Facebook's new privacy changes are total shit. Now, it's impossible to make the following things private: Name, Profile Picture, Gender, Current City, Networks, Friend List, and Pages.

Yes, you can limit who can search for you to either friends or friends of friends. However, non-friends can still see you and click on you via your friends' friends lists; then, they'll be able to access all the above information about you. There's no way of limiting this which is total bullshit. Epic facebook fail.

Iraq war, baby! Full article here.

( Also, AIDS is still most fatal disease - though only if left untreated. )

I saw New Moon yesterday. RPattz was massively uninteresting and boring. Why any woman would go after him instead of dude-playing-Jacob (SERIOUSLY THAT BOY HAS GROWN UP BETWEEN MOVIES) is beyond my understanding. It's not even looks-wise (well...); RPattz is just such a rubbish actor and his character is so one-dimensional.

I've now read Twilight and New Moon and found New Moon far more readable, mainly because Eddie isn't in it very much. I don't want to read any more because the first few pages of Eclipse and Bella's idolising, driveling shit "EDWARD, MY MIRACLE" is just IMPOSSIBLE TO STOMACH OR READ. Someone told me that I couldn't whine about Twilight until I had read them, otherwise I was being a snob. Do you think reading two of them now qualifies me?

Apart from that, film-New Moon was alright. It has quite a few funny bits though I suspect some of them were not quite intentional. But, who cares. Jacob and Bella's relationship was adequately conveyed - it was convincing. Bella and Edward's isn't, thus the film begins to be annoying again (after her OMG HE LEFT ME I DIE parts) when she insists on rushing to his side like some stupid, moronic weirdo. I just don't BELIEVE she can feel all that much for him because he has no personality and is made of cardboard.

I'm not really interested in watching any of the other films unless they change it and she gets together with Jacob.

Dakota Fanning was cute. She's 15, holy shit!

I saw the first guy reading a Twilight book today, on the tube. He was reading Breaking Dawn and looked REALLY into it.

Tangent: I know that Stephenie Meyer isn't required to write a book for teenage girls that actually teaches them useful stuff, however - while watching New Moon I was sad to think of how great it would have been if the Twilight series, and New Moon in particular, HAD done exactly that. Imagine if Bella had watched Edward leave and said "Fine, fuck you asshole", gritted her teeth, and forced herself to GET THE FUCK OVER IT. In the way that the majority of the teenage girls watching these movies is going to have to do at one stage in their life. Then, if Bella had been, yes, heartbroken (love sucks, that's common knowledge) but manages to rally with the help of her good friend Jacob who, in time, she comes to appreciate more and more until she falls in love with him. Thus, we realise that One True Love doesn't exist, we shouldn't believe in it lest we ignore life in favour of wallowing in depression when someone we love leaves us because he was THE ONE, and get the fuck on with reality, understanding that happiness can be found in many different places and doesn't lie with one individual.

It's not Stephenie Meyer's job to write that, I realise. But I hate the idea of loads of teens watching that and thinking, "So, THAT is what romance/love is all about". No, it really isn't. What makes me despair more is the amount of adults that watch that and still think that way. Love isn't like that, thankfully. I know movies are escapism but it's concerning when they inform the way people may choose to view life.

It reminds me of my friend L who is with this guy who has treated her like shit since Day 1. She says, however, that it's okay because "as miserable as she is with him, she'd be even more miserable without him".

Great. Women and men should be striving for a hell of a lot more than that but I feel that films like Twilight muddy the view. If I felt that everyone would watch it as purely entertainment then that's great, because it serves that purpose. Putting more value on it than that, however (teens sighing "I need to go find my Edward"), is not so good.

Oh, the soundtrack is good.

Fuck, I've just written WAY too much about Twilight. So, here are ( some photos of Florence. )

This is flipping awesome. A STORM, people, it's a STORM. Gay people getting married is taking away my FREEEEEEEDOM. :D :D :D



Via Stephen Fry's twitter, he rocks my socks.

For FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF's sake.

I have to sectorise (is this a word?) a whole pile of medical devices companies. They all manufacture these products that I DO NOT UNDERSTAND*. It's very difficult to sort a bunch of companies into piles when you don't have a frickin clue what they actually DO. Also, stupid person who put this list together hasn't bothered to, I dunno, actually research any of them - hence there are a couple of companies listed as MEDICAL DEVICES TARGETS when, in reality, they are - for instance - a CHEMICALS COMPANY that happens to manufacture HAND SANITISER which is sold to hospitals. And accounts for about 1% of company revenue. YEAH REALLY GREAT MEDICAL DEVICES COMPANY THERE, STUPID TRAINEE PERSON. You're so annoying that you are making me speak in caps. And I'm so annoyed that I'm stuck having to sort out your shit that I'm going to send this to the partners with the names scored out of all the stupid, non-medical devices companies and explain why they should never have been in the list in the first place.

Pisses moi off.

* Anyone fancy telling me which sub-sector a company that manufactures dual-energy X-ray bone densitometry systems (among other things) should go into? Electromedical apparatuses? Maybe hospital harware? No, I know! Imaging! Wtfffffff.


So, the effing banks are all smug after the Supreme Court ruled in their favour in regard to overdraft charges. There have been quite a few posts about this around LJLand, with quite a few people saying "WELL I AM GLAD THAT THEY WON PEOPLE SHOULD BE MORE RESPONSIBLE WITH THEIR MONEY AND I DON'T WANNA PAY FOR THEIR STUPIDITY".

Yeah, except no. What people don't appear to realise is that banks depend on overdraft charges; they make up c.25% of retail banking revenue. Which means that: if all these holier-than-thou people actually got their way and everyone who is currently paying £25-£38 per transaction over their limit suddenly became very 'responsible' and never went over their overdraft limit again........then free banking would stop.

The only people who actually 'pay' for their banking in the UK are 1) very rich people who have lots of savings in their accounts, as the bank makes tidy net interest sums, 2) people who pay a monthy fee (HSBC Premier Bank etc) and 3) people who go over their limit and are charged. This is how retail banks make their money so, in this scenario, the people who are actually getting a free ride are the ones who don't have lots of cash in their accounts but also don't go over their limit. Their 'right' to free banking is being subsidised by those with vast savings and those who (either because they don't check or because they can't afford otherwise) go over their limit and get penalised.

It's bollocks. And I say that as one of those people who currently receives that free ride.

I just read this article on the BBC website, which tells "the extraordinary true story of a Malawian teenager who transformed his village by building electric windmills out of junk".

Very inspiring, I quite fancy my own windmill in London now.

In this article about a woman who was jailed for having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl, the BBC sees fit to point out that: Police found several sex toys during a search of Goddard's home after her arrest.

So?

Has anyone seen this? It's so fricking WEIRD. It's apparently meant to be a video promoting tourism in Denmark but...it...doesn't...wtf...I don't even. Huh?


Maybe they thought by doing something really really weird and obscure, then everyone would complain and talk about it. No publicity is bad publicity, yadda yadda. (ETA - people are whining that the video promotes promiscuity - lol as if. It's a totally weird video but it doesn't promote anything, not even Denmark that's the point.)

But lol @ the baby around the 1.55 mark just starting to STARE at the woman like WTF ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

I have been increasingly concerned about the Telegraph and its compatibility with the term "broadsheet". It's turning tabloid by the day. I'm a bit disappointed. Okay - I'm certainly more left-leaning but it was somewhat comforting to know there was a relatively normal conservative broadsheet in among the pile. I guess The Times is as far as it goes now.

An article rebutting Carter's claim of racism re: Obama appeared in the Torygraph. .

But holy SHIT, the comments?! Have all the daily mail readers migrated over there or what?
Thecolonel tells us: And if he is bothered about racists, wouldn’t he be better looking closer to home at people like Sharpton, Wright, Sotomayer and Jackson? And perhaps finding out who it was that arranged for the Black Panthers to be hanging around voting booths at the election?
Um wut.

Damocles says: There are those who will always say that if you dislike one black or gay or fat person then it is because you dislike all black or gay or fat people[...]I’ve met a variety of black and gay (and black gay) people and some I’ve liked and some disliked on their own personal merits or demerits. Still, no getting around those fatties (well there is but it’s a long way round).
Lol, moron.

45govt ends his stunner of a comment with: The race card is being played, and will backfire this time. It is not ‘cos he’s black, it’s cos he’s a freaking liar, imbecile and traitor - and perhaps even ineligible.
You forgot Nazi.


Sort of relatedly, I'd like to read this book, One Injury, 10 Countries, a Journey in Health Care. Looks interesting.

I just watched Patch Adams.

I think I blubbed the whole way through. Pete laughed at me a lot.

This is awesome: Ten of the best kids' questions.
Including: "Why don't all fish die when lightning hits the sea?", "What is time?" and (my personal favourite) "Why can't people leave other people alone?"

Yeah, I'd like an answer to that one!

This pissed me off.

Bad Science article debunks an article in the Daily Telegraph, which was called "Women who dress provocatively more likely to be raped, claim scientists". The article starts: Women who drink alcohol, wear short skirts and are outgoing are more likely to be raped, claim scientists at the University of Leicester.

As it turns out, the article was based on an MSc dissertation by a student, the title of which was, actually, "Promiscuous men more likely to rape".

The student was just a tad pissed off that her findings had basically been completely misrepresented, yet her study was used to validate totally bogus claims.

The Telegraph was forced to apologise, ending their 'oopsie' statement with: "[Our article] wrongly stated that research presented at the recent BPS conference by Sophia Shaw found that women who drink alcohol are more likely to be raped. In fact, the research found the opposite. We apologise for our error."

The opposite. Yet, lots of people won't actualy read the retraction and will, instead, shake their conservative heads and moan about 'women these days'.

Seriously. What's up with journalism?

I feel like I'm having a blonde moment but google isn't helping me.

Is it "acquiror" or "acquirer"? Are they both right? One of them - if so, which? Is one American spelling and one British English?

I'm so confuzzled.

Has anyone seen Big Momma's House 2? I'm not watching it out of choice, Pete has it on in the background.

At the end, there is a 'cheerleading' scene. The little cheerleading girls are about, what, 10? And they're out there doing this routine that involved much arse-slapping and gyrating of hips. It's the kind of routine you'd see professional cheerleaders doing. Except they're 10. I FEEL TRAUMATISED.

Am I just getting old, or should little girls just not be doing that kind of shit at all, let alone in a film seen by millions?

Feel all yucky now. :(

Do Americans not have kettles? As in electric kettles? I was just talking to my American colleague and she said she only 'met' kettles when she came to the UK!

How have I never known this? I've been to the US so many times and I have never, ever, never noticed the lack of kettles.



You learn something new every day! So, how do you boil pasta or make tea? In a saucepan?

I'm now curious as to the rest of the world. Most of Northern Europe has them, I think. What about the rest of the English-speaking world? Is it more prevalent in countries that drink more tea? Kettle research!

G20 is such a riot!

My office has its own police officer today.

:D

He's just awalkin' around outside, doing his policeman thing. I bet he didn't realise part of his polieman duties would be being a security guard for an overly paranoid law firm.

Tomorrow and Thursday, we've been told to dress down. I'm not sure I understand why...do they think that, in dress down, we'll blend in more with the Anarchists*? We're less likely to be mistaken for bankers? That's be amusing.
Lawyer: "No no, I'm not a banker, I'm a lawyer!"
Anarchist: "Ohh, you're a LAWYER. Why didn't you say, please feel free to go."

Even more amusing is you can only go dress down if you're not meeting clients. Coz, obviously, if you are meeting clients, it's better to look good and run the risk of being burned as a capitalist than not look good.

*I'm now capitalising Anarchists because it makes them sound scarier.


Also: Friendapocolpyses Friendacoplyse Friendapocalypses are fun! *waves*.

Man survived both atomic bombings

Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Hiroshima on a business trip on 6 August 1945 when a US plane dropped the first atomic bomb.
He suffered serious burns and spent a night there before returning to his home city of Nagasaki just before it was bombed on 9 August.


That has to be like...the worst luck ever.

The weather in the UK has gone back to normal: wet, windy, cold, crap. One of my work friends has just left to go to India for two weeks. I'm so jealous. :( I get to go to Brussels next weekend though, so...yay?

I wish I could unlearn about the existence of indoor v. indoor/outdoor cat wank. FOR GOODNESS SAKE, PEOPLE.

I have so much work to do and not enough time so procrastinating on eljay is obviously the best idea because if I actually have to think about all the work then I'll freak out completely. So no thinking!

I watched a sad/happy documentary yesterday about this couple who had been deaf all their lives, but decided to get cochlear implants. The documentary was filmed by one of their daughters, and charted the joys, trials and tribulations that the couple faced, trying to adjust to a hearing universe at the age of 65. Because it was all so late, they couldn't really figure out what to 'listen' to and what to ignore, and it makes you realise just how much you take all of these natural and early-learnt abilities totally for granted.

Nooooo, don't make me wooooooork.

Another ideological god has failed. The assumptions that ruled policy and politics over three decades suddenly look as outdated as revolutionary socialism.

“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’” Thus quipped Ronald Reagan, hero of US conservatism. The remark seems ancient history now that governments are pouring trillions of dollars, euros and pounds into financial systems.

“Governments bad; deregulated markets good”: how can this faith escape unscathed after Alan Greenspan, pupil of Ayn Rand and predominant central banker of the era, described himself, in congressional testimony last October, as being “in a state of shocked disbelief” over the failure of the “self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity”?

Throughout, the financial sector innovated ceaselessly. Warren Buffett, the legendary investor, described derivatives as “financial weapons of mass destruction”. He was proved at least partly right. In the 2000s, the “shadow banking system” emerged and traditional banking was largely replaced by the originate-and-distribute model of securitisation via constructions such as collateralised debt obligations. This model blew up in 2007.

Among the possible outcomes of this shock are: massive and prolonged fiscal deficits in countries with large external deficits, as they try to sustain demand; a prolonged world recession; a brutal adjustment of the global balance of payments; a collapse of the dollar; soaring inflation; and a resort to protectionism. The transformation will surely go deepest in the financial sector itself. The proposition that sophisticated modern finance was able to transfer risk to those best able to manage it has failed. The paradigm is, instead, that risk has been transferred to those least able to understand it. As Mr Volcker remarked during a speech last April: “Simply stated, the bright new financial system – for all its talented participants, for all its rich rewards – has failed the test of the marketplace.”

Yet if the financial system has proved dysfunctional, how far can we rely on the maximisation of shareholder value as the way to guide business? The bulk of shareholdings is, after all, controlled by financial institutions. Events of the past 18 months must confirm the folly of this idea. It is better, many will conclude, to let managers determine the direction of their companies than let financial players or markets override them.

A likely result will be an increased willingness by governments to protect companies from active shareholders – hedge funds, private equity and other investors. As a defective financial sector loses its credibility, the legitimacy of the market process itself is damaged. This is particularly true of the free-wheeling “Anglo-Saxon” approach.

Highlights from the FT.com's series, The Future of Capitalism: Seeds of its own destruction.

Also a good read here: A Failure to control animal spirits.

This is extra lulzy coz my dad emailed it to me.

What do you call some of the most unlucky people in Britain?

Justin Case, Barb Dwyer and Stan Still.

It sounds like a bad joke, but a study has revealed that there really are unfortunate people with those names in the UK. Joining them on the list are Terry Bull, Paige Turner, Mary Christmas and Anna Sasin.

And just imagine having to introduce yourself to a crowd as Doug Hole or Hazel Nutt.
---

Personally, I also like Annette Curtain, Tim Burr and Jo King.