Author: Dave

Acute observation

I read an online comic called Bunny, which is usually pretty esoteric, but in the cartoon from yesterday they make the kind of pointed observations that I love seeing interjected into the generally ludacris public debate on terrorism:

“Bomb” attacks: Deaths:0, Cost: the same amount of council tax as usual.

Current flash flooding in the UK: Deaths: 6, Cost: Estimated to exceed 1 billion pounds.

Which one is seen as the biggest threat to the UK? The one that was foiled by Civilian emergency services, traffic wardens, concrete bollards, and members of the public.

Get over it

I must admit to being frankly perplexed by the whole Diana anniversary thing.

It’s been ten years. She’s dead. It’s sad, but surely by now you should have built a bridge and gotten over it?! That after this length of time you can still fill Wembley stadium with people to commemorate her (although the cynical part of me says that perhaps some of the people may have been there solely because there were some good acts performing), and that it gets top story on the news for several days running, seems to me to show a disappointing misdirection in the communal psyche. She did some worthwhile things, and died tragically early, but you don’t see this kind of thing for dead Nobel peace laureates, or rock stars or (god forbid) politicians/diplomats/scientists etc who’s works actively improved everyday life…

<sigh>

I finally get it

One of the amusing features of getting old is that it seems to take longer and longer to become aware of and take up the emerging cultural trends of the day. My first recallection of this was when the whole “Bling” phenomenon passed me by for about 5 months before I became aware of it (not that that really constituted a big loss for me, or the rest of society for that matter).

I have generally put it down to the fact that you spend all day working and not randomly surfing the net or gossiping with vacuous 15 year old girls (who unfortunately seem to originate and perpetuate many of these “trends”).

As a result I have been amused to realise that after several years of reading about them and hearing everyone go on about how it’s the new hot thing, I finally seem to “get” the internet phenomenons of Youtube and Facebook.

I had in the past looked at a few videos on youtube, but had never gone beyond linking in to look at a specific video, and then leaving again. I just didn’t get the whole fun of jumping from video to tenuously related video and seeing where it took me, or watching (usually only parts of) unbelievably bad video blogs. Perhaps its the acquisition  of higher speed broadband that has changed it for me (less loading lag time) but I’ve now found quite a lot of fun in link-surfing around Youtube. I’ve also decided that it’s a great system for putting video on my blog (as seen recently in my Youtube Stumbles regarding Harry Potter) without having to bother with setting up my own streaming video server – watch for more videos of Jack soon.

Facebook also was something I saw people using and didn’t get. I couldn’t see the point. I could email people quite adequately already, why would I need to do it through a website for everyone else to see as well? But in a fit of curiosity a few weeks back I signed up and now I can’t seem to go 12 hours without checking whether I’ve got new friends, or new photos have been added, or someone’s changed their status, or written on my wall. It’s unbelievably compulsive. It also makes sitting in my study being boring and reading anatomy seem immensely less socially isolating than it was only a month ago.

So it’s only taken  me a few years to get with the program, but I’m finally here.

If you are using facebook as well and want to add me as a friend, you should be able to locate me with either my gmail or hotmail addresses.

Best Bush T-shirts

On a site that posts the kind of internet humor that regularly ends up in your email inbox in the form of FWD:fwd:re:Fwd… <insert caption here>, I found the following amusing little list of best Bush T-shirts. My favorites are 1, 16 and 18.

Best Bush T-Shirts

Posted February 11, 2007

1) (On an infant’s shirt): Already smarter than Bush.

2) 1/20/09: End of an Error!

3) That’s OK, I Wasn’t Using My Civil Liberties Anyway

4) Let’s Fix Democracy in This Country First

5) Bush. Like a Rock. Only Dumber.

6) You Can’t Be Pro-War And Pro-Life At The Same Time

7) If You Can Read This, You’re Not Our President

8) Hey, Bush Supporters: Embarrassed Yet?

9) George Bush: Creating the Terrorists Our Kids Will Have to Fight

10) Impeachment: It’s Not Just for Blowjobs Anymore

11) America : One Nation, Under Surveillance

12) They Call Him “W” So He Can Spell It

13) Which God Do You Kill For?

14) Jail to the Chief!

15) Who Would Jesus Torture?

16) No, Seriously, Why Did We Invade?

17) Bush: God’s Way of Proving Intelligent Design is Full Of Crap

18) Bad president! No Banana.

19) We Need a President Who’s Fluent In At Least One Language

20) We’re Making Enemies Faster Than We Can Kill Them

21) Rich Man’s War, Poor Man’s Blood

22) Is It Vietnam Yet?

23) Bush Doesn’t Care About White People, Either

24) Where Are We Going? And Why Are We In This Handbasket?

25) You Elected Him. You Deserve Him.

26) Impeach Cheney First

27) Dubya, Your Dad Shoulda Pulled Out, Too

28) When Bush Took Office, Gas Was $1.46/gal!

29) The Republican Party: Our Bridge to the 11th Century

30) 2004: Embarrassed – 2005: Horrified – 2006: Terrified

31) Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

Cheers Big Ears (Part 2)

You sass that hoopy Douglas Adams? Now there’s a frood who knew where his towel was.

If you understood even half of that preceeding sentence you would probably appreciate the concept of International Towel Day (May 25th), where you are encouraged to carry your towel, and appreciate all those wonderful things that Douglas Adams brough into our lives.

Having recently re-read the increasingly inaccurately named Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy (a trilogy in 5 parts) I love the idea, and can’t wait for the opportunity to wear my towel and wave my elecrtonic thumb.