Monthly Archives: January 2006

Staying in Focus

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On the principle that if I take lots I may get the odd good one…..

Gallery

The full images are huge and weigh in at around 1.8meg+
I have no clue as to image optimisation
The Gallery 2.0.2 install was a breeze – very nice indeed
And it finally mean that J gets to see something of the beast while he’s out.

And Winston ? He’s 8 months old on Friday.

Patricia Hewitt- off her f*cking rocker

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From The Times

MINISTERS are hoping to rescue the NHS from its continuing cash problems through a “semi-privatised” scheme that trains patients to avoid hospital or their GP.

The Expert Patient Programme, which has cut hospital visits by 16 per cent in trial areas, is to have its budget tripled before becoming a not-for-profit company

” that trains patients to avoid hospital” – Don’t turn left, it’s not a hospital, really, it’s not there at all, ignore it, drive past, go on, go !!

“not-for-profit” – read that as “there will be no profit after the greedy kickback-giving profiteers have taken their vastly inflated salaries.”

Ms Hewitt believes that the best way to expand the Expert Patient Programme rapidly is by allowing NHS managers or outside providers to take it over from state control.

What ? You have an NHS, you want to make save money so you hive off the care to the Private Sector ? How do we spell NHS these day ? b_u_p_a ? It will cost more you bloody idiot.

The programme works by running training courses for patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes, asthma, multiple sclerosis and arthritis. They learn how to treat themselves when previously they would have gone to their doctor or the hospital accident and emergency department, and to avoid such emergencies altogether by looking after themselves better.

Ms Hewitt, you are seriously out of your f*cking tree on this lump of idiocy. Just how in hell do you propose stopping people with these conditions from attending hospital ?
Here’s a better idea – tax the drunken morons who are cluttering up Accident & Emergency because of your decision to allow alcohol to be sold 24/7. THOSE are the cases you need to remove.

The programme, set up four years ago, was based on an American “self-care” plan

That’ll work then eh ? When will the UK bloody learn…

The care structure we are meant to have now (primary care onwards) is meant to be doing all this – how many GP practices now have asthma clinics for example ? – so if Ms “lost the f*cking plot” Hewitt is saying we need all this new stuff then she is also admitting that the current structure has failed. So while that in itself is an okay admission in some ways, I’ll wager that she did not go consulting with front-line professionals but instead has pondered how she can feather her own nest when she’s been thrown out after her house of cards has been blown to the wind. Ms “Scamming the NHS for all I can” Hewitt does not use the NHS does she ? Ohh… now there’s an idea – if someone pays for private healthcare, make them pay private healthcare prices when THEY need A&E – that alone would stop the spongers from the private sector. (And don’t give me any of that “I pay my taxes bollocks” – those companies do what they do to cream the easy stuff. If they are in Healthcare then they should provide healthcare.)

Here is my 2 step plan for a guaranteed better NHS

  1. Ask the (actually working) nurses which managers should be sacked and sack them
  2. Ask the nurses how to make it better and do what they say

Too many chiefs, not enough indians – that’s what’s at the core of the NHS problems.

Use Spam Karma 2 ?

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If you do, go to dr Dave’s blog, read all about the “State of Spam” and then click the donate button.
As you can see in the footer of this blog, SK2 has killed 5276 spams. If it took me 1 second to kill one of those spams, then dr Dave’s code has saved me 87 minutes of deleting those spams (that doesn’t sound much – but do you really want to spend an hour and a half doing it ?). Adding into that the fact that readers here have not had to see the absolute crap that the spammers churn out then I think a donation is very much in order. Blogging may well be free but we sometimes need to say Thank You to those that help make this experience a more pleasant one. And today is that day. Go click the Donate button, hand over some cash and say Thank You.

Wipeout reloading

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Got my hands around a mate’s PSP earlier. Having avoided them before because of the “can’t have, won’t touch” I finally gave in when he said did I want to use it while he went off somewhere. I’m late to this particular party but wow…. it’s the mutt’s nuts in every possible sense. He’d got some driving game (Burnout ?) and he’d also got Wipeout Pure. I love Wipeout and this is just superb. Fan-bloody-tastic. I’m leaning into the corners, air-braking round corners, almost managed a couple of perfect laps in the whatever tournaments I was in. I really am amazed at how good the graphics are. If I’d thought of it I should have put some headphones in to see what the game sound is really like. I want one. Tomorrow I’m digging out whatever Wipeout games I’ve still got.

Having said that, Meteos on NDS eats my time away ..

Picking on the BBC again

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The BBC pages have profiles on the countries / regions of the world, and in the UK page there is this list of the Press.

A couple of observations:

  1. Why not use alpha order instead of what could be randomness or could be something else given the top paper is right-wing and it’s position (given the lack of commentary) could be taken as meaning the DT is the principal paper ?
  2. Why not use age order instead ?
  3. Tabloids ….. if a broadsheet is a paper that is large and requires much careful manouvering when trying to read it in a car / bus / train, and a tabloid is of the smaller variety, then why are some papers called “former broadsheets” when they are actually tabloid size ? You can pick that maybe they are ever so slightly bigger but the distinction is still being made – it’s like the BBC are trying to say “They used to be big and important but now that are small but still important and whatever you do, don’t call them tabloids”. But it is also saying “Tabloids are not as important” and while you can argue about the role of the tabloids – Name ONE headline the Times has ever run ? No ? I bet you can name a couple from the Sun – what cannot be denied is that more people in the country read the tabloids than the broadsheets. Why is the BBC making this distinction worldwide ? Is it a class thing ? Some sort of antiquated view they wish to push ?
  4. Why are the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail not described as ‘Daily’ when the Daily Express is ?
  5. Why is the Daily Star not listed ? (rhetorical :) )
  6. Why is it called “Daily Telegraph” when it is actually “The Daily Telegraph” ?
  7. Considering their importance and the in-depth news they can deliver, why are the Sunday papers not there ? Such an omission means that the Observer fails to be mentioned.

I can’t figure out the order at all….

And just under that section, it covers the TV.
“BBC World – commercially-funded international news channel ”
Wrong !
“BBC World – funded through taxation disguised as a fee”
Correct !

Note the lack of any financial description next to the obviously politically neutral BBC…

Cookies and Cash

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Out walking Winston earlier, me and P. are working through some maths that she needs to learn, and today it was ratios. She got the hang of it really well and I thought I’d round it off:
If Tesco sell cookies for 30p each, and Asda sell 10 for £1.80 where will you buy your cookies if I give you 90p ?
“Tesco”
No … Tesco sell 1 for 30p, Asda sell 10 for 180p. Where will you buy them from ?
“Tesco”
P – we need to work on something again
“No we don’t”
But you keep getting it wrong
“No I don’t – I’ve only got 90p”

/me slaps head …

Keeping Brady alive

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Why ?
Here’s a guy who has been in imprisoned since 1966. He has always been kept in high security, he has never had the possibility of parole, he is apparently an intelligent bloke and I’m sure – given his crimes – that he will have been an object of hate to many who have crossed his path. So why is the state – our state – going to such lengths to keep him alive ? (The fact these tablets were paracetamol is irrelevant – it’s the actions that matter). I’m sure the authorities will be using some intricacy of the Mental Health Act to keep him alive in the manner they do, but why ?
What good does it serve for society for him to be locked away like this instead of allowing him to die as he wishes ? The crimes he committed – which were horrific – are those of two generations ago. Crimes that happen now seem to get less of a sentence that from back then. (In the 60′s, these cases immediately spring to mind – Hindley and Brady, The Great Train Robbers, Harry Roberts and the Krays (that’s with no searching at all). Note that the wishes of the govt’s of the day are still being respected, even today. It’s almost like the judiciary now will not overrule their predecessors.) So Brady says I want to die and every day staff have to force feed him. Can that be an experience even the staff want to repeat 3 times a day ?
He wants to die. They will not let him. If he has a heart attack do they have a defib handy and all the drugs to bring him back ? Were he to have a stroke would they whizz him into intensive care ? If he ‘died’ would they get the brain stem tests and then say “The bastard is having us on !” and insist that he stay on life support ? Why does the stupidity end ? When do they let him die ? It’s almost as if they want that last bit of control. It’s like they are wanting to deprive him of the luxury of dying.
What’s the point ?
If Brady did die and the powers that be permitted that to happen, what else would occur ? The newspapers would go into overdrive (you just know that the obits – will he even be allowed something as dignified as an obit ? – are having this latest juicy snippet tacked on the end) and they will also libel him in unbelieveable ways. The govt will proclaim that “Justice has been served !”. Relatives of his victims will be on the TV / in the news and there will be a secret burial which The Sun will get pictures of very quickly. I reckon that’s about it – and there is nothing earth-shattering in there is there ? Nothing that will change the world for the better. But if he were allowed to die when he chose, then we’d have the people popping up saying that he should have served all his life (hey, if he dies in prison then he did do just that) or that the system should not have allowed it. Allowed what ? The ultimate self-determination ?
Doesn’t this continue to give the lie that our society uses imprisonment as rehabilitation ? And if it IS punishment / retribution / vengeance / cruel then why not admit it ? Why not bring back the Death Penalty ? I for one would welcome sentences that actually meant what they said – and my problem with this case is that Life does mean life. This week someone somewhere in Britian will be handed a Life sentence. It’s accepted that such a term generally means 20 years. And that good behaviour can lop up to a third off that – so why is Brady locked up for so long ? A recent case as an example:
Alan Webster and his girlfriend raped a 12 week old baby. And he took photos. 12 weeks. He was jailed for life – but he can be considered for release after 12 years. Now what the f*ck is that all about ? I think Alan Webster should be physically beaten daily. Literally battered with 2by4 every single day for the rest of his life. And yet that bastard can be out in 12 years. There are other cases that I could find or that would resonate with other people as being on a par with Brady – I’m not saying that they ARE on a par, just that we would equate them as such. Yet the sentences are vastly different aren’t they ?
They both deserved to die. They both not only admitted guilt but were proven beyond all limits to be guilty as charged. So why let either live ?

When people used to ask me at work about changes they wanted I would sometimes ask them for 3 reasons why we should do it their way. It showed me that they had thought things through at least to the point where it was worth considering further. The number 3 was arbitrary but reasonable I thought. I certainly can’t think of 3 reasons why our society is keeping him alive.

Brady wants out – let him.