Vietnamese reptiles and sundry.
If I see the phrase "the eyes have it" used on a picture of some animal with big eyes ONE MORE TIME I'm going to have to firebomb a biznatch. It's one of those phrases that're abused so often for 'hilarious' puns that I'm not sure anybody knows what it really means.
To punish these hypothetical people, assuming also that they read here, have some rather wonderful old blather.
The Parliament.
I had almost forgotten to tell you that I have already been to the Parliament House; and yet this is of most importance. For, had I seen nothing else in England but this, I should have thought my journey thither amply rewarded.
[...]
It often happens that the jett, or principal point in the debate is lost in these personal contests and bickerings between each other. When they last so long as to become quite tedious and tiresome, and likely to do harm rather than good, the House takes upon itself to express its disapprobation; and then there arises a general cry of, "The question! the question!" This must sometimes be frequently repeated, as the contending members are both anxious to have the last word. At length, however, the question is put, and the votes taken, when the Speaker says, "Those who are for the question are to say aye, and those who are against it no." You then hear a confused cry of "aye" and "no" but at length the Speaker says, "I think there are more ayes than noes, or more noes than ayes. The ayes have it; or the noes have it," as the case may be. But all the spectators must then retire from the gallery; for then, and not till then, the voting really commences. And now the members call aloud to the gallery, "Withdraw! withdraw!" On this the strangers withdraw, and are shut up in a small room at the foot of the stairs till the voting is over, when they are again permitted to take their places in the gallery. Here I could not help wondering at the impatience even of polished Englishmen. It is astonishing with what violence, and even rudeness, they push and jostle one another as soon as the room door is again opened, eager to gain the first and best seats in the gallery.
Karl Moritz, Travels in England in 1782 (London, 1886)
Chuckle Brothers. Utter rubbish; but then, this pup grew up on Smallfilms and Cosgrove Hall stop-motion and never much liked slapstick anyway.
US forces 'lure Iraqis with bait'
Brilliant, Mary-Jane! I bet these super-best clever traps were baited with live ammunition, too, for extra cleverness.
I guess nobody in Iraq would see guns left lying around on the street and pick them up with the purpose of, ooh, I don't know, handing them in to security or stopping their children getting their hands on them or anything.
Those pesky human ricommunity relations.
Oh really now. It's an ugly cat. (My opinion, not that of my employer.)
Deep-voiced men 'have more kids'
I knew I was doomed to childlessness, but at least so are many of my favourite metal vocalists. Balls are made of steeeeeeel.
Grow up, Italy!
US cultie guilty of having a 14-year-old married against her will to her cousin. Always underage girls being pimped to lecherous older men. Funny, that.
Boooo.
The sitch in Burma's getting interesting.
Pictures from yesterday.
The internet saves the world once more.
Burma's also top of a new list of places not to move to. The top ten of the good-guys end of the list contains few surprises and no UK. Though to be fair to my birth nation, we're joint 12th. (Yes, on the good list; I checked because the story wasn't specific.)
Vatican warning over pope 'relic'
Oops, sorry, I misinterpreted that headline, hahahahaha.
Grow up, China!
...OK, not sure I can blame you for this one.
And, erm, I suppose this wouldn't go down well over there.
Next time: curried placenta!
This recent increase in allergies is quite fascinating.
Quite worrying how little the medics in this country know, though. For example, avoiding things can in fact increase your risk of becoming allergic to them (you don't build up a tolerance), and it's possible to chip away at an allergy by progressively exposing yourself to tiny amounts of the irritant (under controlled conditions! IANAD!).
And I want people to stop gratuitous capitalisation of nouns1, but life's full of disappointments.
1unless they speak German and are thus excused by dint of general awesomeness
Oates' sleeping bag case for sale
"I'm not racist, I just hate gyppos" says man
More details about the 'child porn' exhibition photo.
And note the following. The CPS says no case can be made against the photo under the Protection of Children Act, which means the entire argument suddenly boils down to this: "controversial photographs of naked children, taken by [Nan] Goldin, were indecent and would appeal to paedophiles."
Except that we must strike out the word "indecent" because they are not so, otherwise they would contravene the Protection of Children Act. Sections 1:1:a-b, right there.
So then we're left with the fact that they're decent controversial (obviously that) photos of naked children and the speculation that they "would appeal to paedophiles".
Now then. *flexes fingers* A naked photo of my dog might give a zoophile a thrill. A photograph of the contents of my fridge might excite someone with a burning attraction to the chance combination of half a cauliflower, rye bread, Greek yoghurt, not-very-nice Cheddar, a bunch of apples from our garden, Slen's Crunch Corner yoghurts and some leeks. Some people would find the stone tortoise on my desk unbearably sexy (especially with his foot on a post-it note, the TEASE). I hope you can see where I'm going with this.
Sickos of any kind will get their thrills where they will. It is wrong for us to prevent them doing so lawfully.
I don't much like pictures of naked kids, but by the gods. Grow up, UK!
*remembers hasn't got a dog; is sad*
Apple: "Unlocking iPhones will make them not work, but that's nothing to do with us and we're not deliberately crippling people who defeat our crippleware or anything." Pffft.
(P.S. "continuously delight" = "you are our beta testers" + "oops, we forgot to add any features")
Oh, and Halo 3 or something. ;)
