COLD-hearted traffic wardens slapped an £80 ticket on a car — after the driver stopped for a cat she had run over.
Mum Carla Barroso, 40, was overcome with guilt when the moggy dashed under her wheels. She pulled partly on to the pavement and spent five minutes searching bushes for the creature. Two wardens swooped as she returned to her car cradling the badly-injured cat in her arms in Ruislip, Middlesex. Carla, who is to appeal, said: “They gave me a ticket for parking with my wheels on the pavement. “I explained to them about the cat and they had to have seen the whole thing happen. “I wasn’t obstructing the road. It’s ridiculous.”
A spokesman for Hillingdon Council said: “Parking attendants are instructed to issue parking tickets where they see vehicles with one or more wheels on the pavement or a verge, unless exemptions apply.” The cat was last night fighting for life at a vets.
======================
UNLESS EXEMPTIONS APPLY - so a half-squashed cat isn't a good enough exemption?? B*stards! I hope her appeal is successful!
Monday, February 21, 2005
Sunday, February 20, 2005
Blondes vs Brunettes - hey what about Redheads?
I came across a very weighty blog today that was discussing who was cleverest - blondes or brunettes. Not even a MENTION of redheads, as far as she's concerned we don't exist (maybe she just couldn't SPELL it).
Here is her argument - prepare yourselves, it's highly technical:
"y does evry1 fink brunettes r cleverer den blondes??? im blonde, + im 1 of d cleverest in my group (not boastin) but i am, + outta d 5 or us im 1 of d 2 blondes, + d blondes r d cleverest!!!! (go blonde!!!) i mean sum of d worlds leadin women r blonde!! so y du brunettes hav dis reputation as being cleva??? my m8 (d ova blonde) is dyin her hair brunette but shes got lovely hair!!!! so why d brainy brunette rep??????????? blondes r ment 2 av more fun + brunettes r ment 2 b brainy, but relly us blondes r jzt as brainy as n.e1 else!! sum1?????? plz explain??? BLONDES RULE!!!!!"
I am very intrigued, and I'd like a teen who types like this to please leave a comment and tell me whether you actually write your schoolwork like this, or whether you just use this slang to type faster - like a kind of teen shorthand. It should be made a rule in schools that if you hand in your homework written like this, you are sent back to sit in a class with a bunch of 5 year olds who are all learning how to write their names.
Surely this person must have been taught to write and spell properly in her early years....did the advent of youngsters having mobile phones undo all that good work? Even with predictive text, that helps you spell everything properly, they use this horrid style of grammar. Does this mean that when she spawns kids (many, I'm guessing), will she be teaching THEM to write like this? Are schools going to go the easy route and allow this form of shorthand to be become legal? How the hell can this tide of abuse against the english language be stopped?
On her blog she seems to to enjoy and promote books, and even has a book list, which is great (apart from Animal Farm which she describes as "a horribl buk") - could she have a proper grasp of english and is just typing slang to be like her mates?? Or are these a new generation of books that are written in txt spk? Aargh, someone out there will do this one day, just to make money.......actually that's a point........*composes email to publishing house*.
PS I'm not leaving the Blog URL cos someone will probably go tell her what I've written and she'll come on here quoting Nietzsche and totally humiliating me.
Here is her argument - prepare yourselves, it's highly technical:
"y does evry1 fink brunettes r cleverer den blondes??? im blonde, + im 1 of d cleverest in my group (not boastin) but i am, + outta d 5 or us im 1 of d 2 blondes, + d blondes r d cleverest!!!! (go blonde!!!) i mean sum of d worlds leadin women r blonde!! so y du brunettes hav dis reputation as being cleva??? my m8 (d ova blonde) is dyin her hair brunette but shes got lovely hair!!!! so why d brainy brunette rep??????????? blondes r ment 2 av more fun + brunettes r ment 2 b brainy, but relly us blondes r jzt as brainy as n.e1 else!! sum1?????? plz explain??? BLONDES RULE!!!!!"
I am very intrigued, and I'd like a teen who types like this to please leave a comment and tell me whether you actually write your schoolwork like this, or whether you just use this slang to type faster - like a kind of teen shorthand. It should be made a rule in schools that if you hand in your homework written like this, you are sent back to sit in a class with a bunch of 5 year olds who are all learning how to write their names.
Surely this person must have been taught to write and spell properly in her early years....did the advent of youngsters having mobile phones undo all that good work? Even with predictive text, that helps you spell everything properly, they use this horrid style of grammar. Does this mean that when she spawns kids (many, I'm guessing), will she be teaching THEM to write like this? Are schools going to go the easy route and allow this form of shorthand to be become legal? How the hell can this tide of abuse against the english language be stopped?
On her blog she seems to to enjoy and promote books, and even has a book list, which is great (apart from Animal Farm which she describes as "a horribl buk") - could she have a proper grasp of english and is just typing slang to be like her mates?? Or are these a new generation of books that are written in txt spk? Aargh, someone out there will do this one day, just to make money.......actually that's a point........*composes email to publishing house*.
PS I'm not leaving the Blog URL cos someone will probably go tell her what I've written and she'll come on here quoting Nietzsche and totally humiliating me.
We *really* need to sort our priorities out
- 771,000: The number of visitors to Johnkerry.com during the week of the US Democratic Convention
- 3.5 million: The number of visitors during the SAME WEEK to the website of Japanese soccer star, Hidetoshi Nakata
- 23-60 million: The number of unique visitors to porn websites every day
- 2-3 million: The number of unique visitors to the five largest news websites
Face it folks, you can have sex whenever you want with whoever you want - is this really a priority over reading about the shit that is happening to us and our world, resplendent in the hands of a small group of power-hungry and corrupt "leaders"?? FFS put down the Penthouse mag and start reading stuff that MATTERS!
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Chelsea Tractors Ahoy
Woke up today to thick, thick snow. I hate days like this because all the f*cking Chelsea Tractor owners climb smugly into their RAV4s and Land Cruisers, ready to drive fat Timmy 30 yards to school, thinking "I'm in a 4x4 I'm not going to get stuck in the snow! Look at meeeee!"
Well correct my dear, if you lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere (and rightly needed to own a 4x4) you'd doubtless be OK. BUT YOU LIVE IN SUBURBIA, and no amount of dual gearboxes or 4WD on your stupid gas-guzzling dangerous status-symbol is going to prevent you from queueing for hours in the snow-snarled traffic, along with the other "normal" cars and Chelsea Tractor owners . With your higher centre of gravity you are actually more likely to be skidding off the roads, ploughing into other motorists, and causing all the pile-ups in weather like this.
I'll give you a wave as I cycle by you in the queue.....
Well correct my dear, if you lived on a farm in the middle of nowhere (and rightly needed to own a 4x4) you'd doubtless be OK. BUT YOU LIVE IN SUBURBIA, and no amount of dual gearboxes or 4WD on your stupid gas-guzzling dangerous status-symbol is going to prevent you from queueing for hours in the snow-snarled traffic, along with the other "normal" cars and Chelsea Tractor owners . With your higher centre of gravity you are actually more likely to be skidding off the roads, ploughing into other motorists, and causing all the pile-ups in weather like this.
I'll give you a wave as I cycle by you in the queue.....
Friday, February 18, 2005
One step closer to "Terminator"
This from the New Internationalist Magazine (a very good read!):
Of all the Hollywood visions of the future that could end up coming true, you have to hope that the Terminator films will not be among them. Is there anything more terrifying than an invulnerable robot blowing people away with a sawn-off shotgun while uttering "Hasta la vista baby" in an Austrian accent?
Well, as always the military and scientific communities are on the fast track to making such a nightmare a distinct possibility. In a joint venture, the British MOD and the US Carlyle Group (close ties to the BUSH FAMILY) have developed a series of tactical robot soldiers called SWORDS - Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems (read more about them HERE). The US military is already planning to deploy 18 of the one-metre high killing machines in Iraq within the next few months.
The robots are operated by soldiers near the battlefield using video-game style controls. Work is currently under way to enhance the experience by adding "virtual-reality goggles", confirms one enthusiastic engineer.
"It's a premonition of things to come" says www.globalsecurity.org director Jonathan Pike. "It makes sense. These things have no family to write home to. They're fearless. You can put them places you'd have a hard time putting a human soldier in".
Scientists meanwhile are working on ways to graft living tissue onto robotic skeletons. Recently, scientists at the University of California Los Angeles have successfully combined muscle tissue from rats onto robotic parts, creating small "bio-bots" that could move on their own. "They're absolutely alive" says the Project Leader, Professor Montemagno. "I mean the cells actually grow, multiply and assemble - they form the structure themselves. So the device is alive".
Cut to Terminator 3. Kate Brewster "So what's his story then?" John Connor "He's a robot from the future. Living tissue over a metel skeleton. He means you no harm".
=============================
This is a very scary article. In some ways, robot soldiers would be good - it means that our boys won't need to risk their lives to defend their country anymore (or nowadays, to defend the interests of the Oil business), and no soldier would be killed, disabled, psychologically screwed up, or subjected to torture or imprisonment. Instead they'd be holed up in armoured vehicles with their VI masks on, seemingly playing video games - sheltered from the horror of actally killing a human being thanks to the digitization of the whole act thru a Playstation-esque video screen. I guess all those hours in front of the X-Box can be valuable after all!!!!
But in other ways it's very scary. A robotic army will do as it is told. Without compassion, reason, rationale, or considering all the facts and evidence. To quote Kyle Reese from Terminator 1:
"Listen! And understand! That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with! It can't be reasoned with! It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!"
Lastly, what if it is embued with the power of Artificial Intelligence, so it would ultimatly learn and think for itself? We are *this close* to becoming the very same people we watch on our movie screens, fleeing and screaming from the robots that will hunt us down and blow us to pieces. I believe that the US military will push ahead with this plan and spend untold billions on making it a reality - in which case I wish for the same outcome as the TERMINATOR films - complete annhilation of the human race, so we can all start over, learn from our mistakes, and never let madness like this happen again.
In the meantime, are we now meant to gag all our sci-fi filmmakers and script writers, whose ideas to entertain us may soon be killing us?
Of all the Hollywood visions of the future that could end up coming true, you have to hope that the Terminator films will not be among them. Is there anything more terrifying than an invulnerable robot blowing people away with a sawn-off shotgun while uttering "Hasta la vista baby" in an Austrian accent?
Well, as always the military and scientific communities are on the fast track to making such a nightmare a distinct possibility. In a joint venture, the British MOD and the US Carlyle Group (close ties to the BUSH FAMILY) have developed a series of tactical robot soldiers called SWORDS - Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems (read more about them HERE). The US military is already planning to deploy 18 of the one-metre high killing machines in Iraq within the next few months.
The robots are operated by soldiers near the battlefield using video-game style controls. Work is currently under way to enhance the experience by adding "virtual-reality goggles", confirms one enthusiastic engineer.
"It's a premonition of things to come" says www.globalsecurity.org director Jonathan Pike. "It makes sense. These things have no family to write home to. They're fearless. You can put them places you'd have a hard time putting a human soldier in".
Scientists meanwhile are working on ways to graft living tissue onto robotic skeletons. Recently, scientists at the University of California Los Angeles have successfully combined muscle tissue from rats onto robotic parts, creating small "bio-bots" that could move on their own. "They're absolutely alive" says the Project Leader, Professor Montemagno. "I mean the cells actually grow, multiply and assemble - they form the structure themselves. So the device is alive".
Cut to Terminator 3. Kate Brewster "So what's his story then?" John Connor "He's a robot from the future. Living tissue over a metel skeleton. He means you no harm".
=============================
This is a very scary article. In some ways, robot soldiers would be good - it means that our boys won't need to risk their lives to defend their country anymore (or nowadays, to defend the interests of the Oil business), and no soldier would be killed, disabled, psychologically screwed up, or subjected to torture or imprisonment. Instead they'd be holed up in armoured vehicles with their VI masks on, seemingly playing video games - sheltered from the horror of actally killing a human being thanks to the digitization of the whole act thru a Playstation-esque video screen. I guess all those hours in front of the X-Box can be valuable after all!!!!
But in other ways it's very scary. A robotic army will do as it is told. Without compassion, reason, rationale, or considering all the facts and evidence. To quote Kyle Reese from Terminator 1:
"Listen! And understand! That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with! It can't be reasoned with! It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!"
- A robot army would do the bidding of it's master, whether that master's bidding is for good or for evil.
- It would round up human beings desperately trying to rise up against the unjustice and oppression, human beings opposing its master's will - whether that will be for good or for bad - and it would wipe them out without a second thought.
- It would be invulnerable to attacks barring some serious weaponry that would probably be impossible to obtain
- It would be equipped with the most accurate tracking devices that would mean nobody could hide from it.
- And it would not need to be paid, or fed, or have thousands spent on its training.
- It would not sue for mental distress, or for disablement in the line of duty, it would not oppose orders that it knew were morally wrong, it would not write letters to the Free Press talking of bodged orders, lack of body armour, and voicing it's disillusionment at the reasons it was fighting.
Lastly, what if it is embued with the power of Artificial Intelligence, so it would ultimatly learn and think for itself? We are *this close* to becoming the very same people we watch on our movie screens, fleeing and screaming from the robots that will hunt us down and blow us to pieces. I believe that the US military will push ahead with this plan and spend untold billions on making it a reality - in which case I wish for the same outcome as the TERMINATOR films - complete annhilation of the human race, so we can all start over, learn from our mistakes, and never let madness like this happen again.
In the meantime, are we now meant to gag all our sci-fi filmmakers and script writers, whose ideas to entertain us may soon be killing us?
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
It's only a shark......
During a day trip to London I went to the London Aquarium. As was expected on a Sunday, it was packed, mainly with parents and kiddies. What I noticed and what alarmed me quite a lot is that every single parent was instilling in their kids FEAR of the sharks that were in one of the large central tanks.
Parental cries of "OOH look Katie, A SHARK!!! Ooohhh look at THAT, isn't it SCARY!!!" and "look look, here it comes again! Oooh look at it's TEETH Steven!" went on and on, and immediately each child was mock-screaming whenever a shark swam past. One little girl started crying, her dad had scared her so much banging on about poor Sharkie. "Nothing will happen while Daddy's here" he assured her....I wished something WOULD happen and someone would give him a slap for being so ignorant and for passing that ignorance onto his kids. Steven Spielberg has a lot to answer for!
Sharks are NOT carnivores nor do they feed on a diet of humans. Yes there have been incidents of shark attacks but they are very rare, and probably a case of mistaken identity (human, not seal, *CHOMP*, oops!). Parents should be telling their kids the other amazing and fascinating facts about sharks, like Great White Sharks can go as long as three months without eating, or more people are killed each year by dogs, pigs and deer than by sharks.
Give them all the facts and a balanced view of what a shark is. I'm sure that next time Little Timmy is told to go swim in the sea by Daddy he will stand and blub because he's scared a shark will come along and bite his bum.
Parental cries of "OOH look Katie, A SHARK!!! Ooohhh look at THAT, isn't it SCARY!!!" and "look look, here it comes again! Oooh look at it's TEETH Steven!" went on and on, and immediately each child was mock-screaming whenever a shark swam past. One little girl started crying, her dad had scared her so much banging on about poor Sharkie. "Nothing will happen while Daddy's here" he assured her....I wished something WOULD happen and someone would give him a slap for being so ignorant and for passing that ignorance onto his kids. Steven Spielberg has a lot to answer for!
Sharks are NOT carnivores nor do they feed on a diet of humans. Yes there have been incidents of shark attacks but they are very rare, and probably a case of mistaken identity (human, not seal, *CHOMP*, oops!). Parents should be telling their kids the other amazing and fascinating facts about sharks, like Great White Sharks can go as long as three months without eating, or more people are killed each year by dogs, pigs and deer than by sharks.
Give them all the facts and a balanced view of what a shark is. I'm sure that next time Little Timmy is told to go swim in the sea by Daddy he will stand and blub because he's scared a shark will come along and bite his bum.
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