Oh, Well...

It might have been a wonderful trip, that vacation that Debbie and I were planning to take to the U.K. one of these fine days.  There are so many beautiful places there that I'd like to share with her.

But it looks like I may be banned from entering the U.K...

Checking In...

Well, we had a fantastic event at Knowledge12 earlier this week.  As always, I had a chance to meet and talk with many customers, partners, and colleagues – learned a lot, and hopefully helped a few people.  I presented at one lab (on “field normalization”) and helped with four others.  These were all really great labs – we got lots of positive feedback and enthusiasm from the attendees.  I was overwhelmed with the size and polish of the event – it no longer feels like amateur hour; instead, it looks like something put on by Microsoft or Oracle.  Totally awesome!

Right after the event, I hopped on an airplane for the U.K., where I'll be meeting with a bunch of our customers this coming week to talk about our Discovery and Runbook products.  I arrived early Saturday morning, which means I had the weekend to decompress a little after Knowledge12.  If you know me at all, you know that my idea of decompression normally involves walking and nature.  I'm staying in Twickenham, which is just a few minutes by train from Kew Gardens, and that's where I've spent the bulk of the past two days.  I brought my Fujifilm X100 over with me, and I took over 600 photos in the gardens.  The rock gardens, alpine house, rhododendrons, azaleas, bluebells, and Paulownia collections were my favorite parts – though the entire gardens are so beautiful that it's hard to choose.  Just a few of my favorites below...

Rock garden

Note the peacock!

Geese are everywhere!

Jade vine

Al Megrahi Release - More...

The Wall Street Journal is very suspicious about the motives for the recent release of Al Megrahi (the Lockerbie bomber):

But Mr. Straw's distinction is the real red-herring: Regardless of which legal fig-leaf Mr. MacAskill chose to employ in releasing Megrahi, the Brown government made clear to Edinburgh, repeatedly, that the issue of Megrahi was subordinate to the U.K.'s "overwhelming interests" in improving the relationship with the Gadhafis. We also know from Libyan officials that those "interests" included commercial oil contracts.

As Scottish Nationalists, Mr. MacAskill and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond might seem unlikely to bow to the British government's wishes. But then we don't know what Scottish "interests," if any, Mr Brown may have put into play to persuade the Scots. Or perhaps Mr. Straw figured that if he muttered "who will rid me of this turbulent prisoner" enough times, the Scots would get the message. Mr. Brown's blanket denials of any involvement by his government in the affair have already proven to be false, and the public deserves to know whether there was, or was not, a quid pro quo.

This is starting to look like a major flapadoodle in UK politics...