Absolutely Average

After being MIA for a short while I just popped over to Mamahog’s blog to see what’s happening, (well actually I wanted to reprimand her for suggesting I spend too much time at my holiday villa secret hideout sunning myself).

I was shocked to see that TPTB (read high powered lawyers) have seen fit to get the whole of Wordpress banned so that no Turkish residents can access any of the site. Being a loyal supporter of Wordpress for some time I find this kind of action is not helping my plans toward World Domination at all.

Fortunately Keda was kind enough to provide a link to a petition for you all to sign. I myself cannot take any direct action against TPTB yet as that could jeopardise my future plans so I expect all of you to sign this petition, anybody who doesn’t can expect an official visit from my most dedicated employees henchmen.

From the BBC news website

Technology giant Apple has reached a deal with the Beatles to end the dispute over the use of the Apple name.

Apple Inc will now take full control of the Apple brand and license certain trademarks back to the Beatles’ record company Apple Corps’ for continued use.

Apple Corps’ (The Beatles) lost their recent court battle against Apple Inc. (Apple Computers), some would say on a technicality. This is unfortunately not true. So why did Apple Corps’ lose this case ? Let’s see if I can answer.

The actual agreement between the 2 parties from 9th Oct 1991 can be found in this article. Here is a snippet (with my added emphasis):

1. DEFINITIONS

• 1.1. “Apple Catalog” means the sound recordings, musical works, films and videos which now or hereafter cannot be released or published without Apple Corps’ consent.
• 1.2. “Apple Computer Field of Use” means (i) electronic goods, including but not limited to computer, microprocessors and microprocessor controlled devices, telecommunications equipment, data processing equipment, ancillary and peripheral equipment, and computer software of any kind on any medium; (ii) data processing services, data transmission services, broadcasting services, telecommunications services; (iii) ancillary services relating to any of the foregoing, including without limiation, training, education, maintenance, repair, financing and distribution; (iv) printed matter relating to any of the foregoing goods or services; and (v) promotional merchandising relating to the foregoing.
• 1.3. “Apple Corps’ Field of Use” means (i) the Apple Musical Artists; the Apple Catalog; personalities or characters which appear in or are derived from the Apple Catalog; the names, likenesses, voices or musical sounds of the Apple Musical Artists; any musical works or performances of the Apple Musical Artists; (ii) any current or future creative works whose principal content is music and/or musical performances; regardless of the means by which these works are recorded, or communicated, whether tangible or intangible;

As you can see in 1.2. it was agreed that Apple Computer could use the name in relation to computer software of any kind on any medium, data transmission services and broadcasting services. This clause in the agreement grants Apple Inc. the ability to transmit/broadcast data using any kind of software. Now their argument in this case was that iTunes doesn’t actually transmit music but data and unfortunately this is correct.

If however Apple Corps’ had used section (ii) from clause 1.3. as a part of clause 1.2. to limit what form of data Apple Inc. could transmit then this case would have gone the other way.

Because of this oversight (and it was an oversight as in 1991 when this agreement was made, it was already possible to encode music as digital data and transmit it) Apple Corps’ now have to license their own name back from Apple Inc.

[MAJOR_RANT]
So Madonna wants to adobt a 1 year old boy from an orhanage in Malawi. She can offer him a better start to life, education & loving family environment. Now there is a group of do-gooders who call themselves *The Human Rights Consultative Committee* who say she can’t do this because she doesn’t live in Malawi and are going to great lengths to stop the adoption, even suggesting that it is just some publicity stunt to rival Angelina Jolie.

Why does a group of charities who say they are fighting Human Rights refusing this little boy the basic rights of an education & family life? Why can’t they just leave things be? Why are they spending thousands of pounds in legal fees to try to stop this adoption when they could be spending the money either building more orphanages or better still properly funding the orphanages already in place?

Answer: Because while they are fighting the adoption (whether it goes through or not) they will get themselves far more publicity than they would if they spent the money wisely. That’s why. If the child was adopted by any ordinary foreigner then they probably wouldn’t have even batted an eye but because Madonna is a well known celebrity they come out all guns blazing.

I’m sure the majority of of people around the world couldn’t care less where Madonna adopts a child from. Some may even applaud her for attempting to give this unfortunate child a family life.
[/MAJOR_RANT]

/Discuss:

Let’s start with the footie:
I am going to miss the England-Portugal match tomorrow as I have to drive 100 miles for the wife to have her hair done (thats 100 miles each way). Appointment booked for 3.15. I mean god what was she thinking?
Anyway enough of that. I know I’m supposed to support the national team but really, what the hell are they playing at cos it certainly isn’t football. I honestly can’t see them winning against Portugal the way they have been playing up to now. Where is the passion & desire to win?
So far this tournament has been a real let down for me with the exception of a very spirited performance by Australia (who in my opinion should have beaten the Italians). If they had only had the belief and played the way they did against Brasil they would have won quite convincingly.

Stupid people:
Is it just me or has anybody else noticed that the internet (especially chat rooms and the like) are being frequented by more and more stupid people. In the past week or so I have seen numerous articles about person A from web community goes to meet person B from same community and something awful happens. This article sparked some uproar amongst the comments, but blaming MySpace.com for what happened, WTF??. Now forgive me for being stupid here but if I start chatting to someone online say through ICQ then give them my personal email address and my phone number and continue contact on a more personal level (via email and then phone), when does it become ICQ’s fault if I agree to meet this person and something awful happens to me? This article however shows a different side to the coin (or does it?). Unfortunately stupid people do stupid things, fact of life. Solution - Have an intelligence test as part of the registration process.

You may leave a link here or leave a comment (why not do both?)

Can anybody see anything wrong with this story?

Why should we be concerned about the safety of a terrorist?

Did he worry about the safety of innocent people when he planned his terrorist activities? I don’t think so.

Sheikh Omar Mahmoud Othman abu Omar to give him his full name is reported to be Al Qaeda’s alleged chief recruiter in Europe and has been involved (although not directly as far as I can ascertain) with a number of terrorist incidents.

Some information found at The Terrorist Research Centre

• Videotapes of his sermons were found in the Hamburg apartment of the 9/11 operational leader Mohammed Atta.
• The Paris-based cell that plotted to blow up the US embassy in France in 2001 was headed by a follower of his.
• Richard Reid, the attempted shoe bomber, was also a follower.
• The cell that carried out the Madrid train attacks attempted to contact him in Belmarsh Prison before they blew themselves up in their apartment in Spain; this may be indicative of a prior relationship between the Sheikh and the cell.
• Abu Qatada was also convicted in absentia in Jordan for his role in the thwarted millennium attacks.

Another known terrorist Abu Hamza / Mustapha Kamil is believed to have recruited 4,000 British Muslims and sent them to Jihad training camps in Afghanistan over a period of years was allowed to incite Muslims to violence and to deliver sermons blessing the 9/11 terrorists before he was arrested at the behest of the US government.

Now before I have all the religious nuts have a go at me as a Muslim hater. I am nothing of the sort. I have a great many friends who are Muslims. The one thing they are not is terrorists, they are among the friendliest, honest and caring people I have ever met. I would trust these people with my life (and have done on numerous occaisions).

To address the other side of the coin, I am not a Muslim myself and am neither for or against Muslims. I am however very anti anti-Muslim, and also anti terrorist whatever religion (or other cause) they profess to kill in the name of, be they Christian, Seikh, Muslim, Taoist, Judaism, whatever.

To end this little rant, I would like to ask all of the do-gooders out ther to sit back and use their imagination for a moment: Imagine if you will a little girl, aged about 8, dressed in a summer dress, chatting to her friends on the school bus, all excited about going on the day trip to a petting zoo. Now imagine the scene as a car full of Ammonium Nitrate and petrol mixture crashes into the bus just below this little girl’s window and explodes, tearing the bus and the little girl to pieces….

imagine this little girl was YOUR daughter.

Now let’s hear you say that these terrorists are poor misunderstood souls and should be protected from governments who know how to punish them. Do the world a favour and deport these terrorists to somewhere where they will get the treatment they deserve.

What is this country coming to. The education system is going down the pan in a big way.

Many years ago I learned the 3 Rs (Reading, wRiting & aRithmatic) the same way my parents learned, the same way my wife learned, the same way… You get my drift. Well our -USELESS- beloved government decided that it wasn’t right so they screwed around with the it so much that they have -nearly- totally destroyed it.

The government are more concerned with making work for all of the over paid civil servants, so much so that their main duty to education is to generate league tables for every school in UK. Then they can pit schools against one another to encourage them to increase the grades of their pupils and achieve a more favourable entry in the tables.

Apparently A-level pass rates exceded 96% last year and (as the government & education authorities keep telling us) the exams aren’t getting any easier. I find this very hard to believe as I have a couple of friends who are involved in education and the stories they have to tell can be quite shocking.

Now you may call me a sceptic if you wish but wouldn’t it help schools in one LEA (local education authority) to improve their league table position if they made their exams ever so slightly easier than the next LEA, thus guaranteeing more pupils pass? What would happen if this idea had occured to each LEA in turn? Yes you guessed it, all exams ARE getting easier, year on year.

The upshot of this is that we are getting more students into university but because their education is sub standard they tend not to tackle the more difficult courses like maths, physics, chemistry.

Over the past few months I have been hearing on the news that many universities are to offer Mickey Mouse degrees in subjects like golf course management and aromatherapy to help out these unfortunates, while subjects like chemistry are being scrapped. WTF!!!

Even more disturbing is the introduction of 2 year honours degree. Now I’m no rocket scientist (as everybody knows I’m actually an Evil SuperVillain) but I’m fairly sure that trying to cram 3 years worth of education into 2 has got to devalue the specific degree (unless it’s a degree in golf course management or surf & beach management).

Adding to the problems for the students lucky enough to get into university, there is an ongoing pay dispute between universities and lecturers which may actually leave some students unable to graduate