Andreas Katsulas, the actor who played G'Kar on sci-fi TV series Babylon 5 has died of lung cancer aged 59.

I named this blog after Kosh but G'Kar was my favourite character.

Back in the 80's and early 90's I very clearly remember being told by both my parents and by my school and maybe even by police (via TV?) that I should not ride my bike with headphones on. I'd have thought the reason was dead obvious. I believe this was around the time they were making laws to force you to wear a helmet when riding. Something my parents (rightfully) did anyway. Even though my oldschool Stack-Hat (tm) made me look like a dick. Literally.

Police warning for iPod users:

Police have warned that cyclists should never listen to an iPod while riding unless they have a death wish.

"If you're a cyclist and you want to stay alive, I wouldn't wear an iPod under any circumstances," Assistant Commissioner (Traffic) Noel Ashby told theage.com.au this afternoon.

What I'm finding surprising is that iPods today are being treated as if they're a new thing. And by that, I mean that portable music is being treated like it's a new thing. The way much of the media talk, and many of the articles I read today, you'd think that until the iPod, no-one listened to music on the move. No Walkmans. No Discmans. Nothing before the iPod (tm).

Apple must be wetting their pants with joy that "iPod" has become the new default word for "portable music".

For 20+ years now the danger of riding with headphones on has been an issue and people need to be warned about it now because of iPods? I find it all very very very strange.

But children are strange. Remember I was told about this risk. Even though adults seem to think kids should magically come hard wired with all the logic and experience of 20+ years, they don't. They have to be told.

I have to remind myself that maybe this danger hasn't been widely communicated in school since I remember it. I could forgive a young person for just not thinking about the danger.

Often these days I'll hear a public warning to school kids about something ("don't have your headphones up too loud", "don't have unsafe sex or you will catch something (like a baby, or warts, or a warty baby)", "don't take drugs because they can kill you") and I think, "duh".

But this stuff was hammered into me when I was at school*. Maybe it isn't now. I read a survey recently that some huge percentage of kids didn't think you could catch anything from having sex without a condom. As an 80's kid I find that staggering. But maybe they just haven't been told. They don't have the grim reaper bowling on TV anymore.

* Actually I don't think it was hammered into me. My (high) school had no sex education and drugs were bad mmkay but that's it. My school banned smoking and drinking (even outside of school hours). But they never talked about it. I guess they thought the reasons were obvious.

A school kid has done experiments that have shown that the water in the toilets at a fast food restaurant had less bacteria than the ice used in drinks [via BoingBoing].

Yes, but how much bleach did the toilet water have in it vs. the ice?

I always eat the ice in my drinks at fast-food places. I promise you it has much fewer germs in it than the food.

I said before there were two examples at my work of flexible days worked. I forgot one other example, a recent new employee who works two days a week.

And soon there will be another.

A couple of years back, in a bad patch for my company, I agreed to take a large amount of time off. Two months I believe. Not long after starting this giant holiday I was given some support work, but it was only three days a week. So I agreed to change my arrangement and only work three days a week. I can't remember how long I did this but I think it was for a long time (two or three months?).

It was glorious.

During this time I worked on Walken demos and upgraded the Walken website. I think we did gigs around the time too so I presume we practiced a fair bit too. I remember working out I much prefered working Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so every day was followed by a day off.

I wonder what I would do with all that time now? I know what I should do (paint the house). But what WOULD I do? ;p