Bollocks

Looks like Blogger’s playing silly bastards today. So I’ll update as and when…

Flying tonight

The BBC is reporting that concrete blocks have been placed round Parliament to protect it from a terrorist attack. OK, so a) why do this now – surely it’s not a spur of the moment decision? b) what’s the point? All they do is provide more cover for a dedicated suicide bomber to hide behind before getting to the building.

The official line is that the blocks will stop a truck driven by a suicide-bomber. OK, big deal – that just means instead you get them coming on foot, or on motorbikes, or any number of other methods. As September 11th demonstrated, there are always plenty of other access methods, not just ground level.

And at the end of the day, even if there was a truck-bomb, if you load it with enough explosive, the concrete blocks just become airborne ballistic objects themselves, and probably cause just as much damage as the truck would have done if left to get near the building itself.

But hey, what would I know about these things? *Grin*

Exhaustion

Ah, the joys of insomnia. In the last week, I think I’m probably lucky if I’ve amassed 12 hours sleep. I feel shattered, and almost on the verge of breaking down – thank god it’s the weekend tomorrow, and a long one at that. I’ll see how things progress tonight, but no promises on any further updates today.

You have been warned.

Vanity, Vanity, all is vanity

I just know that Green Fairy will be spitting feathers about this one upon her return (from seeing Radiohead, the lucky so-and-so) but I find it incredible that someone can insure themselves against ‘stopping being attractive’. This woman stands to get £100,000 if she is deemed (by a panel of ten builders, no less) to be unattractive. (Looking at the photo accompanying the story, I reckon she’s a good 90% of the way there already – but that’s my own perspective).

I suppose that’s part of why I find it hard to comprehend this policy – simply that what’s attractive to one person can will be fugly to another. From my own view as well though, what kind of husband/partner/whatever says “I’d dump you if you lost your looks”? Maybe I’m too altruistic for my own good, but I thought love and relationships were about loving and accepting the entire of the person, not just what their face/body is like. Perhaps that’s where I’ve been going wrong all these years. *Grin* Thankfully, I’ve never had the looks/vanity for this to be an issue with me – but isn’t it just an amazingly shallow pair of attitudes.

And yes, I know, it’s hardly a shock – NEWSFLASH – People are shallow – not really a revelation, is it?

Anonymous for life

Personally, I’m glad to see that Mary Bell and her 19 year old daughter have been granted lifelong anyonymity. While this particular case wasn’t contested by the press, it still had the potential to be overly-hyped in the future, and would have been raked over given the slightest opportunity – and that now can’t happen. (well, it can – but it’s a lot more difficult than it would be if the anonymity hadn’t been granted)

Sola Lala

So daft, I just had to mention it. There’s a place in the US wants to attract interest from investors by having a ginat lava lamp in the middle of the town. And in lots of ways, I think it could be really fun – quite what the town’s inhabitants would think of it, I have no idea.

Memories are just dead men making trouble

Over in the Thoughts section, there’s a new piece – looking back over the last three years. It’s not comprehensive – in fact it barely dances on the ice at the edge of comprehensive – but it’ll do for now.

And thanks go to a couple of people (they know who they are, at risk of sounding like an Oscar acceptance speech) for providing some of the impetus to keep on writing it – and some of the other pieces in the pipeline.