QUOTE OF THE DAY - Foot in mouth disease

Couldn't resist. Second today.

It's actually from a journalist, so shouldn't count, but I laughed out loud and must share.

It's from the Ch4 Snowmail news feed, discussing upcoming stories: 'Hillary Clinton seems to have lost contact with the truth, recounting a tale of how she dodged bullets in Bosnia heroically - until enterprising US hacks dug out the video footage and it was as deadly as Henley-on-Thames.'

Nasty place come nightfall, Henley. You could be mown down by a manic cyclist with no lights!

Seriously though, if this is proven true, one has to wonder what the mindset is of those who would aim, with some sense of succeeding, at ultimate power. And what we the peons might end up with should they get in.

But, like Tricky Dicky, the greater concern is not that they come up with this guff, but they think (especially in this day and age) that they won't get caught... out.

ADDENDUM -

Guardian - Clinton under fire - Looks like the facts are accurate. But this has to be worthy of 'Quote of the Day' if only it had anything to do with matters enviro (still creeps in on who seeks to lead):

'How can you say you "MISSPOKE" if you are READING the lines?

If Hillary is MISS POKE, does that make Bill MR POKE?'

Indy - When Hillary Clinton tells such obvious mistruths, she exposes herself as a fantasist

Telegraph - YouTube - Hilarious. This is one of those gunning for running the US, remember.

125 million migrants

That's the number calculated to leave the worst hit regions of South East Asia should global warming raise temperatures by 4C to 5C (the IPCC forecast), according to Greenpeace.

Looks like we might need to plan a few more 'eco-towns' then? (See the Red Flag post below)

CATEGORY - Wall of sLime

Hall of sHame = Wall of sLime - Not the nicest shade of green

nPower

Marketing Week - NEW - 'Irresponsible companies' face the Corporate Hall of Shame - Ahead of my time, me. Note why Toyota is in there, all you Prius owners.

Why am I not suprised? There'll be more. Count on it.

FP- 2/10/07

Bringing back the man with the red flag?

Sometimes you come across something which at first glance seems 'okaaaaayyyy' but with a deeper read is actually so badly thought out that it makes you think 'how on earth did they come up with that?'

This is one such, from the Telegraph over the Easter break.

"Speed limits of just 15 miles-per-hour are to be introduced on major roads in planned new towns across the country as part of an effort to reduce global warming."

Ok, so when the internal combustion engine is only efficient at reasonably high RPM speeds, then just how does this reduce global warming? See, driving at maximum 15mph, probably in 1st or 2nd gear in most vehicles, will dramatically increase fuel consumption (many vehicles at low revs will manage only about 10mpg), it will dramatically increase pollution (vehicles running at low revs emit more none-combusted fuel and waaaayyyy more CO2 (and even worse, carbon monoxide), not to mention the fact that increased journey times (well, in many, but obviously not all cases) would generally increase fuel consumption too.

But it's only proposed for new 'eco-towns', where everybody will be living within "within 400 yards of public transport stop and 800 yards from shops." Sorry, but without some amazingly high housing packing density, that sounds much more like a small village to me. Oh, just realised, most villages no longer have public transport, pubs or shops now anyway, do they?

Despite being proposed for the new 'eco-villages' [sorry, 'towns'] only, it has, of course, brought the usual mass howls of protest and declarations of lunacy from the majority of posters. If, (and it really is a big if), the public transport system is planned, put into place and operated, correctly, it might just work. If not, then it will, without doubt, create more environmental pollution.

But then, not much that our Gov puts into place seems to ever work out too well; so what are the chances of these 'eco-towns' schemes being a success? I'm not overtly optimistic.

Public Doomains

I've about had it with storms in teacups being cranked out almost hourly by a self-serving nanny and 24/7 news culture that needs to talk about something new every two seconds.

Take this: Call for ban on employers searching social networking sites

A ban on 'someone' searching for something (or 'someone' else) via information is online in the public domain? How daft is that?

It's getting so a raft of NGOs, quangos, government departments and most of today's media... certainly BBC Breakfast News... would collapse for lack of content without a call to get knickers in a twist over, and then an attempt to ban something. Followed by spirited debates all round involving 'experts' that serve only to drive ratings. Quite a lucrative industry, and one set to grow even more in the future, I suspect.

I just have to agree with Johnny R... how exactly would this WORK... IN PRACTICE? It is, by almost any measure, impossible to police. While I am sure a raft of well-funded do-gooders have decided anti-ageist hiring practices are now neatly sorted and filed under 'Job Done' via EU box-ticking rules, the reality is a bit different. So yet again the process is all that matters, with the result irrelevant. At least in this case there is some merit in the legislation, and a slim chance of it being policed.

I am not saying that many hiring processes and practices may be anything from flawed to venal, and need to be discussed, but such credence to calls for things that are frankly impossible seem essentially pointless, at least in the po-faced forms the original PR gets issued.

'Unacceptable practice'? Bless. This needs referring to the Ministry of Dim Views Being Taken, which is now hiring all the talents from Board to Local Officer level.

QUOTE OF THE DAY - Mouths of Babes

Just watching the tail end of a few hours of BBC Breakfast News, and one thread throughout has been a segment on escalating kids' party expenses.

I had to laugh that they were at one West London yummie-mummy, luvvie event (the Beeb's only source of what is happening in the UK, it seems) that was 'tackling this issue'... with a 'kids party coordinator'. Save £5 a head on the party bag, but blow the saving on someone who will charge to advise you on how to be a parent? Hmmn.

Anyway, all morning the wee moppets have been shown making Arts & Crafts quietly and diligently, which impressed me no end.

Then things kind of went the shape of a pear.

Having served up this picture of back-to-basics idyll, the reporter made the boo-boo of setting us up for some propaganda.

'So, Fifi Moonshine, which do you now prefer.... making all this lovely stuff or being driven around in a big, nasty stretch limo?'.

Cue cute , shy little smile... 'The limo!"

'Not the answer I was looking for,' our rueful reporter suggests.

Quite. But an interesting insight into what we are fed. Guys, I am all for helping shape a return to a more 'eco-in all its forms' way of life, but not when served up by a rich set of hypsters like our national broadcaster and their speed-dial rent a mob of compliant 'average' folk from Fulham. Thank heavens for that lovely kid. At least she was honest.

Now the big thing is to figure out a way to persuade kids like her that there is something as fun as a limo ride. And then share that.