30 Mar 2007
Posted in Comedy at 8:46 am by alby
I heard a comedy show Radio4 last night starring the marvellous Mark Thomas.
A while back the government here brought in a rule saying that you had to get permission to have a protest anywhere near the UK parliament.
So he did; lots and lots of times. He also now holds the world record for number of protests in 1 day (21). It’s a very entertaining show and you can of a listen (for the next week or so) here. If you’d like an idea of why he did this it involves a friend of his and a politically dangerous sponge cake.
Have fun.
[edit: You can also download the show here. I assume the link will last more than the next week]
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Posted in News, Rants at 7:42 am by alby
Iran eh? Wankers.
Anyway that’s a summary of the marvellous unbiased news we’ve all been hammered with over the last week.
Seems some British navy bods got a bit too close to Iran and got told off and now being held there.
Cue obviously dodgy announcements from the captives (well 1 of them anyway) and stupid ramping up of pressure by the Brits.
It’s all very reminiscent of 2 children in the back seat of a car and 1 of them is slightly encroaching on the other. “He’s on my bit!” and the other’s creeping up further by walking his fngers ever closer to the wailer.
Very very silly and our media is being needlessly self-absorbed and jingoistic; but perhaps I should have expected that.
My main concern has been that the Iranians have picked out the woman from the captives to use as their spokesperson; and our media haven’t been much better – I can’t remember the last time I heard anything about the 14 blokes there. Are their lives and freedom not as important as hers?
“But she’s a mum”.
Aren’t they fathers? Does it not matter if they are (hell even if they aren’t)? What weird rule states that mums should be deemed worthy of sympathy but mere sperm donors not?
If you’re going to feel sympathy for anyone feel it for the families back home. The crew got into trouble doing a job that will occasionally get them into trouble; so what?
Have fun.
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26 Mar 2007
Posted in Life, Rants at 10:47 am by alby
We had a newspaper type wotsit through the door over the weekend. But instead of a newspaper it was a rag purporting to tell us the good news about the munificence of god and his minions in dealing with believers. Not too unusual but this was notable for the claims it contained.
The headline was “Aussie Cured of Aids”. Well apart from the poor capitalisation of AIDS the claim deserves to be taken seriously. Surely? Someone’s found a cure for AIDS? We need to know more about this.
The effect was caused apparently by fervant prayer by his friends and local church goers. Surely it was god who effected this remarkable change.
Now I don’t have a problem with people trying to witter on about their religion to me but to push false claims like this is a pretty lowdown sort of thing. Sick people are potentially weak, frightened and desperate. Hardly a state of mind conducive to a rational decision making process.
And just how munificent is this god? He’s an aussie bloke who by his own admission was a prodigal child type who returned to the church only upon discovering his HIV status. But what about the millions of poor africans with the same problem? The majority of them are fervantly religious too. So why is this waster from down under allowed to get better but not these hordes who probably deserve more? A sign of an unjust and capricious deity maybe? Or just a manifestly untrue claim by people using underhand tactics to recruit gullible or desperate folk?
If I sent out literature saying that I’d cured arthritis I’d be asked for evidence and if I couldn’t substantiate my claim I’d be done for professional misconduct; and rightly so. But because these folk are not licensed healthcare bods they can say what they want and get away scotfree. Sigh.
And anyway the last study I saw that looked into prayer as a treatment showed the reverse effect (IE those prayed for did not do as well as those who weren’t). Perhaps indicative of a dependence mindset rather than an independent one? “You get me better, I’ll lie here and try not to help myself because you’re doing it for me”.
[edit: see here]
Have fun.
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23 Mar 2007
Posted in News, Rants at 9:56 am by alby
Today is the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome that eventually led to the EU. Cue wild celebrations throughout the country.
Oh, maybe not.
But why the hell not? There’s too much anti-Euro bollocks from this country. They had a “how are you celebrating?” text thing on the news this morning and people were all being bitchy and negative whilst clearly too pleased with themselves for their level of insight.
Now I can see that the current systems in Brussels are a pain and things are unwieldy and don’t work in a very democratic manner at times but the idea that Europe is a horrible place full of foreigners is the idea I hate.
I’ve been to Europe. I’ve been to Britain too. And Europe is generally a much nicer place with more civilized people (in the main). Their communities function much more impressively than the UK’s, the services are better, the food is better, things are cheaper (generally). So why the hell are people so opposed to having Europe have more influence here? Seems they can’t make anything worse.
And why is it the same bloody minded idiots who slag Europe off and don’t want them “interfering” who also slag the UK off for being expensive, rubbish and the government don’t know what they’re doing? So what’s wrong with getting people who seem to run their own countries perfectly well having a go at running ours? Seems the powers that be can’t win.
Sigh.
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Posted in Life at 8:39 am by alby
…but I didn’t think of it so I shouldn’t really send it in to radio 4.
The idea is changing the clocks forward or back. In autumn you leave things as they are so we all get an hour extra in bed. But the different bit is that in spring you put the clocks forward during the day so we all get 1 hour less at work rather than the annoying 1 hour less sleep.
I think that’s brilliant.
Have fun.
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21 Mar 2007
Posted in Juggling at 10:31 pm by alby
Do you know those times where everyone says one thing but you just fundamentally disagree with them and no-one is ballsy enough to take your side? Or perhaps it actually is that you are the only one screaming “Emperor! Get new clothes; we can see your arse!”
I’ve had a major incidence of this tonight. On rec.juggling there have been 2 vids I’ve watched. First one was Aaron Gregg’s new thing and a nice few minutes it was. Sounded like The White Stripes on the sound too. Nice stuff and very good film-making to top things off. Then I read that people thought the editing was ace but so was the new “Visionbotch” vid. So I downloaded that one to see for m’self.
Hmm. This is one of things that you want to like for the sheer idea of doing something different with good film-making and interesting stuff and odd music but sadly I just can’t say I liked it. Previous of their vids have had the tedious bollocks of making shapes with rings for hours on end (seemingly); this new one had the novel twist of making shapes with cigar boxes instead.
Now I like an occasional bit of pretentious twaddle but this was at my limit soon after it began and fair smashed through that barrier when your man started standing up and laying down boxes on a table; but not singly oh no; he did one in each hand……simultaneously. I know, how is it possible?
Film-makingwise it was pretty good, certainly well up there in the juggling community video releases anyway. Content just did bog all for me. Still, it hasn’t stopped a good dozen folk bigging it up with nary a contrary word. Perhaps it’s just me.
Have fun (regardless of whatever the hell I reckon).
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Posted in Blog at 9:36 pm by alby
I’m glad I instituted pre-mod for comments. So far today I’ve had about 50 spam comments to the site. None ever get through of course which makes me wonder why they bother.
I’ve had some bizarre messages. Most follow the same format of a few words and either loads of links (any more than 1 link in the comment and my site automatically selects them for deletion so I don’t have to worry about them). Or they have no links except in the home page field. Sadly they tend not to have a set IP address; I’ve banned a few IPs because of mass-spammage but I can’t do that for recent ones.
Sigh.
The latest ones have had a variety of messages from the broadcastable “photo of russian girl” to “carts handle adequate” whatever that means as well as a few unbroadcastable not to mention potentially highly illegal site adverts.
Gits.
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Posted in Rants, Work at 10:24 am by alby
I’m sorry but I’m really sick of some of my patients today. I’ve had a succession of miserable bleeders whinging non-stop about their poxy little aches and pains and blowing things massively out of proportion. The this is topped off by a GP referring a lovely man with shoulder pain. But he’s not only got shoulder pain he’s got everywhere pain, “had it for years”, seen everybody in the Health Service more or less and somehow I’m expected to help. I seriously doubt I can offer a jot of new info over what he’s been told before so it means an assessment session, 1 follow-up session plus time to do all the paperwork for someone who’s in totally the wrong place for his problem. I spy a GP wondering just what the hell to do next.
I reckon if we stopped paying invalidity benefits then this sort of chronic rubbish wouldn’t keep happening, certainly not so frequently. My old boss stated that she never saw this sort of patient in South Africa because people needed to be busy and back at work asap. No bonus in being needy.
God, I am becoming more tory.
But possibly only for today.
Have fun.
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20 Mar 2007
Posted in News at 3:23 pm by alby
There is a news story today that says that the passport authorities have given out 10000 passports to fraudulent applications including 2 each to 2 known terrorists. How the hell do they know? Did they get 10000 snarky letters saying “Teehee I lied and you gave me a passport”?
Seems very odd to me. In fact it’s a little sinister because the government bods going on the radio to talk about this are all saying that this is why they need to have face to face interviews before giving out passports and why ID cards are such a cool idea. Seems too stage managed to me.
Have fun.
PS Suggestion for Friday – curry or front-room barbecue?
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19 Mar 2007
Posted in News, People at 1:43 pm by alby
Englishman who is known to drink too much drinks too much at an inopportune moment shock!
The cricket world is a blur with self-righteous indignation when an englishman drank rather a lot the other night. Good heavens what is the world coming to? The English are not known for such are they? Didn’t think so.
Cue lots of excuses – “lots of pressure” being the most common one cited. This man travels the world, gets paid a fortune for playing a silly (if enjoyable) game and is looked up to by young cricketers. Phew tons of pressure there.
Let’s all find excuses for inexcusable behaviour shall we?
Have fun.
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