Water Balloons
Posted: Fri 22 October, 2010 Filed under: News, People, Photography Leave a comment »From NPR, I love this set of shots of water balloons without the balloons…
Splash (C) Edward Horsford
From the article :
Edward Horsford‘s high-speed photography freezes the spherical innards of water balloons — just as the balloon skins break open, and just before they splash to the floor. He works at night in his garden in London, using flashes to light the action.
Very, very cool.
Poll
Posted: Thu 7 October, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, News Leave a comment »You’ve got to love the Daily Mail, haven’t you? And this is the perfect reason why …
Poll on the Daily Mail website
Yep – you can either be slim or with Mr Right. That’s it.
Now, don’t you just feel valued?
WTF
Posted: Fri 17 September, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Charm School, Cynicism, News, People, Stupidity, Sweary Leave a comment »Every so often a story in the news just makes me say “What. The. Fuck?” – this one is one of those stories.
Children at a school near Selby have had a play break cancelled and hard ball games banned after neighbours complained to the council about noise.
Barlby Community Primary School has also put up a soundproof fence because it fears a noise abatement order.
So people who live near a school – and one assumes, have either a) lived there for a while, or b) moved in thinking it would be nice and quiet (because they’re shit-for-brains morons) – complain that the school is noisy at play time.
You really have to wonder sometimes. In the town where I grew up, a housing estate was built that backed on to the local sewage farm. People who moved into those houses complained about the smell, and tried to get the (pre-existing) sewage farm shut down. When I was in Manchester people who moved in to one part of the city centre complained about the noise from the bars, and tried to get them shut down.
If you’re that fucking stupid that you move near a school, or a bar, or a sewage farm, and only then complain that there’s a problem, then you don’t deserve to be allowed to complain. Live with it, and shut the fuck up. You moron.
Shit for Brains
Posted: Fri 20 August, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Offensive Repetition, People, Sweary, Thoughts 1 Comment »I love the story on the BBC this week about a council who’ve used the word “shit” in their adverts about dog-fouling. (even though it’s starred out to “S**T”) Supposedly a number of people have complained about the word “S**T” appearing in print. Which strikes me as pretty Mary Whitehouse at the best of times.
Way back when I was working with the council in Oldham, this was something that we discussed heavily. One of my projects there was working on a lexicon of expressions that people actually used, and then translating them into council-ese. For example “roadworks” becomes “Highways maintenance”, “bins” becomes “refuse collection” and the like. I always said – and could prove with the search logs (pardon the pun) – that “dog shit” was the most common search-term when people were looking for information about dog-fouling, reporting issues with dog-shit etc. But the powers-that-be in the council at the time were very sure – despite all the evidence to the contrary – that having “shit” in the lexicon was A Bad Thing, and would lead to Bad Press – another Very Bad Thing. Considering that most people at the time used the word “Shit” as pretty much synonymous with that council in general anyway, I always figured they were on a hiding to nothing on that one.
Personally I could never figure out why people thought – and obviously still do think – that councils can’t use words like shit, when they’re the ones that most (if not all) of their constituents/inhabitants use.
*sigh* People are strange.
It’s not about religion
Posted: Sat 14 August, 2010 Filed under: News, Security, Thoughts 8 Comments »In today’s news there’s been a big thing about Barack Obama defending the right to build a mosque near the Ground Zero site in New York.
The best bit of it all though was the quoted parts of the speech…
We must all recognise and respect the sensitivities surrounding the development of lower Manhattan, Ground Zero is, indeed, hallowed ground. But let me be clear, as a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practise their religion as anyone else in this country.”That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community centre on private property in lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances. This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakeable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are.”
He told the group of US Congressmen, government officials and foreign dignitaries that America’s tradition of religious tolerance distinguishes it from “our enemies”.
“Al-Qaeda’s cause is not Islam,” he said, “it is a gross distortion of Islam”.
And that’s the primary point for me – Al-Qaeda is not an Islamic cause, the current phase of “islamic terrorism” isn’t about islam at all, it’s just about terror. Anyone who thinks that these terrorist episodes are about religion really is a bloody moron – religion is (as always) the convenient talking-point to support the ’cause’.
Daily Fail
Posted: Fri 6 August, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Design, Media, News, Pedantry Leave a comment »Always nice to see when the Daily Fail gets to screw things up. (again)
In this case, they’ve managed to forget to put two photo captions in on one story. (This may have changed on the page by the time you look at it)
First example
Second example
Way to go, Daily Fail!
Repeatedly Released
Posted: Fri 30 July, 2010 Filed under: Cynicism, News, Thoughts Leave a comment »Sometimes you look at a story and think “Oh, there’s got to be a lot more than that behind it”.
In this case, the story was about Arran Coghlan, the Cheshire ‘businessman’ who’s now been cleared of murder on three separate occasions. That’s going some. But really, the guy’s either incredibly unlucky to be caught up in these types of situations, or he’s involved in some way or another.
The three cases were :
- Cleared in 1996 of shooting Chris Little dead at the wheel of his Mercedes in Marple, Stockport.
- Stood trial for the murder of drug dealer David Barnshaw, who was kidnapped and forced to drink petrol before being burned alive in the back of a car in Stockport in 2001
- (The most recent) accused of shooting dead Stephen Akinyemi in a fight at his £2m home in Alderley Edge in February
Additionally, on New Year’s Day 2008, Coghlan was stabbed in the head, face and back in a frenzied attack in Cobdens Bar in Stockport.
There’s also the ‘small’ matter of an assault charge in an unrelated matter, for which he will be back at Liverpool Crown Court for a mention hearing in September.
You look at that story and you just have to assume that his businesses can’t be completely legitimate. That’s a lot of trouble for one businessman to be in, isn’t it?