Nigerian Gas/Oil
Posted: Thu 25 June, 2009 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Weirdness Leave a comment »Will someone please tell me that the new company name in this story is a joke? That the story was perhaps meant to be released on April 1st?
I find it hard to believe that anyone would seriously come up with the business name Nigaz for a Nigerian Gas/Oil company…
New Speaker
Posted: Mon 22 June, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Thoughts Leave a comment »I notice in the hustings for the new Speaker for the House of Commons, Ann Widdecombe said
the next Speaker had to be “known” to voters, and had to be someone ‘trusted’ by the public
So – not a politician, then?
Airport “Security”
Posted: Thu 18 June, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Security, Stupidity, Thoughts, Travel 1 Comment »I’ve always been fascinated by the entire “security theatre” thing since 11/9 (Sorry, 9/11) and this article goes some way to showing some of why I find it so interesting.
What’s security theatre? It’s the farcical measures that’ve been thrown up – particularly in airports – since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They’re not about security, they’re about making people think they’re secure – and it’s all pretty farcical when you think about it.
Bruce Schneier has been a critic of airport security and the security hype for a long time now – he’s a security and cryptography expert, who’s written some very cool stuff over the years, and knows what he’s talking/writing about. He’s quoted throughout the article, and makes far more sense than anything that the TSA and associated agencies can come up with.
All told, it’s a well-written piece, and well worth reading.
Title Problem
Posted: Tue 16 June, 2009 Filed under: Cynicism, Thoughts, Writing Leave a comment »Is it just me that thinks there’s a slight problem with the headline for this story about the funeral of the last person who’d been on the Titanic?
Image of BBC News title for story - just in case they change it
After all, if she’s still the last survivor, what’re they doing having a funeral for her?
Low-Flying
Posted: Thu 11 June, 2009 Filed under: Animals, Cynicism, Domestic Leave a comment »Over the last couple of weeks (and for the next six or so) we’ve had lots of low-flying aircraft over the house, and it’s down to this – the Stanford Training Area (known locally as STANTA) has converted a portion of its land into an Afghan village for training soldiers and there’s a lopping great training exercise on at the moment.
In general I don’t mind too much about the aircraft etc. – although Hound has a real issue when they do the artillery fire, as it sounds like thunder, which sends her into a total tailspin – although on occasion I do get to the point (normally around 9,9.30 in the evening) when I think they might just be taking the piss a bit.
Still, it’s interesting to see what it’s being used for, and the way things have changed now, from the “Eastern European village” scenario for training to the “Afghan village/set-up”.
And it rather makes you wonder just how long the Armed Forces and/or Government think the War on Drugs Oil Terror might actually go on for, doesn’t it?
Interest
Posted: Mon 8 June, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, News, Thoughts Leave a comment »Isn’t it a pity that we can’t have a flexible sentencing thing for people like this loan-shark who charged an 8,000,000% interest.
That way, his eight-month sentence could be added to in the same way that his loans were added to – just keep on adding time to it until he was there for life, as a living example of what that kind of interest does to people…
UKIP Voters Can’t Unfold Paper
Posted: Thu 4 June, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Weirdness 3 Comments »You just couldn’t make it up…
According to this post, a number of people wanting to vote for UKIP haven’t been able to because they haven’t fully unfolded their ballot papers.
So ridiculous it’s unreal.