• This case must not obscure what WikiLeaks has told us – Another good piece about WikiLeaks. The news about Assange is starting to obscure the real news.
• Live with the WikiLeakable world or shut down the net. It’s your choice. – “What WikiLeaks is really exposing is the extent to which the western democratic system has been hollowed out. In the last decade its political elites have been shown to be incompetent; corrupt; or recklessly militaristic. And yet nowhere have they been called to account in any effective way. Instead they have obfuscated, lied or blustered their way through. And when, finally, the veil of secrecy is lifted, their reflex reaction is to kill the messenger.”

Given the sub-zero temperatures that we’re experiencing in the UK, this weeks PhotoFriday theme, “Chill,” is very appropriate. I can’t, however, really use one of the pictures I took earlier this week¹ so instead this one was taken in January this year in our first snows of 2010.

I didn’t post an entry to last weeks challenge so there’s no need to feel bad for not voting for me(!).

• It’s not an arsenic-based life form – Apparently ET is not visiting any time soon but it’s still pretty cool.
• Julian Assange, defending our democracies (despite their owners’ wishes) – Nice piece about WikiLeaks and why, despite what some politicians will tell you, it’s a good thing.

It seems that the weather is not without a sense of irony¹. In the year that is the hottest on record, in the UK we’re having a very early cold snap, complete with snow.

I did think that it was all archive footage, since the papers were full of coverage yet there was no snow at all in London. And then this morning the pavements were covered. When I went out for a bite to eat at lunchtime I took my camera with me…

It may be a silly idea, but that’s never stopped me before. Yes, travelling to Holland would be the thirteenth year where I’ve spent some or all of November out of the country.

I decided on The Hague for a few reasons. First, it would be short. I was starting a new job so I couldn’t take very much time off work. The Netherlands is just a short flight from London so there was no need to try to ask for a day off in the first few weeks! Secondly, I spent a few days in Den Haag in 2007. Unfortunately it was in December and I was working a little way out of the city centre. I wandered around after dark, looking for somewhere decent to eat but otherwise saw very little. It did look pretty, though, so I flagged it for a later visit.

Late to the party again, but I finally found what I think is a suitable image for this weeks PhotoFriday challenge, “Vivid.” This picture was taken so long ago that it’s actually on film (remember that?). It’s in Tromso, Norway. I thought the colours of the buildings and sky were very bright, deep and vivid contrasted with the snow.

• The religious excuse for barbarity – “No, we don’t respect your desire to needlessly torment animals because some hallucinating desert nomads did it centuries ago. We don’t respect it at all. You can cry that we are “persecuting” you if we stop you committing acts of cruelty if you want.”
• Penn & Teller – Penn (of Penn and Teller fame) protests the new TSA rules.

Having spent a good couple of hours looking around Kyoto I decided it was time to get out and head to Nara.

Actually it wasn’t nearly so dramatic. Nara is only an hour away on the train and it’s a much smaller, though culturally nearly as important, place. I’d be back in Kyoto in time for sunset at the Silver Pavilion.

Two things that immediately stood out were the long, shady lanes lined with these lanterns. The paths invariably had long lines of school children, some of whom would try their English on me. Even in fragments it was always way better than my Japanese.

Having “done” the big city and the nature, it was time to take in some culture. Kyoto and Nara are the “old” parts of Japan with many of the most beautiful and most famous temples. I didn’t see all of them but I did pretty well! The difference in character between them was fascinating.

Pretty much straight off the Shinkansen I headed to Kiyomizudera. This was, by far, the busiest and most crowded temple of the trip¹. Quite an odd atmosphere for a temple in any case.

When I travel I don’t normally take a laptop with me¹. Too big; too heavy; too fragile; too expensive; too inconvenient.

But the iPad is different. It’s smaller and lighter. The fact that it’s limited compared with my MacBook wasn’t going to a problem as I only had two main use cases for it: reading and downloading my photos.