Angel My Ass
Feb0
Horse (n): Solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped domesticated since prehistoric times.
Angel (n): Spiritual being attendant upon God.
Now then, it may just be me but I can’t quite see how these two definitions match without wondering if a spiritual horse is amongst the commonly accepted attendants of God. It then surprised me to see that the south of England (specifically Kent) is commissioning a 33:1 scale horse costing £2,000,000 – and dubbing it the “Angel of the South”.
As you may know there is already an Angel of the North, so named because it looks like an angel. The proposed Angel of the south doesn’t look like an angel – it looks like a horse. Admittedly a giant horse, but a horse nonetheless.
Rate This
Dec1
According to the BBC, Culture Secretary Andy Burnham has said that websites having age ratings should be considered. You can see what everybody else’s comments on this are (BBC), but I’d like to take a moment to explore a few alternative solutions which don’t rely on the government setting up a system which is bound to fail.
OpenDNS is a fantastic system which everybody should use anyway. It can manage DNS controls for your whole network, and includes über-efficient filtering and parental controls, complete with community-driven categories. It’s really easy to use, and only suffers a downfall if your child is intelligent enough to change the DNS servers, in which case most filtering tools are useless anyway. It’s quick, easy and efficient.
Both Windows Vista and OS X Leopard have comprehensive parental controls, allowing you to limit time, block websites, use filters, ban activities, limit time doing certain activities and so on. These are included with any version you’re likely to have on a home PC, and are easy to set up.
NetNanny is the most common installable utility for parents to restrict web browsing, for Windows or OS X. It costs, but a lot of people associate cost with quality so it should keep those who don’t know better happy.
Part-Time Fail
Oct0
Apparently the definition of part-time work is now two 12 hour shifts and two 16 hour shifts (That’s 52 hours) over 7 days. So, there goes that employment opportunity.
Ugh. Don’t talk to your children like this. Please.
Sep0
Time to Talk: Get Help Talking to Your Kids about Drugs and Alcohol
How depressingly… depressing. It’s one of those “talk to your kids on their level and be hip, yo!” things. It even includes a handy guide to using “txt” to communicate better.
I know I’d be embarrassed if my parents tried any of this. Stop trying to ‘get down’ with the ‘yoof’ of today and just talk like human beings. You’ll get far more ‘respek’ from me if you refuse to txt me lyk u dnt no how 2 spel coz u wna b on my lvl.
Jack Thompson Does It Again
Jun0
Apparently our favourite gaming-related “lawyer”, Jack Thompson, has walked out of a hearing, claiming that the judge doesn’t have authority to preside over aforementioned hearing. Associated is a rather verbose letter, in which he seems to perform his usual trick of going off at 7 different tangents at the same time using bizzare language and repeatedly referencing how he, The Mighty Jack Thompson, has saved the world.
This is the same person who seems hell-bent on banning any video game which is more violent than The Adventures Of Fluffy Bunny Rabbit in Cotton Wool Land (not a real game) since it scars the poor children and makes them want to go decapitate police officers using chainsaws and then urinate down their throats.
This is the same person who throws legal threats at anybody within 100 yards who mentions his name, the name of anybody he has sued (which is an extensive list) or the name of anybody he has sent a legal threat to (an even longer list).
This is the same person who goes off his nut about how God has sent him on a mission to clean the world of the violent smut which is degrading today’s society every time that somebody points out that he’s talking bollocks.
You get the idea. Please, hurry up and debar him so we can finally be rid of his endless rambling about how far up his own backside he is.
How Many Bikes?
Mar0
Apparently the wonderful University of Lincoln have acquired some bicycle storage huts, allowing students with everybody’s favourite two-wheeled transit method to lock them up securely. Students have to provide their own padlock, but this is only to be expected and is no more unusual than any other bicycle storage method. However, I spotted a slight problem in the message telling us about this.
There are three huts by the GCW Library and a further six by the Sports Centre on the Brayford campus.
So by my maths that’s a grand total of nine secure bicycle huts. For a student and staff body of somewhere in the region of 30,000.