'Civilisation is crumbling,' said Bill the Butcher (right) in 'Gangs of New York.'Bill was correct, of course. Just a century or so premature in his diagnosis.But two news items today indicate that Bill's prescient prediction is now coming true.Firstly, a book written by a chimp has been nominated for a best first book award.Now, I'm going out on a limb here, but I reckon that the monkey didn't write the book. No matter how many years he was chained to a typewriter. I'm guessing it was written by a bunch of marketing scum, seeking to 'create some buzz' around nothing by billing their verbal silage as being the product of a monkey.Every year, tens of thousands of debut novels emerge onto the market to a resounding silence from the media, the review pages, the awards lists. This is how it...
There's plenty wrong with copyright laws in this country. Instead of fixing those things though, the government want ISPs to do their dirty work, monitor everything you download and ban users from the internet if they download copyrighted material. There are so many things wrong with this I don't know where to start!
1. It's an invasion of privacy. This is the most immediately obvious problem. That's fair enough if you're one of those downloading illegal content, but it's essentially treating everyone as guilty (by stripping them of their right to privacy) until proven innocent. There isn't even a "reasonable grounds for suspicion" protection.
2. It's not technologically feasible. Discussing this very issue, one ISP that monitors the types of traffic on their network quite closely...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/2008/02/15/downloaders_banned_from_the_internetThere's plenty wrong with copyright laws in this country. Instead of fixing those things though, the government want ISPs to do their dirty work, monitor everything you download and ban users from the internet if they download copyrighted material. There are so many things wrong with this I don't know where to start!
1. The most immediately obvious problem is it's an invasion of privacy. That's fair enough if you're one of those downloading illegal content, but it's essentially treating everyone as guilty (by stripping them of their right to privacy) until proven innocent. There isn't even a "reasonable grounds for suspicion" protection.
2. It's not technologically feasible. Discussing this...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/2007/12/31/catherine_tate_and_ulster_sensitivitiesDo we have a right to be offended by Ulster stereotypes?
According to broadcasting news site Digital Spy, Ofcom is set to investigate complaints made about the Catherine Tate Show's portrayal of a Northern Irish family as terrorists.
The site says that viewers "expressed anger" about a sketch in which a Northern Irish family were opening their Christmas presents, which included a balaclava, a knuckleduster and an apron adorned with a balaclava-wearing terrorist alongside the words "Remember Everything, Forgive Nothing".
It's purile and really not that funny but is it really surprising? She's not the first and I'm sure she won't be the last. In fact when we have equally un-funny shite...
Pudsey's new look for 2007. What have they done?
Tonight's Children in Need night on BBC, but what the hell have they done to Pudsey? It looks like some wise-ass graphic designer has been let loose on him and decided to assault the poor thing.
Classic Pudsey served BBC for Children in Need for 20 years.
The previous Pudsey logo had been used for nearly 20 years but for some reason the BBC have decided to "update" him this year. I'd let them away with the colour-tone change, but that red polkadot bandana-type thing was part of Pudsey, not to mention the fact that someone's butchered the poor bear's face.
Bring back classic Pudsey.
Images © copyright...
All empires bear within them the seeds of their own destruction, history informs us.Even as Rome was in it's Imperial pomp, with Caligula appointing his horse as consul, or Nero blowing the entire Imperial fortune on interminable poetry contests, a bit like John O'Donoghue used to, we can see with retrospect that the fall of the Caesar family was inevitable.So it will be with Fianna Fail and it's rum cast of dynasties.As their grip on Ireland, or at least the 26 counties of it they still claim is Ireland, copperfastens, we have seen the many various dissenters come scampering back into the fold for the third term.The Donegal Blaneys, who'd make a Shinner feel Unionist, have now signed up to the whip. So have the Kerry publicans the Healy-Raes, their ongoing feud with the former minister...
Some people are surprised at how little television I watch. I'm a bit like my local boozer, which has a telly in the corner, but it has a little sign underneath it that reads 'News and Sport Only.'Basically, down the pub, the box goes on if there's a big game on, or for the Six-One news. All other times, it rests in blissful silence. I've adopted a similar policy.This doesn't mean that no telly gets watched in our house. My other half is still an addict, and after a hard day's graft, like so many people, she likes to sprawl on the sofa and zone out in front of the goggle box.I've long since learnt to either leave the room or ignore the prattle of the box in a zen-like fashion when she's watching.This is not to say that there aren't things I might like to watch. But generally, those are...
As I write this I’m watching Channel five’s MacIntyre’s Underworld: Mad Dog programme on Jonny Adair and there is, unsurprisingly, some disturbing shit going on there – and nobody’s buying the PR. The man is such an embarrassment to the pro-union population in Northern Ireland I can’t help but think he’s in the pocket of republicans because he seems to be doing their cause more good than his own.
I felt nauseous when I saw Adair and his waste of space mate Michael Carrol draping themselves in the Union Jack alongisde loyalist paramilitary flags. To make matters worse, Adair seems to have a complete victim complex about himself. He’s been such an unfortnate soul that “all those people in the UDA turned on me and my family,” or...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/everythingulster/2006/09/03/open_complaint_to_the_bbc
TV Channel: BBC Three
Programme Name: Germany vs Republic of Ireland
Transmission Date: 02/09/06
I was disappointed when I switched over to the above football match to see the latest score information in the top left of the screen display "Germany 0 Ireland 0".
However it wasn't the lack of goals so-far that had attracted my attention but the inaccurate representation of one of the teams playing as "Ireland". There has not been a football team called Ireland for many decades now, and the original Ireland team was the Irish FA one based in Belfast, not the one run by the FAI.
It's bad enough to hear this team repeatedly referred to informally as Ireland during commentary, but when...
http://www.everythingulster.com/blogs/index.php/everythingulster/2006/09/01/bending_over_backwards_to_encourage_obesityIt seems a fitting title in light of the recent hunger striker memorials; tonight I watched a documentary presented by overweight comedian Ricky Grover on BBC Three (part of their Body Image Season) entitled F*** off, I'm fat. Subtle, eh? The documentary team followed Mr Grover as he and some incredibly obese people complained about how hard it was being fat. The thing that tickled me most though, was the mention that in American (where, unsurprisingly, most of these studies are carried out) it's been estimated that on average a "seriously obese" person breaks 3 toilets a year.
Is this the future facade of public conveniences?
With the enterprising culture of the US,...