Dying on the Same Day
Posted: Tue 15 September, 2009 Filed under: News, Thoughts, Weirdness 2 Comments »Today it’s been announced that both Patrick Swayze and Keith Floyd have died. Not together, just on the same day.
In Floyd’s case, it’s ironic that the news comes the day after Channel 4 transmitted “When Keith met Keith” – about Keith Allen meeting Floyd in one of Floyd’s last ever interviews. Almost like he was hanging on for the programme…
Anyway, as Alan Cumming said,
“My greatest fear is dying on the same day as someone more famous than me”
Blind teaching the Blind
Posted: Mon 14 September, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Education, News, Thoughts Leave a comment »I noticed this story today while reading over the shoulder of someone on the Tube – and then had to search it out online.
So – how many things can you spot that are wrong with this concept? The headline : “Primary schools bring in bankers to teach the credit crunch children”
Oh yes indeed – get children taught how to be fiscally responsible by the fucksticks responsible for the current situation. Awesome plan.
Although in fairness, I do think it’s a good idea to teach children far more about money, how to calculate interest, understanding APRs, and basic fiscal stuff. I know that I wish I’d had something like that in my education, anyway…
Product Placement
Posted: Sun 13 September, 2009 Filed under: Advertising, News, Thoughts 1 Comment »When it comes to product placement and the fact it’s now going to be allowed in programmes on commercial channels in the UK , I have to say that I’m actually more surprised it’s taken this long for it to happen.
I’ve been expecting it to come in since ITV started announcing that they were losing advertiser revenue – and the ‘credit crunch’ must have been another perfect excuse as well.
I don’t actually have much of an issue with product placement – we see a fair amount of it anyway, with the amount of imported American programmes already viewed. (And that’s been a neat little loophole on the entire product placement thing ’til now anyway) Think about the American drama programmes where just about everyone seems to have an iPhone and/or use Apple laptops – let alone the bigger things like clothing labels, car brands, (the truly awful ‘update’ of Knight Rider excelled at this one, for obvious reasons – but that also goes to show it’s been happening for a *very* long time) gadgets etc., and even down to what the actors eat and drink.
I think I’ll have more of an issue with the next logical step along this line, where programmes are ‘sponsored’ (i.e. paid for) by a company, which then plugs as many of its wares in one show as it can do. That ‘development’ will take some time of course – but I’m sure it’ll be on the cards.
NHS Staffing
Posted: Thu 3 September, 2009 Filed under: Business, Charm School, Creativity, Cynicism, Health, News, Thoughts 2 Comments »Today there’s a lot of coverage about a suggestion to reduce the workforce of the NHS by 10% – and the resultant kerfuffle between Government, the NHS, and management consultants.
Currently the Government is saying that they have rejected this advice by McKinsey and Company, (Never heard of ’em? Me either.) which included closing 137,000 clinical and admin posts in order to save £20bn by 2014.
I’m pretty sure I could show how to save the NHS that much money by 2014, without losing a single clinical staff member.
Mind you, it would involve getting rid of shitloads of middle-managers, consultants, and fuckstick accountants. And of course that’s a plan that would never achieve approval – because it’s got to go through all those levels of shitbag middle-managers, consultants and fuckstick accountants before it can happen. And those self-serving fuckers are never going to do themselves out of a job. (Which is the same reason the “paperless office” will never happen)
I’m not suggesting getting rid of all the managers, as I think most people would agree that there need to be some of the buggers around, if only in order to make sure that the clinical professionals don’t drown in paperwork and procedures in the meantime. (Although of course if you get rid of enough of the middle-managers, you probably get to eliminate a whole host of the bullshit paperwork at the same time – sorry, it’s “streamlining” now isn’t it, not “getting rid of the shit”)
Still, wield a big enough axe, drop it from high enough, I’m pretty sure it’d still work…
How Not To Do It
Posted: Tue 1 September, 2009 Filed under: News, Stupidity Leave a comment »Over the weekend, the Daily Express managed to get a spectacular error on one headline.
The Guardian’s Media Monkey today has a small article on how it happened.
No, Really?
Posted: Fri 28 August, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, News, Thoughts Leave a comment »Filed firmly under “No shit, Sherlock” comes this story courtesy of the Department of Health…
English holidaymakers are turning to drink on their breaks with the average adult consuming eight alcoholic drinks a day, a survey suggests.
Blimey, what a revelation. People on holiday drink more. Who’d have thought it?
As usual, the “survey” consisted of only 3,500 people (from however million who’ve been on holiday over the summer) and there’s no indication of the age ranges for the survey. So at best it’s “dip a finger in the water” guesswork.
Most Burgled
Posted: Fri 14 August, 2009 Filed under: 1BEM, Creativity, Cynicism, News Leave a comment »The story today about the “most burgled postcodes” in the UK makes for some interesting reading – but also misses out on a couple of rather relevant bits of information.
Firstly, it’s been done by MoneySupermarket.com (I’m not adding a link to them, because they’ve had enough PR out of this already) based on people trying to get home insurance. There’s no corroboration of these figures with any police reports etc.
Secondly, it’s this (from the story)…
Some 0.42% of people from Arnold who asked for quotes via the website said they had been burgled in the past five years, while that rate was above 0.24% in the rest of the top 20.
So 0.42% of people in Arnold (Nottinghamshire) have been burgled in the past five years. But that means that 99.58% of people in Arnold haven’t been burgled. Which (to me, anyway) is far more interesting, and actually helps to put all this shit in perspective a bit.