Storm in a Teacup?

I must admit I have never heard of Tim Minchin, but have to agree that his poetry is amusing.



H/T to Stu at Sharpes Opinion

Scientists only have themselves to blame for their bad reputation

Remember these "Predictions".

BSE/CJD:

Predictions that there would be 136,000 deaths. (How did they arrive at that figure anyway?)

Could infect 10 million Britons.

ANS: When the prediction proved wildly wrong, the government excused itself with a classic Rumsfeld-ism: "The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence."

£5 Billion was the cost of that load of twaddle.

SARS:

WHO predicted that one in four Britons could die.

ANS: 800 died Worldwide.

Avian Flue:

Sir Liam Donaldson predicted 50,000 to 750,000 deaths.

When one dead swan slumped on a beach in Scotland, BBC reporters went crazy as inspectors stumbled through the seaweed, clad in anti-nuclear armour. Within a year the horror had passed.

ANS: The global mortality was put at 262, with not one death in Britain.

Swine flue:

Sir Liam Donaldson, (Yes, him again), bandied about any figure that came into his head, settling on "65,000 could die", peaking at 350 corpses a day.

This week the authorities admitted that, far from a winter upturn in swine flu, there has been a slump. From 100,000 a week at the peak, there were just 12,000 last week. After the coldest winter for decades, when deaths might be expected to rise, the rate is below that of seasonal flu.

ANS: In the UK, 360 people have died under its influence, most with prior "non-flu" conditions. Swine flu is not nice , but bears no relation to the government hysteria.

Climate change/Global warming:

"The science is settled"

We'll wait and see on that one. What with all that white global warming crap I had to shovel off my drive in the last few weeks.

Away with the Fairies.

Parents are not telling fairy stories to their Children as they are too frightening and are not Politically correct. Jeesus Christ.

A new survey suggests that they are! The poll, by TheBabyWebsite suggests that a quarter of parents have ditched classics such as Snow White and Hansel and Gretl in favour of more modern bedtime tales. Apparently they don't like the messages (leaving poor Hansel and his sister alone in the forest is a no no, as is sending Little Red Riding Hood on a journey alone through the woods - only to find out that granny has been eaten by a wolf!)

So lets Coccoon them in cotton wool, the poor lambs

A fifth of parents said the tales weren't politically correct (Cinders does too much cleaning up, I guess, while Jack climbs up a beanstalk and steals from the giant), and 17 percent worried about them giving their children nightmares (Snow White's wicked witch is said to be too scary). Sixty five percent of parents said that they preferred to read their children more "light-hearted" stories at bedtime.

Good education if they want to become H & S inspectors or the like.

I despair of these "Modern" parents and their new labour way of thinking. If its scary, ban it.

The rest of the article is over here at the Times

Climate change is natural

Some of the latest vids detailing why climate change is not our fault, or a problem.










Worth watching.

Source

Trolling for beginners

Amazing what you find on the web.

This from the Beeb:

Guerrilla Warfare for the Online Generation – Trolling For Beginners

Before you begin, you'll need to make sure you're properly equipped. As you're reading this Entry, you'll have access to either an internet-enabled PC, or some sort of internet-capable mobile phone. Excellent! You are now fully equipped to start your campaign of terror. So let's get this show on the road.

The first thing you need to do is identify your target. Don't worry, this won't involve any thought, intelligence or consideration on your part – just a dictionary and a search engine. Open your dictionary and pick a word at random. Let's say it's 'kittens'. Now head over to your search engine and put in your topic, along with the word 'forum'. This should (hopefully) take you to a forum populated with people who are completely besotted with your word1.

Great. Now set up a username. Make sure this is as offensive as possible, as you'll never be using it again. Now click onto the most innocent looking thread you can find and post one line of absolute drivel railing against whatever topic the posters on your target board are for. Don't worry about spelling, grammar or lucidity – and make sure you use at least five exclamation marks to get your point across. You should end up with something that looks like this:

I Like Kittens Introduction Thread
Kittenz-R-well-pants says:
I luv dogs!!!1! In fact the only fing that kittenz are good 4 is ffeeding 2 my rottwiler!!!!

Congratulations, you've taken your first steps into a much more irritating world. Now log out and abandon your diabolical alias – that way they'll never find you. Hit and run, that's the beginner's motto. Dive headlong into someone else's conversation, derail it completely and melt back into the shadows before you can be hit with a devastating riposte. Rinse and repeat with a number of forums until you feel comfortable enough to move onto moderate trolling.

More article of trivia can be found here.

What a riot.

I haven't a lot of time for the modern day police "service", but I had to chuckle at this article.

Police officers filmed using riot shields to sledge down a snowy hill while on duty have been reprimanded.

We should all be able to have a little fun occasionally.



Linked to the article here. Includes film footage.

Pat Condell has a fireside chat about Anjem Choudary

Way to go Pat!



He certainly says what a lot of us are thinking.

Shamelessly knicked from Tory Totty.

Labour's Pledge card for the Election.

Sounds about right to me.

H/T to the Red Rag

And they came for the drinkers

Here we go again.

Minimum prices for alcoholic drinks would be set by the Government under radical plans being drawn up to cut Britain’s growing binge-drinking problem.

They're even admitting to intend to use the same tactics as they did on smokers:

He compared the emerging alcohol policy to that involving tobacco – which led to a sharp increase in cigarette prices and a ban on smoking in public places.

I will not vote for any party that contemplates more of this bullying. And yes, that includes your party Dave.

Source

Old sayings ring true

Now you would think that these quotes below would be a description of Life under labour's Britain. Just guess who said them:

I shall give a propagandist reason for starting this war. Never mind whether it is plausible or not. The victor will not be asked afterward whether he told the truth or not. In starting and waging war; it is not right that matters but victory.

No. Not Blair.

The great massses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.

Alistair Campbell? Nope

What good fortune for Governments that the people do not think

MP's. Wrong again.

Success is the sole earthly judge of right and wrong.

Gordon?

Universal education is the most corroding and disintegrating poison that liberalism has ever invented for it's own destruction.

Make your own mind up on that one.



A bit earlier than you would think. Adolf Hitler got here first.