BBC NEWS In Pictures In pictures: Spoof signs
Sorry, still no sensible blogging. But I liked this one:
Archive for November, 2005
November 30th, 2005
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November 30th, 2005
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DeadBrain – George Orwell estate to sue Government over breach of copyright
Newsflash! Satire not dead yet! Read all about it!
November 29th, 2005
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Well, it was gaming weekend! Unfortunately, due to Tim’s poorliness, there was no Aberrant. So, after the customary drinks and lunch at the Wetherspoons in Canary Wharf, it was Vampire time. I’ll admit there was some mild trepidation considering the last Saturday game of Vampire involved Bryce eating pot pouri (out of character of course). There was none of that this time; in fact I thought it was an excellent session with lots of in-character play, some experience, some revelations and a derangement. All is well with the world…
Sunday was a hangover day, not just for me, but also for Kev, the allegedly hangover immune. So, after some dawdling around, it was homeward bound. Penny had spent a considerable amount of time acquiring an
advents wreath, a German and family tradition, which was greeted with much child-like joy, just in time for the First Sunday of Advent.
I really couldn’t be bothered to go into work on Monday so I took a lieu day which I constructively spent not doing a lot. There was some reading, some watching films and lots of playing computer games. Bliss! Penny had the day off too and spent most of it reading ‘Pride and Prejudice’.
Plan for the rest of the week? Well, I want to get a little further towards completing Dungeon Siege 2 and I have to finish my Christmas shopping come payday. Oh work? Three day week for me as I have Friday off too, all of it spent in the UK.
November 24th, 2005
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BBC NEWS | Wales | Drunk consent rape case scrutiny: “Jennifer Temkin, a professor of law at Sussex University, said it would be a tricky area to clarify.
‘If you have sex and you consent to it when you are drunk then that isn’t rape,’ she told BBC Wales.
‘If someone has sex with you when you are unconscious then that is rape.
‘The really difficult area is in between, where the person is so drunk they are not unconscious and are so drunk that they are not really able to consent.
‘What happens in these cases is that the defence will try to argue that this person did consent and she can’t get out of it just because she was drunk.’ “
What a tricky and controversial topic this is… On the one hand, no woman who was drunk when she was raped wants to feel that her case is worthless due to this ruling. On the other hand, no man wants to worry about sleeping with a drunken woman in case she calls it rape when she sobers up.
And what exactly does ‘consent’ entail? Drunken sexual encounters are more likely to arise out of a series of drunken snogs and fumblings before turning fully sexual and much less likely to involve a detailed question and answer session regarding intent, consent and approval. And even if the conversation does take place, what if it is not remembered the next morning?
Dangerous ground all around.
November 22nd, 2005
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Apart from lazing around, Christmas shopping and messing with my computer, the highlight of my long weekend was going to see
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in the cinema.
Firstly, let me say that the change of director has definitely been a good thing.
Mike Newell did a much better job than
Chris Columbus. On the other hand, I much preferred the Dumbledore of
Richard Harris to the Dumbledore of
Michael Gambon. Overall the cinematography is much better. The problem, of course, is that the source book is many times larger than it’s predecessors and so material, like the Quidditch World Cup or the involvement of the house elves, had to be cut or insinuated only. Personally I think Newell did a good job of it, though purists will complain, despite the fact that the film is already two and a half hours long as it stands. Furthermore, there is little scope for exposition for the benefit of those who haven’t read the book, so I wonder how fans of the films alone will receive it.
This week’s schedule has me flying to Hanover on Thursday night, returning on Friday. And
Aberrant &
Vampire at the weekend.
November 18th, 2005
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November 18th, 2005
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Line-side fire at Clapham Junction
Time Reported: 06:38
Route Affected: All services to/from/via Clapham Junction
TOC/s Affected: Gatwick Express, South West Trains, Southern
Description: Train services at Clapham Junction are being disrupted by a line-side fire. Short notice alterations, cancellations and delays can be expected. There is currently no estimate for normal services to resume
Easements: South West Trains tickets will be accepted on First Great Western trains on their routes to/from Exeter, London buses on reasonable routes & London Underground between London Waterloo & Wimbledon
Updates: 07:17 Severe delays are expected through Clapham Junction due to signalling difficulties caused by the fire, resulting in some lines being closed. Train services in to London may be diverted to other terminal stations than planned
November 17th, 2005
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BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Austria holds ‘Holocaust denier’: “UK revisionist historian David Irving has been arrested in Austria under laws against denying the Holocaust.
Mr Irving – author of Hitler’s War – said then that he had never claimed that the Holocaust did not occur, but did question the number of Jewish dead and denied their systematic extermination in concentration camp gas chambers. “
Hah! I worked together with a guy who was a big believer in this guy and his theories. Believe me it did not go down well at all when a huge half-German, half-South African guy starts going on about how Jews exaggerated the whole thing and it might not have been true at all.
Of course this is the same colleague who assured me that humanity was just an alien genetic experiment. He knew because he’d read it in a book…
November 16th, 2005
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BBC NEWS | UK | Call to outlaw cousins marrying: “It follows BBC research into British Pakistanis, at least 55% of whom are thought to be married to first cousins.
The research found British Pakistani families were 13 times more likely to have children with recessive gene illnesses than the general population. “
It’s wierd when stories like this pops up, I never even knew that the marriage of first cousins was in any way still a practice, apart from redneck hillbillies who are particularly gifted with the banjo. I never even knew it was still legal in the UK for first cousins to marry.
But is a change in law appropriate? Probably, though it will cost votes. But surely more important is educating people as to why this is bad; a lesson I thought people had learnt by now.
November 15th, 2005
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BBC NEWS | Politics | Pub plans face crunch MPs’ vote: “He [licensing minister James Purnell ] told the BBC: ‘The hours are part of the problem, because by having a firm cut off time at 11pm, people engage in speed drinking… the only places able to stay open after 11pm at the moment are those which put on music and dancing… exactly the kinds of places that people might worry about most. “
Eh? We’re afraid of dancing and music now? Surely the problem is the people who aren’t dancing? The ones who are sitting in parks with a two litre bottle of cider? Or the ones ordering 4 pints at 22:55 as it’s nearly closing time? Or how about the people who go to clubs and refuse to dance (you know who you are)!
Perhaps that’s the solution. You can drink as late as you like as long as you strut your stuff on the dancefloor…
I know I’d end up going home early…
