Mister Ian's Weblog

Blog

  • Vitamin W – Don’t go to the Middle East Without It

    Vitamin W, the W being Wasta.

    What is it?

    It is, as the Kuwait Times says, having the right man in the right place. Connections. Basically the paper is saying that there are unqualified officials in their positions due to their connections not due to merit.

    Isam Bayazidi’s Blog says it well:

    To start with, there is a special type of corruption, that is Wasta (English: a mean, mechanism, medium), and sometimes we even give it a nickname Vitamin Wow ( as it gives power and so). Wasta for those who are unfamiliar with the term is about having someone in a power position do something (legal or illegal) for you (a favor) that couldn’t be done without a wasta. The funny thing is that we don’t usually hide our acts when we use Wasta, but we brag about it, and offer providing the same wasta to people around us to help them out

    dancersHe also mentions in his blog the World Culture Forum which just took place in Jordan. Interesting. I think Jordan is on the vacation list. It is cheap to get to from here and there is even SCUBA.

  • Diving today

    Updated for Friday.

    Nope. Too windy today. Yesterday fog today the wind. Oh well, gives me more time to work as I have too much work to finish before I leave for Canada in five days.

    Thursday: Nope.

    It was very foggy in the morning, meaning you couldn’t see more than 20 meters at times, so our planned departure of 10:00 a.m. was not done, and the dives for today were cancelled. Well, the fog didn’t burn off until about 1:00 p.m.

    The thing is you can dive in the fog of course as it doesn’t get foggy underwater, except inside my mask 😉

    But, if you come up and don’t come up next to the boat, how will they find you, out there waving your marker tube and blowing your little whistle?

    Maybe tomorrow

  • The Proof is In, Mona Lisa was happy

    Mona LisaThey used a computer to analyze the face comparing it to a database of young women’t facial expressions and the verdict is:
    It concluded that the subject was 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful and 2% angry, journal New Scientist was told.

    They go on to say that this type of software could lead to computers that know the user’s mood.

    Here’s the full article.

  • Self Help Guide to Help Coping with Parental Breakup Written by 9 Year Old

    From The Telegraph

    A schoolgirl who was nine years old when she wrote a self-help guide to cope with her parents’ break-up has secured a publishing deal, her mother has said. Libby Rees, now 10, wrote the 60-page book entitled Help, Hope and Happiness, outlining the strategies she used to cope when her mother and father separated three and a half years ago.

    Libby decided to write a list of useful tips for coping with sad situations and then sent off her ideas to various publishers.

    The following day, she was contacted by Aultbea Publishing, who arranged for Libby and her mother to fly to Scotland to sign a publishing deal with the Inverness-based firm, which has also commissioned a further two books from the primary school pupil.

    Libby’s mother, Kathryn Loughnan, said: “We had been out for a walk in the forest and we had been having a chat. She was just saying that every time she threw a stick for the dog she was throwing away something that irritated her.

    “We didn’t really take it seriously at first but she went away, wrote her list and then came back and said she wanted to use the computer. When we got a call from Aultbea I almost couldn’t believe it.”

    Charles Faulkner, who runs Aultbea Publishing, said Libby was the youngest author they had signed up so far.

    Some of the money raised from the sale of the book will go to children’s charity Save The Children.

    Get the book from Aultbea Publishing here.

  • PADI Products

    Update: Apparently PADI in the new year will require all instructors and Divemasters to have one of these gizmos. And apparently they cost about $30. How may PADI instructors are there in the world? Well thousands for sure.


    Seriously with everyone using dive computers do you think anyone would buy this eRDP? Perhaps it can be used for planning surface intervals?

    And for the Palm Pilot, their portable dive log. I don’t think there are many Palm Pilots being sold any more though?

  • Into the Blue, You Can’t Believe Everything You See in Pictures

    Lies all lies. They Photoshopped the photo below to show off his abs. The waist belt on the Halcyon BCD is supposed to be high over the waist, not low on the hips.

    I’m not big on other BCDs with their extra materials and also the cummerbund. Plus they don’t inspire too much confidence with nylon buckles etc.

    BCDs are important. If you don’t have good buoyancy control diving is difficult. I posted previously them it here at the end of the post.
    I am considering buying a Halcyon BCD and have found Halcyon to be very responsive to Emails with my many questions. I’ll put the questions and responses below in a day or two.