re being forced to become immigrants and it is obviously in no way related to the fact that because of the EU and other changes globally, it’s now far easier (and cheaper) to go and live in another country. It’s clearly because they’ve been forced to do it and not because there are several prime time TV programmes extolling the virtues of going to live abroad and explaining how to do it.

It’s quite interesting to watch these people become what they fear, especially in Spain, where the pattern for so many British immigrants is to live in their own tightly-knit communities, not learning the language, avoiding paying taxes and expecting to be able to access local services in their own language.

And the final word goes to the couple interviewed by the NOTW on their reasons for leaving Britain:

There are also too many foreigners coming in and using up all our resources. We want a better life.

So, one can only assume that when they get to their new country of choice they’ll be off to live in some rural ecotopia where they strive endlessly every day to avoid harming the environment and use only renewable resources.

Which is a very roundabout way of reminding me that this site is now five years old.

But there is one reason for posting here besides that. This quote:

As far as I am concerned if an answer to a question isn’t in the
bible, then the you have no business asking the question.

I just wonder how one is meant to find out if an answer is in the bible without asking a question first? It sounds like some strange parlour game where you not only have to find the right questions to get the answer you need, but also have to be careful not to lose your turn (or possibly parts of your body) by asking a question that the answerer doesn’t know how to respond to.

Anyway, I’m just wishing we had something similar to the caucuses over here - I saw some live coverage from inside a couple early, and they look fun! It’s the sort of thing that could have made the leadership election more fun.

So, not sure if much has actually been decided tonight - which is a good thing, as it’s just 1 out of 50 states - but it’s setting up what looks like an interesting race on both sides.

And remember that Gordon Brown still wants to make us number 1 in this list, not just sharing that title with anybody - we’re still set to get an ID card scheme that would be the “most invasive in the world”, and doesn’t that just make you proud to be British? Don’t worry if it doesn’t, the cameras can’t work out how proud or patriotic you’re feeling at any particular moment. Yet.

First, Strange Maps, which collects interesting, amusing and esoteric maps from all around the world, providing some very interesting perspectives.

Second, Bad Astronomy, which looks at some of the errors, craziness and outright lies that people claim about space, as well as having some wonderful photos from time to time. Entertaining and informative, which is always good.