Saturday, December 24, 2005
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays
This year has flown by and once again we find ourselves at Christmas Eve. I just want to wish all my readers individually (that shouldn't take long!) a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I know I'm just looking forward to a while away from work. All the best everyone. Enjoy yourselves!
Tuesday, December 20, 2005
More links via Qwghlm...
This is becoming something of a habit but here are some more interesting stories courtesy of Qwlghm’s linklog. Firstly we have the story of Unwins the off-license chain, going in to administration… the week before Christmas. You have to wonder about that. The words ‘piss’, ‘up’ and ‘brewery’ come to mind.
Secondly we have the astonishing headline in the Daily Express – “Registrars fear flood of bogus gay weddings by asylum seekers”. Are they in competition with the Mail to create the greatest scaremongering headline of the year, featuring as many of their flagship issues as possible? You know the ones: asylum seekers, house prices, feral gangs of eight year olds, crazy EU legislation - the usual 'world gone mad' nonsense. Of course, if you can link any of these issues to Princess Diana or Hitler, no matter how implausible and tenuous the link, then you deserve twice the kudos.
Credit where it is due though, the Mail have avoided all the usual hazards in reporting this important story - Hero dog saves pregnant mother from blaze. See, it's not all about benefits system cheats you know (just 99%).
Secondly we have the astonishing headline in the Daily Express – “Registrars fear flood of bogus gay weddings by asylum seekers”. Are they in competition with the Mail to create the greatest scaremongering headline of the year, featuring as many of their flagship issues as possible? You know the ones: asylum seekers, house prices, feral gangs of eight year olds, crazy EU legislation - the usual 'world gone mad' nonsense. Of course, if you can link any of these issues to Princess Diana or Hitler, no matter how implausible and tenuous the link, then you deserve twice the kudos.
Credit where it is due though, the Mail have avoided all the usual hazards in reporting this important story - Hero dog saves pregnant mother from blaze. See, it's not all about benefits system cheats you know (just 99%).
Sunday, December 18, 2005
Lost and the Irish Lottery.
A recent Lost episode featured a set of six numbers (1-49) which had a mysterious curse. In a perverse coincidence the Irish Lottery on November the 19th (I am a little late with this) featured the exact same 6 numbers - with the exception of 42, and the number which replaced 42? 24. How very strange. According to Roberdin in the comments section of Sci-Fi Heaven, the chances of this happening are "about 1 in 14,000,000", "although, if you allow for the odd digit reversal, things become more complicated". "However, it’s not going to be anything much better than about 1 in 7,000,000."
Astonishing!
(Credit to Qwghlm who brought this to my attention.)
Astonishing!
(Credit to Qwghlm who brought this to my attention.)
Thursday, December 15, 2005
Paper throwing.
This innovative game has been the bain of my life tonight, I still can't beat my highest score of ten. Can you? I must warn you though, don't click on that link if you have anything that needs doing in the next hour!
Lack of posts.
Apologies for my inactivity here of late. I was struck down with a particularly nasty strain of the common cold at the weekend, from which I am only just beginning to recover. In addition to this, I have been fairly busy at work with the December website update and the accompanying e-newsletter. With that out of the way and the cold subsiding, I am pleased to be returning to blogging.
I was glad to discover on Tuesday, that Free Democrat is back blogging again after a couple of months away. Other new discoveries include Jawbox and Iain Dale who too recently returned to the scene.
You may have noticed the ‘post categories’ section in my sidebar to your left, I am trialling a self-developed method of using del.icio.us to categorise my posts. I searched fairly extensively for a simple way to use categories with Blogger but despite finding a few ideas, none overly impressed.
I was glad to discover on Tuesday, that Free Democrat is back blogging again after a couple of months away. Other new discoveries include Jawbox and Iain Dale who too recently returned to the scene.
You may have noticed the ‘post categories’ section in my sidebar to your left, I am trialling a self-developed method of using del.icio.us to categorise my posts. I searched fairly extensively for a simple way to use categories with Blogger but despite finding a few ideas, none overly impressed.
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
Cameron - Has he got the minerals?
Quite what this image is all about, I have no idea. You can always rely on Google image search to come up with some truly priceless results. Keep your eyes peeled for the striking set of testicles on display.
Tuesday, December 06, 2005
Cameron romps home.
As expected then, David Cameron won the leadership of the Conservative Party today by a margin of some 70,000 votes. His majority alone was more than David Davis' total polling. This gives Cameron the mandate he so needs in order to bring unity to the notoriously divided party. The leadership campaign at large has been a success for the Tories and has brought Conservative policy (or at least, ideals in Mr Cameron's case) to the public at large. Cameron's modernising credentials remain intact and as such his election to leader has demonstrated that at last, the Tories have recognised their inability to move forward and can begin to really push for change - starting with their own party. Which brings us neatly to the issue of the new shadow cabinet. More on that later...
Saturday, December 03, 2005
David Davis predicts a riot.
David Davis, in a recent debate for Sky News, said that many town and city centres were "no go areas" for decent people and new licensing laws would make things worse. Further to these words, he has since added that "watching the people get lairy is not very pretty I tell thee" and that for many, "walking through town is quite scary and not very sensible either."
David Willets, key member of the Davis leadership team chipped in with a worrying tale of an incident he was recently involved in. He mentioned how when trying to get in a taxi, a man in a tracksuit attacked him. Willets elaborates, "he said that he saw it before me" and even threatened to turn violent with a particularly frightening reference to things becoming "gory".
Anne Widdecombe's anecdote about girls runing around with no clothes on, condoms, coldness and chipfat went by largely unnoticed.
David Willets, key member of the Davis leadership team chipped in with a worrying tale of an incident he was recently involved in. He mentioned how when trying to get in a taxi, a man in a tracksuit attacked him. Willets elaborates, "he said that he saw it before me" and even threatened to turn violent with a particularly frightening reference to things becoming "gory".
Anne Widdecombe's anecdote about girls runing around with no clothes on, condoms, coldness and chipfat went by largely unnoticed.