The T-shirt I am wearing today has a 2001 film quotation on it. This is so I can quickly see the video.
Dodgy Websites
Thank goodness for the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority). If we didn’t have them then the country would be full of misleading claims about products and services. However, there is an issue, adverts and websites can only be adjudicated once the ASA have received a complaint. This means that the misleading claims (lies) have to be made public before there is any action. Therefore most of the population aren’t aware of the fact that an advert might have been withdrawn. The damage will have been done. Perhaps adjuducations should be carried in a short segment at the end of the main TV news shows on ITV, BBC and Sky. This would cut some of the issues of publish and then retract, maybe making advertising even better than it is now.
If you are unsure of what sort of adverts have had adjudications then click here. This should take you to a page with the most recent rulings. Look carefully as this is a list of adverts and claims that have been ruled upon and not just those that are lies. Check the complaint to see what the issue was with the original advert.
The ASA also has a page of non-compliant online advertisers. The list is here. It will probably come as no surprise that a lot of these websites are for products or services that must be considered “woo“. If you can’t substantiate your claims then the chances are you are peddling bogus products or SCAMs.
I am proud to let you know that a complaint I sent to the ASA was acted on for print versions but the website of this company still (as of 7 Nov 2012) promotes amber necklaces for toddlers as a way of soothing teething pains. There is no good evidence that this works. The ASA page on this non-compliance is here. Avoid their products!
Attention To Detail
Just so you people know how good GT5 is here’s a changelog for the latest update:
That’s why I think GT is one of the best game series ever and why I love it. Just a shame I haven’t played for about 3 weeks! Too busy. Need to be a student again!
Temporary Temporal Location
The Theory Of Relativity and the space-time continuum must be having a joke. It is Guy Fawkes night here in the UK and it is traditionally the time of year when people spend their hard earned cash and buy fireworks to explode in celebration of the destruction of a Catholic plot to take over the country. Every year we ritually burn a Catholic effigy on a fire, just to make a point.
Fireworks are not just limited to the 5th of November as they can be let off anytime from about a week before to a week after the actual date, or so seems the tradition in areas I have lived.
This sudden need for fireworks to burn has a strange effect on the existence of shops that sell fireworks. All of a sudden, shops exist where none have existed before. It is almost as if the universe knows that we need fireworks and obliges by creating these quantum spaces where money can be exchanged for coloured explosives. For the rest of the year these shops do not exist. I have no idea where you can buy fireworks at any other time of the year.
It seems strange that the will of the people is satisfied by the universe in allowing these shops exist. Yet, prayers for health and wealth go un-listened!
I imagine that fireworks shops are floating around in hyperspace just waiting for a critical mass of “need”. This “need” gives the shops the energy binding to fix their position for a short while so they can serve their reason for existence. As soon as that “need” passes the shop can no longer maintain its bind to reality and it is forced back into hyperspace. Perhaps they follow the need of Earth’s population around the globe and end up following the seasons! Early November in the UK, Diwali in India and New Year everywhere. The number of fireworks stores for the Olympics must have been immense!
Just imagine, a world where the needs of the people are served by a wonder of shops and services just floating outside existence until the “need” reaches critical mass. That’s my sort of universe!
Bad App
Shocked
It’s not a strong enough word to describe my reaction the the ABC Animals app from the Apple App Store.
I looked for an alphabet app for #1 to play with as he is starting to learn to read. ABC Animals looked good and I was quite impressed with it.
You go through the alphabet and touch the screen and get a picture of an animal, that animal’s sound and the animal is aurally named.
There’s a crocodile for C:
An elephant for E:
A tiger for T:
But hold on just a MF minute. WTF is this?.
There’s a UNICORN for the letter U:
This is just utter ARSE. I am ashamed I ever even downloaded this app. It’s not like there’s a shortage of animals beginning with U.
The app managed just fine to find the X-Ray Fish for the letter X so why are they messing around with a mythical animal for U?
The app has been deleted.
A Bit Early
Well, it’s the end of October and there are Christmas lights already up “decorating” the outside of a house. Mind you we are in Scotland and maybe they tolerate these things a little more than we English.
Why 100 000?
I just don’t understand why this waterless urinal is labelled as saving “up to” 100000 litres of water a year. It rather seems a cop out. Perhaps they should have used the term “on average”? But then, perhaps some of the McDonalds clientele wouldn’t understand the use of the term “on” let alone the incredibly difficult word “average”. Why not just write the following:
This waterless urinal saves up to 1000000 litres of water per year and may be responsible for the saving of the whales and arctic ice sheet
My use of the words “up to” and “may” allow me to write whatever the hell I want. I prefer my version.
Best Place In The World
Here’s a few photos of the best place in the world. When you are an aircraft geek there’s only the Smithsonian in Washington DC, all other places pale in comparison.
Space Shuttle Discovery
Another of Space Shuttle Discovery
The Lockheed SR71A Blackbird
More Blackbird
A Grumman F14 Tomcat
315 Feet
The car had to go to the tyre and brake people this week. I had noticed the feel of the brake pedal was changing slightly from smooth to a bit jerky when releasing pressure. This didn’t really concern me but the fact that the rear discs were looking rusty and there was only a thin band of clean metal had me worried.
The car went in to ATS Euromaster at 08:30 and I’d had the call by about 09:30. New pads and discs at the rear (I’d expected that), two new tyres as the fronts were worn to just about legal. I hadn’t really expected that but then I don’t hang around and a little sliding when it’s damp is good fun (no kids in the car and only where it’s safe and there’s space). I had mentioned that there was a slow puncture on the nearside rear tyre and it’s just aswell.
When I went to pick up the car it was still on the jacks so the guys could show me the problem that was causing the slow puncture. The inside of the tyre where the join normally occurs and is “welded” nicely was just a split. It had gone down to steel and would eventually have caused some serious issues. They believe it was a manufacturing fault and the tyre has been sent back to Pirelli and I hope I get a refund and I ended up paying for 3 tyres.
An interesting little fact that I hadn’t considered was that the new tyres went on the rear of the car and the worn tyres were swapped to the front. This is to try and ensure that when the car is on the limit it will understeer rather than oversteer. Understeer is much safer that oversteer and so by keeping the grip at the rear of the car (especially an estate where the rear is quite light) the car is safer to drive. Nice.
315 feet is the stopping distance of a car travelling at 70mph. This is the number given in the Highway Code. Most cars will stop much shorter than that. Should you ever be lost for a stopping distance then the formula s=v+(v^2)/20 works to give you the Highway Code numbers. The thinking and reaction time is the same number of feet as miles per hour and then the actual breaking distance is proportional to the speed squared. It’s all down to kinetic energy! See the Wolfram|Alpha stopping distance calculation here.
In Sewer Ants
First things first. I love my dog. He is wonderful company, very playful and more than a little crazy. He doesn’t necessarily do as he is told but he fits in well to my family.
The renewal notice for his insurance came through about a week ago and the yearly premium has changed from GBP 400 to GBP 640. This was apparently due to increasing vet’s costs and his age being more of a concern. The whole reason I got the dog insured was to save on vet’s bills. Also, he’s only six years old and so has some way to go before he takes his final walk. A GBP 20 a month increase, or more than 50% increase, seems a little high.
I went to a price comparison website to see what other offers I could get and there were companies willing to insure him for last year’s rates but they would not cover pre-existing conditions. Unfortunately for us, George has had a few fits over the couple of years and should this become more of a problem than it is currently then a new insurer would not cover that cost. Bugger.
I phoned my current company and they said they could reduce the level of cover to a lower premium which sounded nice, but it would be the same as taking out new insurance and so pre-existing problems would, again, not be covered. Double Bugger.
It would appear that I am stuck with these ludicrous price increases for the insurance for my dog. It would, in all honesty, be cheaper to buy a new dog each year than pay my new premiums!
Apologies to Terry Pratchet for the title of this communication.