Sam Pepys for the Geek Generation

I will be the first to admit that since his appearance in QI on telly, my view of Mr Fry has been somewhat jaundiced. QI always seemed to me to be just a vehicle for Fry to appear to demonstrate his enormous intellect and personally I found the format indescribably tiresome. Having been a huge fan of his work in his Fry & Laurie and Blackadder days I was sad to turn my face from Stephen but hey, it's only television. What the hell there more enjoyable tripe on other channels. 

Imagine my surprise then, to discover not only his excellent series on America in which he travelled round that enormous continent in a London Black Cab exploring in words and pictures some of America's more arcane crevices, but also that he is a gadget Geek of the most informed and intelligent kind. 

The American show was a delight made all the more so by Stephen Fry's self-deprecating erudition and his abstention from the all-too-easy descent into mockery that parts of American culture seems to invite. The series was an exploration of a diverse country with huge amounts of admirable qualities almost childlike in their enthusiasm. It would have been simple to mock their excesses with a soi-distant British intellectual cynicism and Stephen, to his immense credit, resisted the temptation.

Next I come across this. One of the most sensible, accurate and balanced articles I've read about the smartphone revolution. It should be required reading for anyone interested in the technological evolution and it's effect on society. 

The Curse of Jobs - Part 1

No sooner do I read that the Simpsons are taking a tilt at the behemoth that is Apple and the slow but inexorable rise of the Mac in all its various guises but I see this where Bart, Homer et al. have been implicated in an internet child porn scandal down under. Pshaw! What a world we live in!

Home Secretary gets an ass-kicking from Europe

You really do have to wonder what is going on when the rights of UK citizens are protected by the European Court of Human Rights(ECHR) in direct contradiction to the views held by UK Law Enforcement agencies. But, dear readers, that is exactly what has just happened as the ECHR has ruled that the retention of fingerprints and DNA samples and information on individuals who have not been charged with or convicted of a crime. This inevitably means that the UK own Human Rights regulation must be being breached by the holding of such information and is a small blow for civil liberties in the UK which seem to be under constant from a Government you'd expect to be broadly in favour of our freedoms. It remains to be seen what wriggling the authorities will perform to circumvent this ruling. Watch this space.

On Ennui, Befuddlement - Shit, Piss & Wind - Part 2

So many thoughts, so little brain. 

As property prices continue to plummet at significantly higher rates than even the big lenders are prepared to admit, we have yet to see anyone in the financial sector brought to task for the major cock-up that is the credit crunch. But hey, we now own a bank or two but, if a recent BBC programme is to be believed the levels of repossession have not even hesitated, indeed mortgage holders who have had the misfortune to default are being turfed out of their homes in double quick time. So the innocent loose their homes while the perpetrators of this nonsense smugly count their money. Twas ever thus.

New Labour is dead? As more and more of business is taken into public or part public ownership we see the spectacle of nationalisation by crisis - probably not the kind of private finance initiative the Goverment was hoping for. Whilst Gordon was busily hiving off Government spending to the private sector to get his spending plans 'off the books', the private sector was indulging in the kind of financial legerdemain that would make a street shell game artist blush. And here we are at bottom of the heap paying for the midemeanours of those at the top - plus ca change.

On Ennui, Befuddlement - Shit, Piss & Wind

Long time no post but the baffled mind still struggles with the ridiculous stupidity of the human race which is both terrifying and hilarious in almost equal measure.

Nutters with guns shoot people at random in Mumbai (which I notice some locals interviewed still called Bombay). I don't know when the human race will realise that killing people is a BAD IDEA if you want to be taken seriously in the 'ideas for saving the world' forum. Still, it's been going on since time began and I doubt it's going to stop any time soon. It's unutterably depressing all the same.

Next we have Wacky Jaqui again changing the law on prostitution in the UK with the stated aim of ending the practice. Though the main text is the prevention of trafficking of women and all the abuse and misery that goes with it, the sub-text is undoubtedly the ending of prostitution completely. I wonder what part of the phrase 'oldest profession' our well-meaning Home Secretary doesn't understand and, since clients are to be responsible for ensuring that the women they are hiring aren't trafficked, how she feels about seconding 'johns' into the police force? We have a whole new branch of law enforcement folks, in which the purchasers of women's favours are tasked with determining their employment and immigration status. Since the Home Office can't seem to do this effectively with all the resources at their disposal, I'm not sure how Joe Public, or John Public, is expected to vet their prospective partner with any degree of accuracy. But then it's obviously a way for goverment to outlaw prostitution by the back door if you'll pardon the expression. Good luck with that one.

Oh and the 'Wacky Jaqui reclassifies Wacky Baccy' saga continues with the Government determined to reclassify cannabis despite all advice to the contrary. Advice from experts they themselves employed to advise on the re-classification. Even the members of the House of Lords, not renowned for their rampant drug taking or stoner-support, think this is a bad idea. Jaqui appears to have received her instructions from ACPO and is determined to do all in her power to keep them sweet. 

There have also been warnings from prominent academics that 24-hour rolling news and the speed thereof is bad for our society. Oh really? The recent tea-cup tempest kicked up by Her Majesty's Opposition about whether Gordon and Alastair were considering a rise to 18.5% for VAT is just one example of the kind of nonsense we have to endure daily in order to fill the bottomless cup that is rolling news. Perhaps chamber pot would be a more appropriate metaphor since it more accurately describes the kind of shit, piss and wind with which we are provided daily. For goodness sake, surely any Government has to consider all possibilities and permutations. Are we to be assailed with an infinite number of potential solutions some of which will be so far out of the park as to be rejected out of hand by even the most reactionary administrations. Ho hum, so it goes.

Signage and Tattoo Removal in the Vanguard of the New Economy

Just what we need - more signs. A coroner has called for signs on beaches warning the public of the risk of sand tunnels caving in and suffocating diggers TO DEATH. I live in a wood in Dorset and when I came here ten years ago the few vertical objects that existed had branches on them and pine needles. Now, since the Health and Safety Executive got it's act together we have signs, lots of signs - signs to tell us to stop, signs to tell us to go, signs to tell us how the stop/go thingy works to wit: when the red light shows wait here - WTF? I have lived almost sixty years and never, in all that time, has anyone, ever had to explain to me how a traffic light works but now apparently they do. I even managed, without attending courses, to work out what the red lights flashing over the street junctions in my childhood Dublin(the affectionately known Winking Willies), were about at the age of six. What next - a sign telling me how to read the signs perhaps or regularly spaced signs all round our coastline reading 'Warning! Risk of Drowning'. Still on the positive side this may be just what's needed to prevent coastal erosion.

What about tattoo removal?

What?

You said something about tattoo removal.

Oh yeah that. Well, with all the individuals around proving their individuality by having myriad bits of their bodies drawn on by people with vibrating pencils, there's going to be a HUGE market in tattoo removal techniques when they all wake up and realise how repulsive they all look as their skin begins to sag and their bulges begin to expand with advancing age.

So the Brown/Darling axis need not worry. The economy will be kickstarted by the twin prongs of the booming signage industry and the flowering of the de-flowering business.

Ooo er missus!

STFU!!

Oh Boy, Sparks Are Gonna Fly

If this report is correct and the new prez is trying to control the price of drugs in the USA we should be prepared for a huge fight. Already, as this report suggests, Big Pharma is marshalling its forces to lobby for a free market in health care i.e. the power to charge what they like for their snake oil. This presidencay is shaping up to be one of the most interesting for many a year but if I was the Presidents body guards I'd be increasing my life insurance many-fold.