Nick Hogan case picked up by the MSM

They really are a bit slow. Do keep up.

 

Freedom arrived earlier than expected for smoking ban martyr Nick Hogan yesterday... courtesy of a briefcase full of cash carried by a man in a green Guy Fawkes mask.

Former pub landlord Mr Hogan became the first person to be jailed in connection with the smoking ban when he was sentenced to six months for refusing to pay a fine imposed for flouting the legislation.

His plight inspired a campaign on the internet to raise funds to pay off his outstanding fines.

It reached its climax yesterday (national no-smoking day, no less) when a mysterious blogger called Old Holborn delivered the money to Forest Bank prison in Salford - 11 days into Mr Hogan's sentence.

The arrival of the self-styled ' libertarian vigilante' at the Category B prison in his mask, full black costume and hat left other visitors amused or bewildered.

In the prison car park, Old Holborn, who wore his costume to hide his identity, flipped open the metal case to reveal enough bundles of used fivers and tenners to pay the £8,445.15 needed to secure 43-year-old Mr Hogan's release.

 

Source

Nick Hogan is free!

Today Nick Hogan was released.

See the full account at Old Holborns Blog

Thankyou to Old Holborn and Anna Raccoon for making it happen.

And also a hearty thanks to all of you who contributed to his release.

Original story here

The Mathematics of Queuing

 

It is not certain when queues were invented, or by whom, but it is most likely to have been an Englishman of some description who originally laid down the foundations of this great art.

While on the surface a queue might just seem like a line of bored people, it is only when you delve deeper into the physics behind a queue that the true magic makes itself apparent.

The point of queuing varies with different countries, people and climates, although it is fair to say that the main point of a queue is to stand still for as long as possible without either:

1. Talking to yourself,
2. Letting anyone in front of you, or
3. Quitting the queue altogether.

It can be seen, with a little observation, that each individual has a different tolerance level to queuing. A rough estimate for how long, in minutes, someone is likely to wait in a queue without having an emotional breakdown can be expressed in terms of the following formula:

T[breakdown] = 3 ( T[sigh] + (5 x Q[behind]) - (2 x Q[infront]) ) x I

where T[sigh] is the time in minutes the subject will stand on his/her own at a bus-stop before sighing, Q[behind] is the number of people behind the subject in the queue, and Q[infront] is the number of people in front of the subject in the queue. I is known as the 'Interest Factor' and changes depending on the reason for the queue being there in the first place. For instance, the Interest Factor for something as interesting as the British Crown Jewels is 5.23; whereas for something like Hand Crafted Sheep Dung, it is 0.0057. The index value is that of a bus, which is set at 1.00.

There is, of course, another side to queuing, which has not yet been mentioned, and that is the art of 'Ritual Queuing'. It is a pastime practiced little outside England, but in the land of hope and glory it is something of a national institution with people 'above a certain age'. There is no real reason behind Ritual Queuing apart from the queuing itself. The optimum times for Ritual Queuing are weekdays from 10 am to 2 pm, where hordes of old ladies can be seen practicing the art at bus stops in every town and village in the land.

This is not the end of the story though. Whereas in England queuing is a sanctimonious pastime that should not be mocked or taken lightly, the Americans have adapted the art form, added a musical score and created Line dancing, which is the art of forming queues in time to music.

I couldn't care less

It's national no smoking day. Hurrah.

Just finished my tenth one. Bollocks to Deborah Arnott and ASH.

Hypocrisy explained to the BBC

Graham Stuart MP hits back at the BBC about their bias on the "Donorgate" affair.

“Imagine a Tory donor who’d bought a company, run its pension fund into the ground, bought the assets back for pennies in the pound, who became a privy counsellor even though he wasn’t qualified while personally funding the leader’s leadership bid – they (sic) would be a massive story and yet somehow the BBC runs day after day on Lord Ashcroft, who as far as I can see has done nothing wrong, and gives Labour an easy ride. It takes me back to the tales we had of the champagne bottles in 1997 and I’m afraid the BBC remains biased and fails to ask the proper questions of those who are currently in power.”

Listen to it on BBC iplayer HERE Just over 10 mins in.

Too late Obama, we got there first

LETTER FROM A PROCTER AND GAMBLE EXECUTIVE TO THE PRESIDENT

THE LAST SENTENCE IS THE MOST CHILLING

Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America 's true living legends- an acclaimed author, dynamic teacher and one of the world's highest rated speakers. Successful corporate executives everywhere recognize him as the foremost leader in change management.. Lou changed the way America does business by creating an audacious concept that came to be known as "partnering."

Pritchett rose from soap salesman to Vice-President, Sales and Customer Development for Procter and Gamble and over the course of 36 years, made corporate history.

AN OPEN LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA

Dear President Obama:

You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.

You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.

You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.

You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.

You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.

You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.

You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.

You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail..

You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America ' crowd and deliver this message abroad.

You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.

You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.

You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.

You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.

You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations.

You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.

You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.

You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.

You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.

You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaugh's, Hannitys, O'Reillys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.

You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing. Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.

Lou Pritchett

This letter was sent to the NY Times but they never acknowledged it.

Big surprise. Since it hit the internet, however, it has had over 500,000 hits. Keep it going. All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good men do nothing.. It's happening right now.

Well at least we've beaten the Yanks at something. We got to that position in 1997.

More Knee jerk legislation

 

It would appear that every dog is dangerous, and we are about to be savaged by one, every time we venture out.

Dog owners may be forced to pay for insurance to cover damage or injuries their pet causes, ministers will propose today.

They may also be required by law to have a microchip implanted on their pet under Government plans to curb the use of dangerous dogs.

Another measure being considered is the use of Dog Control Notices for misbehaving animals - known as 'Dogbos'.

If you can be bothered to read about this fuckwittery you'll see that all political parties are jumping in to have their little soundbite of publicity.

And then again money is involved.

The price of microchipping and insuring a dog means that families could face bills of £100 and more to legally own a pet under the new rules.

For families on the bread line it's going to be "A dog is for Christmas, not for life"

The RSPCA is going to be busy rounding up the packs on our streets.

Gagging at the MOD

 

It would appear that our lords and masters (Gag) in the Government, want to airbrush any mention of bad news about our armed forces during the election campaign.

Nick Gurr, the MoD's director of media and communications, says 'embeds' for all British news broadcasters and national journalists will be prohibited during the election campaign, expected to begin later this month.

Mr Gurr's memo, written last week, is entitled "Purdah (the period generally known to be between an election being called and taking place)* - Key Principles for Defence Communicators."

It details a string of steps the MoD is taking to minimise the chance of embarrassing disclosures. Information on MoD and armed forces websites, it says, must be 'cleansed.' Official blogs and website must 'report factual information only.' Even internal MoD and service journals must be 'submitted for approval before publication' with 'controversial issues avoided' because 'these get into the public domain'. Another order is that 'Any activity that can be delayed should be.'

Well lads and lassies in government, the media, and especialy the armed forces (I've been there). If you disagree and need a voice contact me here (Either in the comments or via my Email) and I will post it here for you. The Blogosphere will not be silenced just because the government wants an easy ride to a labour victory.

 

H/T to Subrosa

ASH v Forest

This hideous woman, Deborah Arnott has the temerity to state that Forest is funded by Big tobacco. What she doesn't let the viewer know is that ASH is in the main, funded as a lobby group by the government, and by Big Pharma.

The figures for Ash's funds over at the Fake Charities site are as follows.

Its 2008/09 accounts show a total income of £742,562, of which:

• Department of Health: £142,000
• ---
• Total £142,000 (19.1% of all income)

The remainder of its income comes from ASH International (part-funded by Pfizer), and supporting charities, principally Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation.

It received just £4,975 in voluntary donations from the public, plus a £10,000 legacy.

Surely if the public were so against smoking the private donations would be flooding in.

Amazingly Smokers and anti smokers were able to collect twice as much in the campaign to free the Publican Nick Hogan. IN 4 DAYS.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, you overpaid Harridan.

Jeremy thinks the country is going to the dogs.

 

Just read his article in the Times. He's just saying what we all think. The country has gone barking mad. (Pun intended).

He starts his rant with this:

As we know, one man once got on one plane in a pair of exploding hiking boots and as a result everyone else in the entire world is now forced to strip naked at airports and hand over their toiletries to a man in a high-visibility jacket.

In other words, the behaviour of one man has skewed the concept of everyday life for everyone else. And we are seeing this all the time.

Go and read it. He ends up with commonsense which the righteous abhor.

Article is linked here.