Author: Richard

Hope For Me Yet

| Richard

Whilst reading an article a friend had blogged about, my eye was drawn to a rather attractive, bikini-clad young lady who is, apparently, “Gary Lineker’s girl”.

Now ever with my finger on the pulse, I had no idea he was divorced (a couple of years already) or that there was indeed a new partner for him.

Anyway, here’s a link to the Daily Mail’s story which is basically an excuse to see her looking fabulous in a number of different bikinis. With my 46th birthday rapidly approaching, it’s also good for me to see a 47-year-old still able to attract totty a woman whilst also having the makings of a stomach and love handles (though not quite on my scale). And he’s greyer than me, though more hirsute.

In other news, the BBC’s flying penguins were a cut above the rest of the April Fools including Virgin/Google’s “Virgle” flying to Mars one.

Friday’s TV

| Richard

I keep meaning to blog about last Friday’s TV viewing highlights.

First up was “Transporter 2“, the sequel to a film I’d really quite enjoyed which stars one of those blokes who improves with age and hairloss, somewhat like Bruce Willis has, Jason Statham.

Jason Statham
 
Someone once said I reminded them of Jason Statham – bless her! – but then I’ve also been likened to Chuck Norris! Must be the “designer stuble” or something?

The film itself was a disappointment as they usually are when the US studios take over and write films for that market. Lots of wirework, farcical CGI ‘stunts’, etc. Ah well.

I then watched “Teenage Kicks“  starring and written by Ade Edmondson which could have been dire. I hoped the post-watershed timing might have meant the humour would have been less lame than I feared … and I wasn’t disappointed. The only awkwardness came – as hoped – by some of the jokes hitting too close to home for comfort. It has promise…

I Wish I Were French (Redux)

| Richard

So our former Prime Minster, Tony BLiar, was ‘blessed’ with a wife like Cherie who had/has a great law career and is also doing speaking engagements these days. Here’s Cherie:
Cherie Blair

Not an oil-painting, though. And Gordo Brown’s wife Sarah, is how shall we say, a comely lady and a great Mum, no doubt:

The Browns

But of course, if I were French, we’d have a President’s wife like Carla Bruni:

Carla Bruni

I mean, come on! That’s not fair!

Imagination

| Richard

Went out with my daughter this morning to do her paper round with her. On the way back, I was amused at the house name plaque thingy on a bungalow we passed. It read “The Bungalow”. We laughed at how long it took them to come up with that name and the conversation and then we wondered if Mr. & Mrs. Bleedin’-Obvious had kids…

“Yes, we’ll call her ‘The Girl'”. “Congratulations! It’s a boy! What’s his name? Oh, right … ‘the Boy'”.

Metropolitan Police Brand Me a Terrorist!

| Richard

So the Metropolitan Police have launched a new counter-terrorism campaign. Good stuff. From their website:

“Thousands of people have mobiles. What if someone with several seems suspicious? – Terrorists need communication. They often collect and use many anoymous [sic] pay as go phones, as well as swapping Sim cards and handsets. If your [sic] susipicious [sic] of the number of phones someone has , we need to know. Let experienced officers decide what action to take.”

Like shooting us on the tube, perhaps? Gotta love their dyslexia too.

Maybe I should stop going out with my two ‘live’ mobile phones to avoid being shot for being a suspected terrorist?

That Met. Police Poster

DVLA Vehicle Licensing Online

| Richard

My bike is safely tucked up for winter (apart from the odd bit of fettling). So being a dutiful citizen, I declared SORN online when the tax disc expired in the Autumn.

So far, so good.

I have a couple of ride-outs coming up in a few weeks, so it’s time for me to apply for a tax disc to run from 1 April - I’ll do 6 months which will take me through my riding season from Kawasaki Day at the Ace Café London through to the ZRXOC Medbourne Meet in September.

Bearing in mind, you have to allow sufficient time for postage, etc. I thought I’d tax it today to run from 1 April.

No. You can’t do that. The stupid system will only accept my taxing the bike from 1 March, so the Government is insisting I pay tax for the last 24 days, plus however long it would take for the tax disc to arrive after they process the application tomorrow. Let’s see … yes, it would probably arrive around the 1 April and I’d have been unable to use the bike for the first month of the six I’d have paid for, plus I wouldn’t be legal if I wanted to do the September meet.

Absolutely useless!

Of course this is operated by the same people who tried to claim that the latest Budget was all for environmentally friendly vehicles … whilst upping the tax for bikes. Bikes that are perfect for single ‘occupancy’ commutes. And those that do not cause congestion…

Signs of Desperation at Yuku?

| Richard

Looks like KickApps want to see some return after they’ve been sold a pup.

The Yuku Support Forum [sic] is now displaying ads. like there’s no tomorrow. And they’re not just coming from one source either. Adding into the mix all the tracking services they’re using to Yuku code and the up-and-down-more-than-a-whore’s-drawers Yuku servers, is it any wonder their whole system is slow and timing out regularly?

Let’s have a look at a sample thread on their support forum [sic]. In addition to all the scripts necessary for the software to actually run, it loaded content/tracking from:

  • partner.googleadservices.com (x5)
  • pagead2.googlesyndication.com (x3)
  • optimizedby.rmxads.com
  • ad.yieldmanager.com
  • google-analytics.com
  • edge.quantserve.com

Wow!

I suppose that all those keyword-generated ads. are why they are running around hiding/closing/deleting threads that are in any way critical of the dog’s dinner that is Yuku: you wouldn’t want disaster recovery ads. or personal accident/negligence lawyer ads. turning up all over the place, now would you?

Gran Hermano

| Richard

So it has been revealed that BAA, owned by Spanish construction company Ferrovial, plans to fingerprint all passengers at Heathrow’s Terminal 5.

Why?

Well apparently:

“Under the security measure, prints will be checked at the gate to try to ensure the person who checked in is the same person who is boarding the aircraft.”

I would have thought the person’s passport would do this just fine, wouldn’t you?

So why are they doing this? Who knows: maybe it’s just a commerical decision to push their miSense product following their earlier trials. Certainly the Home Office is quoted as saying there’s no requirement in terms of security for fingerprinting to take place and the Information Commissioner is apparently looking into it. There’s also the question as to transmission of the biometric data within the EU (and who knows where else).

The trouble for someone who wants to travel by air on international as well as domestic flights is that with BAA in such a dominant position in terms of airport ownership, you may effectively be forced to be added to a database. Once on there, who knows how long the information will be held and by whom.

What’s the next step? RFID tagging for everyone?