Most pedantic man of the year award goes to...

Photo from www.bbc.co.uk

Jeremy Clarkson!

He truly is the most pedantic person ever - As a lot of you will know, he announced not long ago in The Sun that even though the continuity announcer had said after their last episode in the current series, that Top Gear would be back in the summer - It won't be.

Thus sparking a whole load of controversy - Is Top Gear canceled? Is Jeremy Clarkson leaving? Is Clarkson just messing with us?

Answer - A little of the latter and quite a lot of secret option D - Top Gear is back in the summer but only as a one off special. The actual new series doesn't start until Autumn 2007.

I think Clarkson really enjoys pointing out these little mistakes...I feel a little sorry for the continuity announcer - He makes one tiny mistake and Jeremy pounces on it and makes a big national story of it.

Ah well, what else can we expect from Mr Clarkson really? Anyway - At least it means Top Gear's future and that of Clarkson, Hammond and May is fine and so all is good with the world...Except the longer we have to wait for each new series, the longer those on the ticket waiting list (me included) will have to wait to go to one of the recordings...

Political correctness takes the bacon

Photo from www.ardnamushrooms.co.uk

First of all; Apologies to the terrriblepun - If it even can be called that... And now on to the story. Okay, so I had BBC 5 Live on in the background the other night, when suddenly they mention Honley C of E Primary and Kirklees - Kirklees is the name of our local government and Honley is two villages over from me. I went to Honley High - Would have gone to the primary too but there was a clerical mixup and I lost my place...

Anyway, I instantly turn up the radio and turn up the sound wondering why on earth Honley C of E would be mentioned on a national radio station. Turns out the school is putting on a play for the parents. Okay, so nothing new there - It's a dramatizization of the story the Three Little Pigs....Again - Nothing strange there.

But the school had made the decision that the play the 'Three Little Pigs' would be insensitive to Muslims because they don't eat pigs, and of course in the story the wolf tries to, so instead of pigs it would be the... 'Three Little Puppies'...For heavens sake!

That has got to be one of the most idiotic things I have ever heard in my life! For a start Honley Primary is a Church of England school, meaning it's a Christian school - So technically there should be no Muslims there to be offended in the first place!

That said, my C of E in the next village over had about half a dozen Muslim students when I was there, as well as some Jewish and an odd Jehovah's witness - The school bent over backwards to not offend them and kind of forgot it was supposed to teach Christianity...We never even read from the Bible - Just some good morals and ethics book.

Anyway, the 'best' part of this story has got to be the fact that nobody even complained about it being called the Three Little Pigs, plus a man who phoned in because he was Muslim himself said that the idea anyone from his religion would be offended by the story was just not true.

5 Live then interviewed a member of Kirlees council who said the decision was all the school's own decision, and had nothing to do with them.

Actually no - the story's 'best' part is that about ten minutes after the interview with the 'man from Kirklees' a statement was issued that Honley wouldn't be changing the pigs to puppies after all. Probably because they got told off for being so idiotic.

I must admit when they first started talking about changing the pigs to puppies i couldn't think why they would do that - The only reason I came up with was that fat people were somehow offended - The Muslim/Kosher aspect didn't even enter in my mind at all.

I suppose now is when I should write a summing up paragraph about the state of education today and the problems/stupidity of excessive political correctness..But I think the story kind of speaks for itself...

YouTube is getting sued

Picture from www.youtube.com

You Tube and it's parent company Google are being sued with a £517 million lawsuit ($1 billion) by Viacom for copyright infringement of the clips available on You Tube for people to watch for free.

For those who don't know Viacom is the US media company that owns MTV and Comedy Central, and today they filed the law suit in New York, bringing the copyright argument between Viacom and Google to a head.

Viacom claims that they own the rights to over 160 thousand illegally uploaded clips on YouTube, and have being demanding for months that pirated clips are removed - Along with several other high profile companies such as Disney, Time Warner, and ABC.

I also read on Guardian.co.uk that Viacom released a statement attacking You Tube, saying it had; "built a lucrative business out of exploiting the devotion of fans to others' creative works in order to enrich itself and its corporate parent Google.''

I think that the whole thing is getting slightly out of hand now, I mean surely a line should be drawn on what is and isn't copyright infringement? Sure all those copyrighted music videos and tv show clips are uploaded, but in a lot of cases you can't actually buy them on dvd or people have being recommended a show and want to see what it's like first.

Also, with YouTube you are only viewing the clips, it's not designed as a watch and download site, so it's more like a large TV station with hundreds of chanels you can choose to watch than anything. If all these clips keep being removed I think it will it just mean less advertising for the companies in general and a huge increase on illegal downloads.

Plus I don't see a lot of these companies creating YouTube accounts and putting the clips up themselves - Sure CBS has an account and uploads things, but not like whole episodes or movies, etc... Of things that won't be released to DVD or haven't yet.

Anyway, I don't believe that YouTube 'exploits the devotion of fans', I think it's up to the people who own the copyright to help make their material accessable in the first place, so if it exploits anything, it's the weakness of the companies to supply for the demand in the changing technological world, etc... But that's just my opinion.


To read the full story go to Times Online or Guardian.co.uk.

Not dead yet!

Hey everyone, I'm still alive and interested in my blog, though wow it's been a long time since i've posted! I apologise for that, (almost two weeks to be exact) and I've missed commenting on a few stories I've come across in the meantime which I'm annoyed about, so will have a recent newstory round up of the best ones tomorrow.

But I do have a relativly good excuse for not posting for so long - That thing some people know as 'real life'.

From Thursday 22nd of February to Sunday my little cousin (12) was staying over, and with him being here, and sleeping on the floor of my room, it was impossible to be able to concentrate long enough to post once - let alone every day, due to the fact he seems to have the mental age of about 6, so he wouldn't leave me alone, and kept closing my programs, stealing the mouse, pulling on the keyboard, writing gibberish, jumping on me, turning off my computer from the power button, etc... And he refused to treat me as an authoritive figure/adult because I'm 17 - so in his mind just a kid, so telling him off/hitting him round the head/banning him from watching a dvd/me reading to him/whatever else he wanted, etc... but that would do either nothing to stop him misbehaving, or make him go into a full blown tantrum.


The reason I'm explaining this is because it has hit on an (I think) interesting subject. I say this because I know several children, (mostly boys) around the 11-13 pre-teen age who act as if they are half the age they are - & the one common factor between all of them is the fact their parents had them late in life. Which makes me wonder if it's not just coincidence, but more a behavioural and mental pattern due to how a lot of parents in their early to mid (and in some case even late) 40's raise their children and how the chirldren in turn react to their parents when they become more aware of things like the fact their parents are much older than their friend's parents, etc...
But I'll save that article/discussion/debate, call it what you will for later in the week.

Anyway, on Sunday night my useless immune system got hit by a virus, so considering the fact I was ill to begin with, getting a fever, throwing up, hallucinating (pretty whacked out ones too), sneezing and coughing, (also setting off my tonsillitus) wasn't the best thing to happen...But got rid of that now, except for my cough which has stuck around with the tonsillitus.

And finally, the past couple of days didn't have time to post as I was busy planning a week trip to Cleveland, Ohio in America with one of my best friends in July. Yes - Not one of the most obvious tourist spots in the states, but one of my other friends is moving out there on March 12th, so it's a chance to see her, and there's a gig we want to see in Lakeside on while we're there. Reason for telling you that is because i'll be doing a diary on the trip when it happens, and also a few articles in relation to planning it. (Not least a few rants on certain policies in some/all of the American states.. And then there's the little matter of 'Amendment 2', but not going to go into that now...)

Okay, so that's pretty much me up to date, thank you all my readers, and especially those who leave comments, and sorry for not replying to some of the comments left on or after the 21st of Frb that I wasn't able to reply to, and i'll try and catch up on all your blogs within the next couple of days.

Is Jackson's star treatment to blame for a woman's death?

Picture from www.michael-jackson.com

On Friday, the family of Manuela Gomez Ruiz told "Good Morning America" A show on ABC how on February 15th 2006, their mother who was in a Californian hospital after suffering a heart attack was moved from the primary trauma room to a smaller room in the hospital to make way for Michael Jackson who was being admitted with flu-like symptoms. Mrs Ruiz who was 74 had two more heart attacks the following day and died whilst Mr Jackson was discharged on the 16th.

Family members of Mrs Ruiz are appalled at the treatment her grandmother was given just because Michael Jackson was a celebrity and are planning to sue both Marian Medical Centre and Mr Jackson himself for being to blame for her suffering the second and third heart attacks which led to her death.

The hospital said due to legal restrictions couldn't comment on Mrs Ruiz's case in particular, but did say:
"We are confident, however, that our patients have and continue to receive high-quality, compassionate and timely care."

A statement from Michael Jackson's publicist Raymone Bain deny's the accusation, saying that the singer offers his condolences to Mrs Ruiz's family but also:
"It is outrageous that Michael Jackson's name would be invoked into a situation of which he had no authority or control... He was a patient himself."

Well, it seems to me trouble and lawsuits are following Michael Jackson wherever he goes, but this is kind of getting into murky territory. There's no doubt in my mind that celebrities like Jackson do get special treatment, even when they are being blacklisted - Michael actually went into hospital during the start of his child molestation trial, stalling procedures. (Some say on purpose.)

However, can Michael be blamed if the hospital made the decision themselves to move Mrs Ruiz, because we don't know certain facts like whether or not Jackson demanded star treatment during his overnight stay as a patient.

Then there's the question of whether or not Mrs Ruiz suffered the extra heart attacks in response of being moved, or if she was still going to die regardless. So as I said, it is really murky territory.

My sympathy goes out to Mrs Ruiz's family, and I'm not saying if they do file charges that they are doing it for the money, a lot of people can't take the fact that it was just their loved one's time to go, so start looking for scapegoats.

But even though I am not a fan of Jackson, I do think it rather interesting that it took Mrs Ruiz's family just over a year to speak out on the matter...

Full story found on courttv.com.

Blog babies

Okay, so obviously I've not been a blogger for very long, but already I've realised it's a lot like having a baby. And you think your baby is better than everybody else's. So because of that you want to give it the best start in life - Advertising it on the forums, submitting it to all the search engines and basically giving your little blog a nice big fan base and hopefully some rankings.

Bit of a bad analogy but it does fit, and I do admit - I've been submitting my to various places. And I've looked around a few people's blogs - Not posted much on the forums. Mainly because I don't want to act like a newbie going "Come read my blog - pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaase!" - No offence to anyone of course but that's not my style.

I do still want people to read of course and tell me what they think. But because they want to instead of me begging. But then it all comes back to advertising really.

I'm thinking of building a links section for other blogs that I've read and enjoyed, but I'm not sure when I'll get that set up. Been feeling less great than I usually do so the last couple of days I've been shying away from stuff - which I'm now kicking myself for of course, I've decided to try and do one of those daily goal list things, so I get my side projects finished sometime before the next millennium, whilst making sure I'm not neglecting my little blog baby...Yeah, I'm gonna stop calling it that for a start...

What *is* she wearing?

Yesterday I left the comfort of my bed and went across to Manchester to see my friend Bex, her sister Vix, and go see a movie. Okay, so it doesn't sound that thrilling - But considering I haven't had that much of a social life lately it is a semi big deal.

The movie we saw - Back In Business, I'll talk about later in a review attempt but for now I'd like to concentrate on something that was the topic of conversation for most of yesterday afternoon while we were looking round the shops:

Fashion.

It seems to have become a huge part of our culture, without us (or at least me) even realising it. But I'm notso sure if that's such a good thing. Everyone being obsessed about what they are wearing. Sure there's supposedly clothes to suit everyone, but how easy is it to get them when they all have +£50 price tags on?

I personally like a range of stuff - from Soho type cult clothes to Next and Monsoon, but my tastes don't particually stray too far into goth land or the girly-girl type stuff. I have a balance. Technically though most of my clothes are just plain jeans, baggy tops and arty shirts - Mostly because the clothes I would like to have more of are just so expensive.

Bad fashion is also very popular right now, but I suppose this is getting into an opinion thing. Honestly though, those grey stripy hot pant things or tiny skirts with lycra leggings/tights, then those tube type grey smocks and tiny jackets that end roughly at the same line as your bra does - Why do people even want to wear them?

Because it's cool apparently. And why is it cool? Because fashion models and companies tell us it is I suppose. I don't actually know if I'd suit clothes like those I described in the previous paragraph - One thing's for certain though. You'll never catch me finding out...

However I don't kow if I suit some of the styles I do like either. Because when I'm looking round the shops I feel like such a fraud as I know I can't afford them, so I chicken out of trying them on.

My mum wants to have a girly day out in Manchester soon, just me and her - Go see a movie, show her the clothes I like then maybe treat me to a couple of things, make note of other styles then come back and design/make my own.

Though that sounds cheap, making my own clothes the way I want them does preserve originality. Which a lot of people seem to have lost since everybody is buying the same things. Yesterday I saw at least half a dozen people wearing the same black and white coat, and hundreds in the smocks, leggings and hot pants - And it wasn't exactly a boiling hot day so it's a wonder everyone wasn't freezing...Unless the blue hypothermia look is in this year and I've just not being told.

Now I wouldn't say I'm fat - I mean, I'm 5ft 1, weigh just over 7 stone, and my shoe size is about 3.5. So I'm a size 8, sometimes a 6 and very occasionally a 10. But when I do have the courage to try some clothes on, I still feel semi ugly and wrong. But that's not me - It's the fault of the designers who just seem to be making clothes to fit their 5 ft 9 models who are the perfect size 0 - So in other words people who are anorexic, bulimic or freaks of nature the celebrity way.

I just wish that I could walk into a shop to buy some trousers or jeans and not have to have them turned up when I get home, or I look at a really nice and for a change affordable top, and not have to leave it on the rack because the designer has stupidly decided that someone my shape is going to have a natural bust that will fit into their otherwise gorgeous top. Is that so much to ask?

I think not. But then I'm just a normal customer with a natural figure and not a lot of money - What on earth would I know about fashion?