Yearly Archives: 2005
Rant: Why does everything have to be child friendly?
A recent story on the BBC website has got me thinking about an aspect of modern parenthood that has been a niggle of mine for awhile.
Why do parents seem to expect that every place has to be child-friendly?
Don’t get me wrong…I like kids and although I don’t have any of my own (I can almost hear all the parents out there dismissing my standpoint already with that matronising little limp-wristed wave that is in popular use these days). I appreciate the fact that for a long time, many places frequented by parents with young children had an appalling lack of facilities and this situation needed to be redressed.
+21Rant: African Dictatorship for Dummies
(An excerpt from Robert Mugabe’s autobiography “My boyfriend’s back and there’s going to be trouble…”)
Are you having trouble with your peasant population? Are they starting to grumble about not having all the expected luxuries like enough food, decent housing and clean water?
+22Stem Cell Therapy Advances
An interesting article on the BBC website describes how the world’s first pure nerve stem cells – made from human embryonic stem cells – have been created by scientists at the Universities of Edinburgh and Milan.
The more I learn about this technology, the more excited I become with it’s potential for the treatment of a myriad of diseases and (long term) even the cure for a range of cancers and HIV – provided that proper screening is undertaken to prevent the risk of infecting patients with viruses and prion diseases, such as vCJD.
+17Chavez tweaks Bush’s Nose
As Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez continues to harrangue DEA agents, (who he accuses of spying on his government) it now looks like the flamboyant and outspoken “El Presidente” is prepared to hit the US where it REALLY hurts…in the oil barrel!
In a BBC News Article published today, Chavez has suggested that Venezuelan oil “instead of going to the United States, could go elsewhere”.
As Venezuela exports about 1.3 million barrels a day to the US and is the world’s fifth largest oil producer, one wonders how long it will be before the Bush administration claims that Venezuela posesses WMD’s (does cocaine count?) and invades?
Oi vay!
+19Rant: Davina – get a LIFE!
Dizzy dame Davina McCall is getting miffed about all those nasty little comments people are making about “Big Bother”. She claims that her critics are all “pseudo-intellectuals who have never really watched it”.
Sorry Davina, but right from the beginning this has been television equivilant of septic tank effluent and nothing more than a platform for a handful of fat, talentless, brainless chavs/trailer trash to show the world how truly stupid they really are…it’s all it ever was and all it ever will be.
And if – as McCall claims – the show’s contestants represented a balance of British society and are not “freaks”, then we are ALL truly in trouble!
For me, the one positive thing that has come out of this crapola “pseudo-television” is that it has finally pushed me to cancel my TV license…and I’ve never been happier!
+21Thinking about Going Ape
A mate of ours has just booked us on what sounds like a bit of a larf…a place called “Going Ape” in the nearby Moors Valley park.
The Moors Valley website describes it as:
“an extreme high wire forest adventure, not for the faint hearted. Strapped into a harness, participants traverse from tree to tree just below the canopy and negotiate rope bridges, scramble nets, tarzan swings and zip slides. Go Ape! and enjoy 2+hours of adrenaline-fuelled fun, laughter and adventure.”
Well, I sure as hell could use the exercise and it looks like fun…watch this space.
See This entry for more details
+15
R.I.P Mo
Mo Mowlam’s death today is a loss on quite a few fronts.
It’s a big loss to the irreverent, no-bullshit, we-DON’T-kiss-Bliars-arse faction within the Labour party (only Tony Benn now remains from that group!)
It’s also a loss to female Winston Churchill impersonators.
Most importantly, it’s a loss of a key figure in the Good Friday agreements, which eventually led to the recent unprecedented disarming and cessation of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland.
Rest in Peace Mo – You earned it and you will be missed!