My maternal grandmother spent her last years in an EMI care home with Parkinson's and dementia. She was very well cared for, both by the staff and by my mother who was in every day talking to her and seeing to her needs. However, a few times she had a fall and ended up in hospital (because she had been underweight for many years and her skin was extremely fragile). There she was treated very poorly; again, fortunately, my mother was in there once or twice most days and ended up fighting to get all the old folks on the ward proper treatment, or even noticed by the staff, who seemed to think the hospital would run a lot better if there weren't all these sick people mucking it up.

All this is just so you've some inkling how much this sort of thing fucking pisses me off.

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As does this.

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Teens use hedgehog as—
Oh, for crying out loud, look, I drag myself into work totally wrecked because of bloody Norton SystemWorks (don't ask) and I don't want to be ambushed by this sort of thing! World, stop bad things happening when my mental defences are demyelinated, okay? I really think that isn't too much to ask.

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So. Once again the country failed to be blinded and overrun by ambulatory plants. Where is the justice, I ask you? I DEMAND BLOODTHIRSTY SARRACENIA!

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Most inspired name for a show, evar.

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Oh I just luuuuhve the zebra accent. It's such a chaaaaahming myuuuusical brooooohgue.

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Furniture puts on chameleon show

...Yeah, but compared to the Microsoft Surface? "Er, wow, LEDs, well done."

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Workers 'want the return of the tea trolley' and such old-fashioned ideas as having a full hour's lunch break.

I prefer to sacrifice my lunch hour and leave early (...in principle, that is, when I don't end up staying late through disorganisation). Eating salad apparently only makes me fat anyway. :(

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One of the most-photographed men in the world - why airbrush? Why? Who would possibly imagine they'd get away with it? (I don't know about wrinkles, but the shape of the face makes me uneasy; I think they've done something to it.)

But then, we all know Photoshop, not Oil of Oreal, is the true cure for all unwanted reality.

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Tractor-pig, tractor-pig...

(Captain, they've locked onto us with a tractor pig! Squealds are at 40%! OH WHO WILL SAVE OUR BACON etc)

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Workers 'stressed out' by e-mails

If I might add a modest proposal, there is a lot to be said for the 'dopey fugue' approach to stress-reduction.

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All right, controversy time!

How much is too much coffee?

(That is a very nice photo, incidentally. Swirlywhirlywoo...)

Habitual auto-medicators for the lose, anyway. If you're caffeine-dependent on a normal day, what do you do in an emergency? I know, I know, easy to say for the caffeine-pure temple saint who detests tea and coffee.

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School uniforms made slash-proof. Worrying if you buy into media hype, which is what these parents are doing.

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Computah games are hypnotic and violence-inducing and O NOES WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN! Good, thoughtful piece, well worth a look.

Found this interesting: "People who've grown up with Mario see him keeping pace, running and jumping along the building tops that streak by on a train journey." That always interests me; it's not an entirely unknown fantasy, and not only video game related. I used to see a great dog keeping pace with the car. I've seen someone in some comm or other citing similar fantasies as evidence for having a spirit animal or (Pullmanesque) daemon. And I once saw an episode of some kids' tv show in which a supernatural German Shepherd followed a boy around and would appear running alongside the vehicle the boy was riding in; years after I first saw my dog, that is.

For the record, Oblivion only makes me cheerfully plan how best to raise my stats, mentally refer to idiot cultists as 'Miffic Dawn' or 'Mannimarco-bummers' and wish real life had a console so I could play around with `player.coc, `setactorfullname, `additem and `resurrect. Grand Theft Auto only leaves me with a yearning to steal and fly planes. FreeCell, however, when my habit was at its height at university, did make me see cards.

(Maybe I need to read more good, violent science fiction. Like, I dunno, a new Iain M Banks. Plug!! Impatience!!)

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School condemns 'chav-hunt' spoof. Why? Oh come on. It's hilarious. Lighten the frell up and stop being strategically politically 'offended'.

Incidentally, class differences and absurdity? LONG tradition in British humour. So has IRONY. Nitwits.

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The Left-Handed Liberation Front Prizes¹ for puns that don't involve any roots of 'sinister' or 'gauche'.

¹ by which I mean reactions consisting of "yay" or possibly dumb limericks

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Funny rant, but "waah waah, it's too haaaaaard to remember to take a reusable bag to the shops!"? Really. Just stick it in your rucksack (or car boot, etc) and all you have to do is remember to put it back in when you've come home and unloaded.

Biodegradable carrier bags too, yes, and charge for them because even a penny or so has a noticeable effect on people's responses (it's startling! While they waste huge amounts on expensive face cream!), but those approaches should never be the main focus. Because the 'three Rs' of waste reduction are in the order they're in for a reason: reduce, reuse, recycle. It's pretty commonsensical, honestly, that not making them in the first place is far less of a waste of time.

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Temple of the wat?

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Technology droolfest time:

Virtual graffiti. I have no idea what practical use this is, but I love it.

Butterfly effect via the intarwebs. Win!

Oh, and bees - specifically, how a computer animation accurately models honey. Sticky stuff.

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And finally, safety tips for kids around dogs, because it was linked from the news index.