Telegraph Twitterfail

April 21st, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

A measured analysis of why the Telegraph Twitterfall gave us lols. Well, I say measured, it’s a bit more than just ‘hahahaha! Idiots’
I blog, you blog, they blog, weblog

…the Telegraph’s major error in this case was that they put the thing up two days before the budget is actually going to be announced. The amount of natural real-time discussion of the budget was therefore minimal; in the absence of anybody saying anything else, it was possible to hijack what was displayed on the Telegraph site almost by accident – this wasn’t a co-ordinated attack in any sense, just a few people idly goofing around.

It’s as if Newsnight, in the middle of a piece on Bolivian land reform, suddenly announced “and now we’re going over live to the saloon bar of The Dog & Duck to see what their opinion is” – except the patrons of The Dog & Duck hadn’t been discussing Bolivian land reform, and weren’t told anything about Newsnight’s plans until the moment that they blinkingly realised they were on national television. What would you expect? You might get lucky, and someone who’d read the papers might mutter something about Evo Morales’ significance as the country’s first indigenous leader. But most likely there’d be a bemused pause, followed by nervous laughter, followed by someone shouting “wankers!” and Terry getting his knob out.

I’m not sure about the rest of it, to be honest, but the comparison with the pub is spot on.

IT fail

April 21st, 2009 § 1 comment § permalink

My employer outsources its’ IT stuff to another company and this dialogue box appeared this morning when I logged in.

Leaving aside the fact that I am not happy giving my employee number to anyone outside personel/payroll, where is the box you’re meant to enter the number into?

security-policy

In defence of Wallace and Grommit

April 20th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

Penny Red is a little upset at Wallace and Grommit, A Matter of Loaf and Death, in which to cut a long story short, Wallace gets a new girlfriend, who in her younger days was ‘the face’ of a bakery produce. Due to life being life, the pin-up gets too old and too chubby (or fat, if you like) and loses the gig and can’t get another. This turn from having the world at her feet to being on the scrapheap makes her mind crack, turning her a little mental with a chip on her shoulder against bakers, of which Wallace is the latest in a long line to be bumped off in inimitable Wallace and Grommit way.

But Penny, being “a dour, humourless feminist who will eventually be eaten alive by her own cats” (her words, not mine) saw something not altogether pleasant

A Matter of Loaf and Death is targeted at children. So what will half of the film’s intended audience, the hundreds of thousands of little girls all over the world who have seen the thing by now, be thinking? What message does this send to young girls?

Well, firstly, don’t ever ever ever get fat, because you’ll lose your job and then your mind. Your future success depends entirely on your ability to look great and hook a man. Avoid bipedal dogs who drive delivery vans. And don’t worry, it’s all a joke, really.

Being a white, hetero, English man I haven’t really had much discrimination go my way and so am a bit oblivious to it until the offence has been pointed out. Just ask Mrs -O. But even now, after this bit of mysogyny has been highlighted to me, I still fail to see it.

Paella isn’t treated badly by the other characters, infact it’s the opposite as Wallace falls for the charms of a lady. We’re not laughing at Paella, the joke is on Wallace as he misses the signs that Paella is upto no good and dismisses Grommits warnings.
Paella isn’t laughed at or made to look stupid by the filmmakers, and her size obviously isn’t a hinderence to hooking a fella either, judging by her history of husbands.

A Matter of Loaf and Death doesn’t reinforce the message…

…don’t ever ever ever get fat, because you’ll lose your job and then your mind. Your future success depends entirely on your ability to look great and hook a man.

It does the opposite. As I said in the comments on Pennys’ post…

The story isn’t saying don’t put on those pounds or you’ll be rubbish and worthless. It is saying look, this is happening. Not quite in the same comedic manner, but it is happening.

It is highlighting to the other half of the audience, the boys, that there is something wrong with how women are perceived and treated that do not conform to visual norms.

And another…

April 18th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

The man with the camera at 1:51, …

Via OblonskysGhost

Yet another video

April 18th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

BBC

The video of the latest incident to emerge was released by Climate Camp protesters. In it, 24-year-old IT worker Alex Cinnane is shown being forcibly hit in the left temple with a round shield by a policeman wearing a balaclava and a visor.

Well, that’s torn to shit any excuses that may (or have already come up) about Ian Tomlinson death being an isolated incident.

Ian Tomlinson – 2nd Post Mortem

April 18th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

A second post mortem has been performed on Ian Tomlinson

Now a fresh post-mortem examination has found he died of abdominal bleeding, not a heart attack, as first thought.

Now, I’m not a doctor or anything like that, my medical expertise ranges from a couple of ibuprofen for a headache to ‘hair of the dog’ for, ahem, more serious illness, so I could be a little out here.

A heart attack doesn’t neccersarily result in internal bleeding, but a heart attack can result from loss of blood as the heart works harder to keep blood pressure without enough blood.

So, the first post mortem wasn’t exactly wrong, more incomplete because yes Ian died of a heart attack, but is was brought about from abdominal heamorraging, which in turn was brought about from, say, being knocked about.

Incompetence or a cover up, I wonder…

Justin has more

Keeping up appearances

April 15th, 2009 § 7 comments § permalink

The BBC has got the vid of the copper showing how, according to some, a woman should be treated. But once again there is a little bit of caution thrown in. Y’know, just in case…

The footage shows the woman swearing at a police officer who then appears to hit her in the face before apparently striking her on the leg with his baton.

The woman is swearing at the copper, but he only appears to slap her with the back of his hand, whilst wearing leather gloves that wouldn’t look out of place on a biker, and then he strikes her on the leg, apparently.

If we’re going down that sort of path, then surely, the woman only looks like she is swearing at the Filth.

But then, the girl probably hasn’t got institutions the size of the Met and the IPCC to defend her honour, has she?

Update:
The officer, a sergeant, it would appear, has been suspended.
David Howarth (LbDem justice spokesman)…

“The fact that this video shows another example of an officer with his number obscured assaulting a member of the public indicates that there is a systematic problem here, not just a series of individual acts of misconduct.

“The question is on my mind whether the police are using a some kind of ‘designated hitter’ system.”

Link via Rwendland in the comments on Bloggerheads.

“Turn around, nothing to see, is there.”

April 14th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

Excuse me PC fucking Bastard, but we’ll be the judge of that.

Via loads of people on twitter

Integrity and honesty

April 14th, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

There’s calls for the Code of Conduct for Special Advisors to be tightened. Here is an excerpt (my emphasis)…

5. Special advisers should conduct themselves with integrity and honesty. They should not deceive or knowingly mislead Parliament or the public. They should not misuse their official position or information acquired in the course of their official duties to further their private interests or the private interests of others. They should not receive benefits of any kind which others might reasonably see as compromising their personal judgement or integrity. They should not without authority disclose official information which has been communicated in confidence in Government or received in confidence from others. The principles of public life set down by the Committee on Standards in Public Life, at Annex B, provide a framework for all public servants.

Seems clear enough to me.

Same shit different day

April 13th, 2009 § 2 comments § permalink

spy_vs_spy
So. We’ve got one bunch of cunts making up shit about another bunch of cunts.

I have had a ticking off for tarring everyone in one group of public servants with the same, but I’m gonna do it again here.

Our politicians are all the same. There is no difference between them*. Is it that you need to be a cunt to rise to the top of the tree or does the system turn once good and honest people into complete wankers?

This latest debacle between McBride and Draper is just the latest in a long line of fuck ups that are unacceptable. And I’ll bet that it could just as easily have been a Conservative plot to fuck the opposite team as the Labour one that’s come to light.

I don’t know the details of the email, or much details about it at all. To be frank, I couldn’t give two shits either. All I know is that there was an email from Labour MPs’ containing lies about Conservative MPs’.

What sort of shitheads must we have running the country, if they think it is ok to do this? Think about it. These guys aren’t your drunk down the local spouting whatever comes into their head. It’s not 7 year old shouting to about someone ‘having the lurgy’ not realising what they’re doing. They are supposedly grown up, responsible people that are supposed to know right from wrong.

These. People. Tell. Lies.

The whole fucking thing is shagged. They’re only sorry when they get caught at something like this and when they do it’s a passed of as a joke or a misunderstanding or not very sensitively worded.
Are we fucking stupid? Do we look like cunts? Have we got ‘TWAT’ written on our collective foreheads?
That’s what it feels like, sometimes.

Dunno about you, but I’m fucking sick of it.

*There are a couple of exceptions, but I’ll let you decide who they are.

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