20 ridiculous complaints made by holidaymakers – Telegraph

A tourist at a top African game lodge overlooking a waterhole, who spotted a visibly aroused elephant, complained that the sight of this rampant beast ruined his honeymoon by making him feel “inadequate”.

That’s what you get when you marry an elephant I suppose

The research has been conducted by Aberdeen University’s Centre for Transport Research on behalf of the Yellow School Bus Commission, which was set up two years ago by bus company FirstGroup.

US-style school buses offer jobs hope – Telegraph

Who would have thought that a commission set up by a bus company would conclude that it is a good idea for the government to pay for a bus service to take kids to school! Amazing.

“From the evidence we have, we can deduce that at least one of the brothers took part in the crime,” the court wrote in a statement, “but it has not been possible to determine which one.”

Suspected robbers freed after German court admits it cannot tell twins apart – Telegraph

It’s a strange use of the word always, and one I haven’t previously come across.

I thought that’d grab your attention after such a long time – they really know how to write a catchy headline at the Sheffield Star.

Pass me my popcorn, I’m settling in…

My first few mobile phones (Ericsson T18 and T39) had tiny displays – which was fine on the T18, but the T39 could download email, so even in the dim and distant days of the turn of the century the technology in it was limited by the screen on it – there is no pleasure in reading an email 3 short lines at a time.

Things haven’t really moved on – my current phone has a larger display than the Ericssons did, but it still takes so long to scroll past the email header that I can rarely be bothered with the email itself. The iPhone is much better, but then it is a larger device.

Anyway, a solution may be at hand. Admittedly this early version looks a tad clunky, but Polymer Vision‘s phone with a fold out display could be the way to go. (I love the fact that InvertorSpot has to explain 3G to it’s audience)

Anyway, we’ll all have something like this, or a phone with some sort of built in projection system in the future I reckon.

Technorati Tags: powerbook, newbattery

Well, it doesn’t get more worthwhile than the news that at last I have got a new battery for my PowerBook. The fact that they are £90 put me off for a while, but it had got to the stage where the battery was so tired the laptop gave up and just reported ‘no battery.’

Not having a battery is bad enough, but when the connection between laptop and power supply is a flaky as it is on my thrice-dropped 12″, not having a battery means frequent loss of data when the cable imperceptibly moves. You never get used to it, it never gets less annoying.

Anyway, now I’m back to four hours of cable free computing at a time, which is pure luxury. It seems to run quicker too.

I’ve never been in favour of him taking over, and now he has been told to return to Thailand after being charged with concealing assets.

It’s time now (and always has been) for City to start planning for next season without him – currently we have no scoring strikers, no midfield and no manager.

Technorati Tags: mcfc, thaksinshinawatra

Article from the Guardian

Prospective Manchester City owner Thaksin Shinawatra has been ordered to return to Thailand or face arrest after being charged with concealing assets.

I thought of their Rabbi Lionel Blair when I read this piece of tosh on the BCC about a church in Cornwall which has ripped out the pulpit and communion table and plonked in a skateboard ramp. It also has an internet cafe and shows surfing and skateboarding videos.

Technorati Tags: cornwall, methodist, skateboardchurch, skateboard

The Rev seems very happy because the church is full, but he doesn’t seem to have stopped to think if perhaps the change in numbers is perhaps linked to the change in the building. What with the whole constancy of religion and god and stuff, maybe just maybe more people are there for the boarding and free internet when on holiday. If it was god they were after they’d have been there before I’m guessing.

Then the Rabbi Lionel Blair quote (from the BBC article above)

When you step on a skateboard you are putting your trust in your skills. It’s the same with faith when you step out you are putting your trust in God to tell you what to do.

Not the strongest analogy in the world really – stepping on a skateboard requires that testable theories of physics continue to hold true and that your inputs will therefore have the outputs you expect from years of repeated trials. The same outcome could be achieved by anyone putting in the same input. So not at all like religion then.

Technorati Tags: derby, mormon, religion

When I was making my way back to the car, which I had eventually abandoned in any old car-park, I was stopped in the street by a mormon chap who wanted to tell me about his faith.

I always think this is tremendously arrogant. This bloke knew nothing about me but was convinced, as most of the people who stop you in the street to tell you something are, that what he knew was true and what I knew wasn’t. I had the usual fun of getting him to find a non-offensive answer when I asked him if he thought I hadn’t thought about religion properly, or if not on what other basis he thought I might have rejected it.

He then went into a routine about theories, and how these are not testable. I had to correct him there and explain that testability is a key part of a theory, which is why his religion could not even be classed a theory, let alone the cast-iron truth he was purporting it to be. He sort of gave up then, which was a bit disappointing. If you are going to stop people in a hurry (I was on the cusp of the next car-park charging band!) so you can save their soul, then at least have a degree of commitment to the cause.