Monthly Archives: March 2006

Four Screws

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Ages ago I said screws were to be held in greater esteem that I think we do.
In our kitchen there are cupboards on the wall. Nothing strange there. In those cupboards we have glasses, mugs, plates, bowls, more plates, more pots, some wine, a hidden stash of chocolate and a couple of them with lots of foodstuffs in. 4 cupboards. Each cupboard held up with only 4 screws.
4 little bits of metal are holding not just the cupboard but everything I put in it up in the air against a wall. Now I know that seems so very “Yeah… ??” but this stuff is heavy and we aren’t talking coachbolts or industrial type screws – they are just the regular screws that I can buy 8 for 72p at the local hardware. 4 screws are holding a cupboard which is also holding a 6 person dinner set inside it. Don’t you find that amazing? I was putting the pots away earlier and just as I finished stacking it all back I saw one of the screws. Now I know there are only 4, and I know what’s in that cupboard. And I know that if I had fitted the cupboard it would have had bolts, screws and probably legs given what is put in it. I wonder what the ‘strength-test’ is? Some consumer programs do those ‘carrier bag’ tests with tins of baked beans – maybe they use the same – someone must test these things surely.
Screws. Useful.

[Now I know someone might feel the need to comment and supply lots of details about loads, forces, shearing, glue, gravity, static whatever blah blah but there are some things that for some of us always have that little air of "wow". This for me is such a thing. It's not a biggie, I know it can be explained and I know it probably makes not the tiniest bit of sense to you. Humour me :) ]

Shifting focus

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It’s odd how the dynamic of the house – and of me – changes when J gets a relapse. Oh well.
Guy who lived on the same street as us 3 houses ago died today apparently. He was in his 40′s. People coming into the local shop are expressing dismay at his passing – they seem to be forgetting that he was rarely seen sober and was on over a bottle of spirits a day. Or maybe they all know but are doing the “don’t speak ill of the dead” thing. Weird.
I need to buy a mobile. Oh yes – Orange. Damn idiots. J leaves her phone on the table. Is not expecting anything. I’m not about. Phone starts bleeping because texts are coming through. J is worried it might be one of the girls so she struggles – with a very high risk of falling (she has done a few times, it’s only time before she breaks a bone) – to the phone only to find it is Orange sending her repeat texts about some stupid offer. Bloody idiots. They might not know but since when did she either opt-in or be given an opt-out for the frigging things? Orange. Tossers.

I am also fairly sure that the Prince who rescued the Princess who slept for 100 years (or whoever it was) wore socks. Took the beast for a walk today and we went on a new – to him – route. Along this certain path there was a choice: stay going ahead or turn right and across fields. We went right. Around 75 minutes, several fields, lots of mud and no shortcuts later we come out on the original path but about a half mile higher up. this was intended and is the route home. We start walking down. On the left is thick hedge with a fence on the otherside of it. On the right is wire-fencing then a steep drop to the A46. It’s a narrow path. Just as we get close to the original choice of paths we hit a problem. For at least 20 feet brambles on the right have decided to go over the path. I can turn back and walk the whole way back, or I can battle through. Winston has delegated this task in it’s entirety. So I whip out my trusty Leatherman-wannabe and battle through. It took quite some time! Calves had some stings but because I wasn’t wearing socks my ankles took a beating. There’s a lot of blood on the inside of my boots that wasn’t there this morning.

Screws! I remembered screws…. hang on.

The top and bottom at Metacritic

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I own one film in the Lowest 200
8MM

I own 13 films in the Top 200
Godfather, Pulp Fiction, LOTR Trilogy, Star Wars, LA Confidential, Goodfellas, American Beauty, Terminator, Kill Bill v2, Leaving Las Vegas, Silence of the Lambs.

My own top 5 ever: Leon (Director’s Cut), Shawshank Redemption, Aliens (Director’s Cut), Pulp Fiction, Monsters Inc. (I posted that top 5 to usenet in Jan 2004, and it’s still not changed)

Blogs as defined by the Times

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This is from The Times Online:

Even the best blogs are parasitic on what their practitioners contemptuously call the “mainstream media”. Without a story to comment on or an editorial to rubbish, they would have nothing to say.

Most blogs have nothing to say even then. Without editorial control, they are unconstrained by sense, proportion or grammar. Almost by definition, they are the preserve of those with time on their hands. Blogs have a few successes in harrying miscreant politicians or newspapers, but they are a vehicle for perpetuating myths as much as correcting them.

<sarcasm>It’s reassuring to know that this comes from the Murdoch-owned press.</sarcasm> I could rip this to shreds – as could every blogger – but I just cannot be bothered.

Suing over comments

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….there had been many similar complaints about defamation on the internet. But he said: “Most of these cases go away quite quickly – people pull down the allegation – so it’s quite rare that people actually sue over internet comments.” (Times)

and related …

Clara.net managing director Steve Rawlinson …. reluctantly advised people to “host their sites outside the UK” …. and branded existing laws which hold ISPs responsible for content they host as “ridiculous”. (Register)

Dr Chai Patel – one dimensional

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One of Labour’s 12 secret lenders today insisted there was no “explicit or implicit” deal to reward him with a peerage …. however he wanted “to serve” in the upper chamber.

Stop trying to make it look like you were being so altruistic.

Dr Patel said he was upset by the suggestion of a link between loans and peerages and that people had ignored his record of public service.

Which record would this be then?

A politician is a serious responsibility. I believe I could have made a difference.

You want power. That’s all. You wanted to swan around your empire – an empire built using taxpayer’s cash – and move through society with the tag ‘Lord’ attached to you. And unelected people in charge of any aspects of the nation’s politics are also serious issues. I believe you are trying to dig yourself out of your grubby little hole too.

I have been dragged down into a two-dimensional person where I’ve somehow got money and I want to buy myself a bauble. That doesn’t seem like a fair way to be treated.

Oh FFS – go get your toys and get some bloody therapy will you? I can picture you pouting from here.

Dr Chai Patel. Greasy.
(src: Guardian)

Advanced Cell Therapeutics

One can only hope that the lying, cheating and greedy Catherine Orridge, Sean Castle, Robert Trossel and others equally of such low moral and ethical standards are caught out in the defrauding of people who really will clutch at even the most imaginary of straws. This nasty deceiving of people is worthy of the deepest contempt. It’s a con from start to finish and they all know it.

Stem cells, multiple sclerosis and thieves.

Mark McGowan – Idiot.

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An artist’s plan to leave six taps running for a year at secret London locations has angered Thames Water.

Performance artist Mark McGowan says it is a protest against private control of water in the UK.

… he intends to keep the taps running at secret London addresses, sending an estimated 100 million litres down the drain.

“I understand we are in a drought. But I am an artist so I’m not actually wasting water for nothing.”
BBC

Mr McGowan, I understand that I have more of a clue than you. You are a Grade-A fucking idiot. Get a bloody grip. WTF is it with these ‘artist’ types that makes them think they can do anything and then do the ‘but you SO do not understand’ act? Maybe McGowan should form something new: The Smoothbrain Collective.

And turn the damn taps off.

Let’s build more roads

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According to the BBC, the first car-share lane to be built will happen. This I do not understand.
I DO understand car-sharing, just as I understand public transport and I do know that building roads is by far the wrong answer to the transport problem (Remove road tax, petrol £10 / litre would get close) and this latest wheeze is bollocks. Think about it….. the idea is that by sharing a car you will get there quicker. Okay, seems sensible so far. So they build a road for this car sharing to happen on. Wrong wrong wrong. All that happens is that a few people will share, those few spaces on the main road will be freed up which will allow the existing traffic to move quicker which means others will see less congestion so they’ll start using the road and it’ll get busy again. Then the car-sharing people will whinge that they now have to slow down a bit so can they have another road please? The tarmac-loving ministers are forced to say yes because they set the precedent in the first place.
The problem is NOT these wide motorways – it’s all the thin little roads leading up to them. Leicester City Council has spent a fortune widening all it’s arterial roads from the city centre to the boundaries of it’s powers. Which is great – until you get to the edge going either way. It turns into the tightest of funnels and just shifts the problem.

If the authorities are serious about this reduction of car use – which we all know they are not – then you don’t give the cars more room to play in and hope they like the new rules. You take more space away and tell them to suck it up.