When I turned on the rather pedestrian Radio 4 news yesterday and heard about Celebrity Big Brother, I knew immediately that something extraordinary must be happening. It turns out that the events in the now infamous "Big Brother House" have had repercussions in the "outside world", as it's known on the show.
What fascinates me more than anything is that the debate seems to be as much about whether what we're seeing is racism, or whether it is "just bullying". I'm not sure that it matters, actually. I don't think anyone on a national television program should be required to submit themselves to the kind of sustained abuse flowing from the mouth of Jade Goody.
As the year turns, it's often a time for looking back. I thought I would excel myself by looking further back than just last year. I found an excellent timeline showing, in a light-hearted way, the history of the internet. Click HERE to have a look.
I also happened upon a news report from the early eighties, showing a Canadian take on the early signs of the internet phenomenon which we now accept so readily.
It's fascinating to see how it was viewed then, given what it is now. Back then, I bet many of us never thought that computers would be as near the centre of our lives as they are now.
Go on, be honest.
He may have a little interview to do after the newscast.
It's very much the development we've been hoping for.
“The UK has the highest rate of obesity in Europe, according to figures released by the Department of Health.”
So reported the BBC and other major UK channels today. God bless them. I wonder why they portray the story in this way?
For those of us who are grossly obese, I very much doubt news like this is likely to change anything - other than engendering an extra layer of guilt and enhancing my own feeling of wanting to hide from the world. (oh yes, it's there, and I'm kinda glad that you would question that)
I suspect it is reported in this way so that those who are not significantly overweight can say their “Tut-tutts” over their skinny-lattés and maybe mutter, soto voce, that “something should be done about it”.
The main messages, from both the media and the government, seem to be:
1) Obese people are a problem.
2) We should rightly be ashamed of them.
3) How could they be so stupid?
The underlying message also seems to include quite a large dollop of: “It's OK to discriminate and demonise fat people”. In a country where great strides have been made to stamp out discrimination in so many areas, we've finally found a subject where we don't have to try. Phew!
I haven't spoken out about this before, because I think I was all too happy to be ashamed of myself just as suggested.
“But hang on a moment, Jack” I hear you say, or at least that is the sense of what I hear you say. (Some of you may have used badder words.)
“Hang on a moment, Jack, that news report was just reporting a fact, not taking a stance. You're completely over-reacting.”
It's a fair point, and I think the best, and therefore most dangerous, discriminatory rhetoric sounds this way.
It's important to note that the line I quoted did not mention people at all. Even a tiny change would have helped a bit. They could have said: “The UK has the highest number of obesity sufferers in Europe, according to figures released by the Department of Health.” Instead, they used a phrase that is normally reserved for crime figures - like “The highest rate of gun crime in Europe”, or whatever.
They actually make obesity sound like a crime.
So this blog entry is my attempt to fight back just a little. I'm not suggesting that obesity is a great lifestyle choice, or that we should encourage people to become obese - that would be equally stupid.
I'm just firing a warning shot, lest we utterly de-humanise a disease that a great many people struggle with. If those with influence would do more by way of getting alongside those of us who really do have a mountain to stop being, then I sense the possibility of progress.
It's time the government and the media thought about practical and innovative help in this difficult area.
Till then, I'm sticking with the Spry, it sure slips down easy...
British firm Moixa are marketing a new concept in batteries, the USB cell. The concept is a simple one - no need for a charger, just plug these little wonders directly into an available USB socket on your games console or computer and let them re-charge. Once they're “cooked”, flip the caps back on and use them.
Not only in AA size, they already exist in 9V PP3 power pack size and are soon to be available in AAA size with a mini-USB connector. Not only that, but they are developing re-chargeable batteries for mobile phones so that you no longer have to remember to take a charger along with you on business trips or holidays.
The cost is a bit steep at £13 for two AA cells, but that is sure to come down once the concept catches on.
I think this product could well be a winner, but my ultimate dream of a radically longer battery life may still be some way away. As I have said before, a laptop battery lasting properly for 12 hours is my dream. I sit awake at night and dream of that. Oh yes - wouldn't that be great?
More battery news soon.
This just in from Associated Press. This is no joke - it actually happened to real people and is not part of my own bizarre fantasy world.
Murder suspect: Goat turned into corpse
September 15, 2006
LAGOS, Nigeria --A Nigerian murder suspect accused of killing his brother with an axe told police investigators he actually attacked a goat, which was only later magically transformed into his sibling's corpse, officials said Thursday.
The man, whose name wasn't released, offered police his explanation after his arrest on Tuesday in the death of his brother the previous day at Isseluku village in southern Nigeria.
“He said that the goats were on his farm and he tried to chase them away. When one wouldn't move, he attacked it with an axe. He said it then turned into his brother,” Police Commissioner Udom Ekpoudom told the Associated Press.
Murder suspects in Nigeria, where many people believe in black magic, sometimes claim spirits tricked them into killing. In 2001, eight people were burned to death after one person in their group was accused of making a bystander's penis magically disappear.
Here we go again. Kicking someone out of office in our government.
Once again, it is not my love of, or commitment to politics that causes me to speak. It's more my fundamental sense of basic human decency.
I worry that the media currently hold so much power that they can remove virtually anyone from office.
If I had a swanky house in the country with a croquet lawn, I bet I would give it a go sometime or other. Just for a laugh if nothing else. Hey, I might even let folks take pictures of my making an idiot of myself playing I game I hardly know.
Now, we are being asked to swallow that John Prescott's croquet playing is a reason that he is unfit for office. Pull the other one, guys. I am so sick of this kind of reporting.
The reason for so many people to leave office is that the story runs and runs, not that the original problem was a sufficiently serious one. As soon as an individual becomes too high profile for the wrong reasons they are removed. No-one seems to be able to tough it out under such media glare.
Is this really what we want, or maybe we just like reading and viewing trash? I imagine Mr. Prescott (a man who I know all but nothing about) will soon be completely kicked out simply because some red-top newspapers manage to rake up another round or two of tenuous dirt.
We are pretty quick to spot when the Big Brother producers use editing to show people in both good and bad ways - how come we fall for the mainstream media tricks so easily?
Good luck John, I do hope you hang in there.
This just in, and it made me smile....I think.
Prostitutes in Germany are being given the chance to retrain as geriatric nurses.
About 30 prostitutes, aged 20 to 40, are to take up a two-year training course for auxiliary nurses in North Rhine Westphalia, reports the Telegraph.
The scheme, funded by the church and the EU, is aimed at easing a chronic shortfall in nurses as well as offering an alternative to prostitutes.
One trainee, Angelika, who is in her late 30s and worked in Bochum as a prostitute for six years said she had found the transition very smooth: “I'm feeling good,” she said.
Rita Kühn, of the protestant church's welfare programme, said: “They are in general very good at dealing with people, in addition to which they don't get squeamish and have absolutely no fear about touching or being touched.”
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