Groc's various musings: 2008/09

Bradford and Bingley

I just found this entry in one of my notebooks written a month or two ago...

God – I can't stand that new Bradford and Bingley TV ad. How to make something as utterly dull and boring as mortgages and banking and savings – interesting? Oh, let's have a very pretty girl dressed in green (the colour of money? Except most UK currency isn't green any more – it's brown, or purple, blue or whatever – not much green) and have her wearing a bowler hat (the logo of B&B was two bowled hatted men) and have her whittering inanely on - while lots of magical fairy lights swoosh around all over the place. Yup. We're deep in gah-gah fantasy land now. That's exactly what you want from a financial institution. Magic dancing lights – pretty girls and utter gibberish.

---

Then a few days later. The bubble bursts. Bradford and Bradley prove to be in such deep trouble that the Govt. has stepped in and nationalised it – sold off it's assets to a Spanish Bank – and blah blah blah.

“Dreams and hopes are so fragile..” yes, there are B&B – yes, they are – pity you didn't know that a few years ago.

Foreign national ID card unveiled

And so it begins....

BBC NEWS | Politics | Foreign national ID card unveiled

uh-oh

Heart Disease, Diabetes Linked to Chemical in Plastics - US News and World Report

Thrift Shops Thriving, but Running Low on Stock.
and if the thrift shops in 'Merica are finding things are tough (more customers - but far less donations) then what else is it going to take before the economists start to use the 'R' word?

Conservatives Scare More Easily Than Liberals,

Mmmm - interesting. Wonder if that's anything to do with the fact they're got more primordial, smaller reptilian brains. Because that would explain a lot...

Conservatives Scare More Easily Than Liberals, Say Scientists | Wired Science from Wired.com

just a quick mutter...

I was watching Newsnight last -erm night, and as part of the show they had one of their focus groups pieces. There they were showing speeches from Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg - then gauging the punter's opinions. So guess who everyone liked best? Oh, the Lib-Dems. You might think that'd give me a bit of hope for the future (since I so vehemently hate both Labour and the Tories) - but I've seen this time and time again over ... well, decades. The average punters always like what the Lib-Dems have to say - yet they never vote for them - why not? Because people say - 'oh, they haven't had the experience of being in power'. Why's that then? Oh, probably people won't come out of their comfort zones and even try something different. I'm guessing it's out of some sort of warped brand loyalty or something. The Labour party hadn't been in power for something like 18 long years before they got back in... the Tories will have been out of power for 10 years and more - but people will still vote either of those two in, rather than the third alternative. All this despite the fact the both have proved themselves pretty useless at running the country, and do so time and time again.

Sorry rant over. I might as well resign myself to the fact the Tories will almost inevitably get back in next election and set about fouling everything up in a most spectacular manner.

Ponzi scheme

...and when was this essay written? Oh, way back in 1998. So the writing on the wall for this current economic crisis has been up there all this time. I guess too many people where having too a great time to bother themselves to read that writing...

Ponzi scheme

*sigh* lunatics have been running the asylum for so long now -obscenely GREEDY lunatics that is...

Working Harder for Less

Mmmmm. Once upon a time one working man's wages could support a whole family with the 'wifey' being able to stay at home... Now it takes both partners to be out working. Now even that isn't enough?

Somethings been going wrong here - and has been going wrong for a very long time...

What's even more distressing is the fact that a quite large chunk of the working class will still vote for the Republicans. The same happened and still happens here - in the 80s so many working class people voted for Thatcher even as she was closing down mines and declaring war on the Unions. The right wing are just so good at their propaganda - they can get turkeys to vote for Christmas - every time.

Working Harder for Less Mocks the American Dream

Seabird chicks 'killed over food'

Oh dear - this is depressing.

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Edinburgh, East and Fife | Seabird chicks 'killed over food'

plastics, BPA and health...

*sighs*

Despite there being a report on the BBC News tonight - this was the only thing a search for BPA (bisphenol A) turned up: "Chemical linked to mouse genetic damage". Mmmmm, that article comes from 2003. It's odd how the reaction to health related things varies wildly. A wild bird sneezes somewhere and the papers are full of 'Avian Flu is going to wipe us all out' headlines. Any Blue-tongue, foot and mouth, BSE and there's mass slaughter and corpse burning.

But letting food manufacturers package all our food in plastics without having done any long term tests whatsoever... mmmmm...

In defence of plastic

Actually I'm a great fan of plastic but I think we over-use it and need to to treat it with a lot more respect. And in the above lined article it's disingenuous to equate plastics used by high end designers when the big problem is all the plastic used to wrap food, plastic bottles, disposable nappies etc. All the stuff that gets used once and sent off to landfill - or what ends up out as part of that scary garbage island...

Doctor Who's secrets revealed, by Russell T. Davies - Times Online

Extracts from Doctor Who: The Writer's Tale, to be published by BBC Books on September 25, RRP £30. (Blimey. £30 that's a bit expensive. Oh wait - it's published by the BBC heh - they're notorious for over pricing everything they publish.)

Doctor Who's secrets revealed, by Russell T. Davies - Times Online

i want this shirt

nous sommes les mannequins (acht)
Originally uploaded by japanese forms

nous sommes les mannequins (acht)

Paul McGann back as Dr Who

The thing with Sun rumours is that - they're often not fair off the mark. It'd be nice to see McGann more tightly woven into the TV canon.

Paul McGann back as Dr Who

SATS? what?

We never used to have SATS in the UK. Decades aggo we had the 11+ - which no doubt some old biddies ware quietly fighting to bring back along with grammar schools etc. But SATS? Oh god - is this yet another one of those stupid ideas that our Government has decided to blindly copy from America - regardless of whether it's appropriate for us or not. I don't know why they do tat because they almost always get it completely wrong and mess the whole thing up. Like they have. The whole notion getting rid of individual exams in favour of a high school diploma is another Americanism. (In that article I'm not happy about people taking too much attention to what businesses say what they want. Education should be regarded as a valuable thing in it's own right - not just as means to getting a job. I think that's where the whole system has been going wrong these past few decades.)

Why don't we just ask if we can become part of the US and have done with it? Oh wait. The fact that they don't really want us might have something to do with that?

*Sigh*

an Englishman in New York

Oooh, I can't wait for this...

Crisperanto.org: AN ENGLISHMAN IN NEW YORK - The Movie - John Hurt reprising Quentin Crisp role!

mmm trying to see if i can blog from my Nokia web browsing gadget. It doesn''t look as if I can. the cut down pocket opera browser just can't handle the complated pages. *sighs*

we don't neid no edukashion

Oh dear. Can you see what's wrong with this picture. The whole of the country's economy has been badly messed up now because of a small number of people (bankers mainly) being let out-of-control - chasing short term profits (selling sub-prime loans) and not giving a hoot about real long term planning for the future.

Hard times hitting American students and schools in double blow - International Herald Tribune

And now the UK has adopted the same model for our Universities - student loans, expensive fees, top-up fees etc. I guess we'll soon be seeing the same thing here.

Groc's various musings