freedom of speech

Whatever Happened to Freedon of Speech?

So …

A certain Jeremy Clarkson has said that he thinks all striking public sector workers should be shot.

And judging from some of the comments being broadcast said public sector workers appear to be of the opinion that Clarkson should be shot. (Though GOK why they take Clarkson seriously; the man’s a bigger buffoon than the Mayor of London.)

Clarkson has subsequently apologised, although I don’t see he needed to because whichever side you agree with — and even if you don’t care one way or the other — both sides are allowed to have, and to voice, their opinions. It’s called freedom of speech and according to international law is an inalienable right.

The words “storm”, “teacup” and “childish” come to mind.

Can we just return to trying to get the asylum back on an even keel?

beliefs, memes, personal, photography

Advent Calendar : 1

As is traditional, I thought we’d have an Advent Calendar.
Only being me it is one with a difference, being composed of
superb and/or amusing photographic images from around the internet.

So here is your first chocolate …

Click the image to see the full size original.
current affairs, medical, science, thoughts

Gawdelpus …

… if this is the logic!

BBC Breakfast is this morning reporting the need to “halve the number of people in the UK with HIV”. And how are we going to do this? But getting people tested earlier, etc. etc.

No, guys!

Even if there were zero new infections, the only way you halve the number of people with an incurable disease is for them to die!

So did you mean you need to halve the number of new cases? Or halve the number of people who have HIV but are undiagnosed? Or what did you mean?

amusements, food+drink, medical, natural history, personal, photography, science, sexuality

Reasons to be Grateful 2

OK so here’s week two of my experiment: this week’s things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful:
Crab Apples

  1. Autumn Colours^ — there are still some gorgeous golden leaves around as well as bright red fruit on our ornamental crab apple, especially in …
  2. Sunshine* — which makes those autumn colours all the more vibrant
  3. Vagina Cupcakes — they’re a hoot!
  4. Beaujolais Nouveau* — I’ve now tasted three different ones and they’re all excellent
  5. Sleep — it’s so restorative to sleep well and undisturbed as I did last night
^ Click the image for a bigger version, and for other photos.
* No-one said I couldn’t choose the same things as last week!
environment, links, natural history, thoughts, topographical

Links of the Week

This week’s small selection of the curious and not-so-curious you may have missed …

According to a recent survey people spend too long in the shower and use too much water. And it isn’t as green as we were told. Now there’s a surprise!

But then no wonder we go for the therapeutic, because according to uSwitch the UK is the worst place in Europe to live. Well it is if you care about what they measure. For geeks like me you can follow their method, recalculate the scores, exclude things you don’t care about and add in other things you do care about. But you’ll still get much the same answer. 🙁

HornetNow here’s a seriously WOW! image. Yes it’s a European Hornet, Vespa crabro; a humongous but relatively docile wasp**. Sadly you don’t see them often. But just look at those compound eyes … and the detail which I’m sure shows the substructure underneath the eye. I’ve looked out other images of hornets and they all seem to show the same eye substructure. Absolutely amazing!

** Note. Hornets are brown and yellow, as in the image. If what you see is black and yellow it’s a wasp, not a hornet, regardless of its size. Please leave all these creatures alone. They generally won’t attack you unless you provoke them. Wasps and Hornets are superb predators of other insects, on which they feed their grubs. Without them we’d be knee-deep in caterpillars etc. They also chew up old wood for their nests. Besides Hornets are becoming endangered.

If you had a pet monkey, would you feed it crap food and never let it exercise or play and tell it how stupid and ugly it was? No, you’d love your pet monkey! So love your Monkey!

We all make mistakes. They’re nothing to hide. But we all do hide mistake, because they make us feel stupid. Don’t be afraid of Stupid. Stupid means self-awareness. Stupid means you’re learning. Love your Stupid.