I’ve found myself being repeatedly annoyed by the stories recently about people in Toyota cars suffering from “Unplanned Acceleration”, where the card supposedly won’t slow down. All of the drivers keep on saying that they were using the brakes but not slowing down, and I’ve always wondered why those drivers don’t just turn off the engine, or put the car in neutral.

I still don’t get why they can’t put the car in neutral and coast to a stop, but I do understand more about why they can’t turn off the engine or pull the key out.  Put simply, it appears there isn’t a key. The cars involved all appear to have these keyless start buttons.

I’d never really thought of keyed ignitions as a safety feature, but it sure seems like it might become one…

[Updated, 13th March : This YouTube video shows how to fix the problem of 'Unplanned Acceleration' in epic style. Love it.]

Two stories in the same day…  [UPDATED : OK, as Andy C points out in the comments, they weren't on the same day, just one linked from the other, and I can't read...]

Number One : Jon Venables, one of the two who killed James Bulger, is taken back to prison “for breaching the terms of his licence”. People are surprised, one quote being

“He could have been recalled on licence if he committed an offence, it could be that he returned to Merseyside, it could be he might have approached the family. There is no evidence so far that he did any of these things.”

Number Two : Denise Fergus, the mother of James Bulger, tells how she found Robert Thompson, the other one who killed James Bulger, and stood within twenty feet of him, although she couldn’t confront him.

Mrs Fergus said it was now her aim to find Venables and track him down in the same way.

I wonder if there’s a connection? Particularly if the News of the World is in on the act/witchhunt…

In yet another “Well that’s not really news, is it?” moment, the Food Standards Agency have said that – shock, horror – food in cinemas isn’t all that healthy. Who’d have thought.

The nutrition watchdog is concerned about the portion sizes of cinema snacks which are often high in fat, sugar or salt

So popcorn, being served in either salted or sweet ‘flavours’ – amazingly that might be high in fat and sugar or salt. What a revelation.  Next they’ll be telling me that those hotdog things aren’t good for you either…

Another month, another episode of Crimewatch.

What I don’t get with Crimewatch is how it gets away with

• Glamourising crimes – and usually violent ones
• Making crime and violence into entertainment.

I dunno, maybe I’m just too cynical.

On the local news just now, there was a story about Cambridgeshire county council workers protesting against cuts and job losses within the council. (We’ll currently gloss past the fact that a good 50% of  the workforce for any local authority are useless workshy cunts – or at least that’s my experience of council work, anyway)

The chant that was being used by protestors was :

“Sack the bankers
Not the workers”

Which isn’t quite rhyming slang – but I assume that “sack the bankers, not the wankers” wasn’t quite the message they were trying to convey…

One of the more bizarre stories this weekend was about the BNP (British National Party) voting to change its rules on membership, and allow non-whites to be members.

They’ve had to do this as part of an equality ruling – unsurprising, for a racist organisation – but still, it’s pretty damn funny.

Mind you, I’d love to now see a non-white person or two joining the BNP, just to sit in on the meetings, sit there smiling and truly fucking with their heads.

And of course when it gets to the “Send ‘em back where they came from” section of the meeting, just asking them if they know how much a ticket to [town of birth] costs.