Archive for May, 2006
Cool census avoidance
This story from New Zealand made me laugh:
A census-objector claimed he was cryogenically frozen in a freezer and pronounced “legally dead” to avoid filling in yesterday’s census.
This morning he woke up in his own bed in his house truck with a splitting headache and slight cold but otherwise none the worse for wear after the stunt in Hamilton’s Garden Place.
As it was, Laird McGillicuddy Graeme Cairns had no census forms to fill in anyway, as he had recently moved into the house truck and had not been found by the census staff.
This was just the latest census-avoiding stunt for Mr Cairns. In 1986 he claimed he was possessed by the spirit of an ancient ape and was not legally a person. This failed in court.
In 1991 he filled out his form in Latin and nailed it to a tree. In 1996 he hovered over Garden Place in a hot air balloon and was deemed to be out of New Zealand’s legal air space. In 2001 he was genuinely absent, in Australia tending to a dying friend.
He now has five years to work on his next stunt, which he says could involve either time travel or hypnosis so he believed himself a turnip, not a person.
Smells like Teen Spirit, played by an orchestra. Of ukuleles.
Poptastic
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Another month, another evening where I’ll be the oldest person at a gig: on Sunday night I’m off to see Girls Aloud, or at least I will be if the honest-looking eBay seller doesn’t rip me off. Yay!
Yes, I am hopelessly immature
Best headline ever, via TechCrunch:
Jobster To Acquire (two month old) Jobby
Doctors attack NHS homeopathy
There’s a good letter in Today’s Times from doctors who urge NHS trusts to stop paying for alternative medicine. As Tim Worstall puts it:
If as and when double blind trials are done to show that “alternative” treatments work, they then stop being alternative and become conventional, evidence based medicine. Which is as it should be. If rich idiots (or even poor idiots) which to waste their money on healing crystals, let them do so. The rest of us can then have our tax money spent on crystals that actually work: like the lutetium oxide ones that are at the heart of an MRI scanner.
Sorry, I hit publish before adding this bit: I don’t have a problem with people going for homeopathy, but when the NHS can’t cope with conventional medicine - stuff with a proven effect - then the last thing trusts should be doing is paying for quackery. If you’ve been following this blog for a while you’ll know of my own experiences with rationing: despite my GP agreeing that I needed an MRI scan and then back surgery, my local NHS trust wouldn’t fund the scan because my back injury wasn’t life threatening. I was lucky: thanks to generous relatives and a book deal I was able to scrape together the money to go private, and I’m largely okay now. Had I stuck with the NHS, I’d still be crippled.
The great cutlery crackdown
Yes, Scotland (and particularly the West of Scotland) has a huge problem with knife crime. But come on…
AN ANGRY restaurant boss has hit out after being rapped for leaving steak knives lying on outdoor tables. He has vowed to take on Glasgow City Council after being asked to remove around 20 knives from tables in Merchant Square.
The story’s from last night’s Evening Times, which explains that Sizzler’s steakhouse has been rapped for putting cutlery on tables. The “outdoor” bit is plain wrong: Merchant Square is an enclosed terrace, which is used by several different restaurants.
Critics said the knives were potentially lethal weapons and should only be brought to tables when food is served.
*sighs*
High definition TV sucks
So says Mr Biffo, anyway. Is a slight improvement in picture quality worth the extra cash and the hassle of a constantly crashing Sky HD box?
If my sense of deflation could be measured in cows, it would be forty eight cows strong.
Blog weirdness
That’s the blog and the comments moved, but I don’t have time just yet to sort out categories and other goodies. Please excuse the dust…
Recycling: oh, the irony
As part of its groovy new recycling programme, my local council has issued a new timetable showing when the recycling bins will be picked up. I went to put the old one in the recycling box but unfortunately it’s made of plastic-coated paper with a magnetic strip glued to the back, which means it can’t be recycled.
The best/worst virus in the world, ever
A terrifying new virus is sweeping the Internet, according to Sophos:
Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos’s global network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have discovered a worm that attempts to send a photograph of an owl to attached network printers.
The picture it prints (see link) made me laugh like a drain.