Virgin Media are still shit

I have been amused to see that the end of our road is now adorned by a billboard announcing that Virgin Media (officially supplier of multimedia to the Wooley household) are the only broadband supplier with super-fast cable broadband. Unsurprisingly, ever since said billboard has gone up my connection has been slower than an arthritic snail. Hello, ASA?

New Math

News from the US reaches me of a revolt against trendy Math(sic) teaching. Apparently parents can't cope with the fact that their little ones are being taught differently to how they where. Anyway not of much interest in and of itself, except to add to my list of stories that prove there is nothing new in the world, as the following song written in the '60s by a Mr. Tom Lehrer proves.




PS. other stories that provide a flimsy excuse to post Tom Lehrer songs gratefully received, (although not So Long Mom (Song for World War III) if we can avoid it please Mr Putin) .

Muppetry of the highest order

I'm not sure who are the biggest muppets in the story of the £2m given to the wrong Newcastle. The official who got confused between Newcastle-under-Lyme and Newcastle upon Tyne and gave the small potteries town £2m of the Geordie's LABGI money, or the officials at Newcastle upon Tyne for not being sure enough of their figures to not have forced CLG to rectify it sooner. In my experience when you underpay somebody to the tune of £2m they generally jump up an down on your head until you put it right, not merely 'query' it.

Don't you want me?

Blogging is likely to remain light for a while yet but I had to break radio silence to protest about the latest attempts by the US Government to discourage anybody foreign ever going to the US ever. As the other half is a US citizen, and currently living in the US (this week at least), I have a vested interest in travel across the pond being as easy as possible. But trying to look at this objectively
surely there must be a point at which treating everybody who turns up at your front door like a common criminal starts to become counter-productive? How many tourists and investors, especially those nice gulf based gentlemen who have just bailed out half of Wall Street, want to be poked and prodded by the trained gorillas who man US immigration every time they fly into the 'land of the free'.

Of course freedom loving, visitor welcoming, data protecting Europe is throwing open its doors to one and all, isn't it? *heddesk* as the American's would say.

Did the Labour Whips screw up on Friday?

File this under geeky, but did the Labour Whips screw up on Friday morning? Michael Fallon's private members bill on planning and energy passed its second reading in the Commons 45 votes to 0. Not all that surprising you may think, after all all the parties now (officially at least) support renewable energy, which Fallon's bill professes to promote. But the Minister responding to the debate (Hartlepool byelection winner) Iain Wright made it explicit in his speech that the Government opposed the Bill.

So why didn't he vote against it?

Well I suspect the whips got their maths wrong. A division in the Commons needs forty votes to be quorate, or else the business being debated falls. The whips must have told Wright, and the rest of the Labour loyalist vote, to stay away when the division was called expecting that Fallon and his supporters could muster less than 40 votes. Hence they could kill the bill without having to annoy the green lobby by voting against it. A cunning plan indeed, with one small flaw, it appears that the whips can't count.

Malcolm O'Kelly is hard...

... or very very dense. Either way I think I would be coming round just about now if I had been on the receiving end of this:



Hat Tip: rugby dump

The best hotel in Middle Earth?

Still in South Africa, but think it is necessary to break off the Holiday to pimp up the Hobbit Hotel in Bloemfontein (so called because Bloem is Tolkein's birthplace pub quiz fans). Not only is our luxurious suite (well after a week in backpackers) beautifully kitted out, and cheap at only 900rand; but how many Hotels provide you with a large teddy bear to cuddle during your stay? made my day.