• Banking disaster man honored by the Queen – The man who lost the personal data of 25mm people is rewarded with a CBE. Does that make any kind of sense? Anywhere other than the civil service he’d lose his job!
• Paris and Berlin ban cafe smoking – Definite progress. Does the reference to Nazi policies in Germany prove that Godwins Law (“As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.”) also applies to the real world?
• The Electric Car Conspiracy … that never was – Interesting film. Given the spread of Smart cars here I have to think that there would be consumer demand for electric cars, which only leaves the conspiracy…

And welcome to the new look ZX81.org.uk! This time I decided to go “back to basics” with a relatively simple, low-graphics theme. Having said that, it’s not quite as basic as things were back in late 1999 when the site first went live¹. It’s less fussy than the old version and should load more quickly for those people not yet on broadband.

The boring details are: I’m using a slightly modified version of Dagon Design’s NightSky theme for WordPress. Other than a fairly extensive set of plugins, changes were to bring the theme in line for tags and to allow a daringfireball-style “linked list” rather than the rather more static del.ic.io.us list I had previously.

• Ex-BBC DJ Greening dies aged 44 – Kevin Greening was the best thing to happen to the Radio 1 Breakfast Show for years. Shame he only lasted a year. Very sad to hear of his premature death.
• The Megapixel Myth – More on the myth that more megapixels makes better pictures.
• Ban helps more smokers quit habit – It wasn’t until I went to The Netherlands last week that I remembered how nasty and smoky British pubs and restaurants used to be.
• The more pixels, the worse the images – The mega-pixel race has been hurting consumers, and is one of the reasons that I’ve been more than happy to stay with “only” 6MP on my Canon EOS 300D.

This weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Best of 2007.” This is my entry.

This is what I consider to be my best picture of 2007¹ which, of course, isn’t exactly what the theme suggests. It was taken in Wadi Rum, Jordan.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Sunrise.” I’m entry number 59.

This weeks PhotoFriday theme is “Sunrise.” Here is my entry. This was taken after a night-time climb up Mount Sinai in Egypt. Hard work but worth it in the end!

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Primitive.” I’m entry number 68.

Today we do the famous parts of Cairo: the pyramids and the Egyptian museum which includes remains from various burials, most famously Tutankhamen. (I always think of a cartoon: a pyramid door with a horn and the sign “toot and come in.”)

The traffic makes itself known again, making the journey across town take some time. But the pyramids appear suddenly behind other much newer and less grand buildings. That’s the first surprising thing: you hear that they stand right next to Giza but you don’t realise just how close.

The funny thing about Alexandria is that the all the things that it’s famous for are no longer in one piece; it’s a city famous for what it was.

First stop are some Roman ruins, a small but well preserved amphitheatre. One spooky part is a spot in the middle where your voice gets amplified, you hear back anything you say with a slight delay.

Next stop: catacombs. These were the tombs of a rich, egyptianised Roman. Most interesting was some of the art work which combined Roman and Egyptian style, sometimes with errors (deliberate or accidental?), such as only three jars next to the mummy (there are supposed to be four for the internal organs of the deceased) and the dead having head-gear normally reserved for gods.

As we approach the capital I feel my life hovering in front of my eyes as the near-death experiences merge into one.

The bus continually lurched from lane to lane, overtaking on which ever side seemed the most convenient at the time, braking and accelerating heavily as obstacles loomed and evaporated. At one point we’re overtaking on a blind corner only to find a man in the middle of the lane carrying a tire towards a broken-down car. The look of horror on his face is going to stay with me for a long time. Our driver is unfazed and laughs as he flicks the bus over into the next lane. Honestly, I’m not sure whether it’s the best driving I’ve ever seen or the worst, but either way it’s surprising that you don’t see more Egyptian Formula 1 drivers.

The alarm call comes much too early at 1am. I head down for some tea and then to the mini-bus for the short ride to the start of the walk up Mount Sinai, the location believed by the three major religions, to be where Moses received the ten commandments from god. No such grand scheme here: by leaving at this ungodly hour I should see the sunrise from the top.