I heard the news today, oh boy..

[georgia]

Not really - and we'd rather have a free taxi thank you very much...

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

and this children, is why you shouldn't do it ...

[SteveT]

How right you are PGC, my youngest sister worked in a hospital, her full time job was arranging for, and explaining to, ladies who wanted tattoo removals.

They all regretted their decision to indulge, in this once, frowned upon, practice.

[annaj]

My mum has a tattoo.

She got it at the age of 63. At the tattoo bar in Selfridges.

As far as I know, she has never regretted it.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Typical clergy kid - always rebelling.

[Brendan]

I want to get a tattoo on my arm that says, ?I?m probably going to regret this? in profound looking lettering. My wife thinks it?s a stupid idea and said some swear words to me.

On a different note look, Joe Satriani is suing some British pop band http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/dec/08/joe-satriani-sues-coldplay

[Brendan]

You couldn?t make this up.

Company tries to get gun classed as medical device - http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16207

I especially like this: "The justification for this would be no more or less for a [walking aid] or wheelchair, or any number of things that are medical devices," he says.

[mockney piers]

That's a gun? Looks more like sonething Gillian McKeith would use to apply a teapot.

Here's another storm in a teacup or the end of civilisation as we know it, depending on your point of view.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/12/wikipedia_is_censored.html#commentsanchor

[Brendan]

As someone who deals with the law on a regular basis this rings very true and is just one of the reasons I spend a large amount of my time angry with the various systems that govern our lives.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/markeaston/2008/12/one_law_for_the_rich.html

QUOTE:

Q: How many people were prosecuted for TV licence evasion in 2005-6?

A: 157,452. (The Television Licensing Authority claims a 99.9% conviction rate.)

Q: How many people were prosecuted for tax evasion last year?

A: 69.

[*Bob*]

Kind-of easy to prosecute someone for not telly licence though, isn't it.

Address with no licence in force.

Send round the mythical white van with the spinning roofrack.

Case closed.

Not so easy with tax evasion. Or should that be 'efficient accounting'?

[Brendan]

That?s kinda the point the article makes Bob. The problem is inherent with the system and trying to get a consensus on changing the status quo especially from those who benefit from its faults is near impossible.

[SteveT]

Brendan I saw the TV licence 'nicking van' in Barry road a couple of days ago.

It might have just have been a show of strength from auntie beeb.

[Brendan]

If anyone has been reading about the most recent death by incompetence debacle in Africa this is quite good. Admittedly it is a bit of a rant but a warranted one.

http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/traps/2008/12/11/zimbabwe-its-the-bobby-mugabe-show/

I especially liked this:

?Well cholera is now available to all you lucky folks in pretty much every country within the SADC. In other news there are no gale warnings and western imperialism threat levels are now reduced to orange.

In the words of Ford Fairlaine, ?Un-fucking-believable!??

[Brendan]

Well this is Interesting: Microsoft advises IE users to switch browser because of security risk. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/dec/16/internet

[Ant]

It's not actually MS advising they switch, though.

From Aunty: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/

Shouldn't you switch to another browser until the patch come out?

This has been the advice of a number of security firms - who of course are also touting their latest anti-virus products - but you won't be surprised to hear that Mr Curran [from Microsoft] disagrees. He told me he had recently seen a report which listed another browser as having the highest number of vulnerabilities. "it would not be advisable," he said,"to send people from one vulnerability (in Internet Explorer) to multiple vulnerabilities."

[mockney piers]

Ewwwww http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7795050.stm

500 tonnes of turkey fat...nice.

[mockney piers]

Sir Chris Hoy? Really?

I had a really good ghost poo this morning, I reckon that's worth a knighthood too.

[SeanMacGabhann]

oh lummee - please let's not start THAT argument all over again*

Although I see the original poster on that thread removed their post...

*Actually, I don't really mind if we do

[lozzyloz]

Caught a news story on the radio yesterday about an Alligator found in Australia that's native to North America. A mystified official stated that "It didn't get here on it's own". No, really?

[mockney piers]

It may have floated there on mats of vegetation, perhaps after the New Orleans flood, it's possible, no really.

[lozzyloz]

And there's me thinking it was taking advantage of discounted Virgin Blue airfares . . .

[mockney piers]

Here you go Loz, everything you ever wanted to know, sorry but it's true

[Brendan]

Hmm... I find your views intriguing, do you have a leaflet or perhaps a news letter to which I could subscribe?

Now if only they could apply such amazing deduction to the questions, ?Why god exists and everything in the bible is true??

[mockney piers]

Lots of interesting reading here, sound bites from loads of people in and around the white house over the last 8 years.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/02/bush-oral-history200902?printable=true&currentPage=all

[SeanMacGabhann]

cheers MP - reading that article was the best use of my times so far this week.

Many many cherishable quotes in there - Lawrence Wilkerson proved to be a favourite of mine - and even if there is an element of these guys pointing to the obvious targets and alleviating themselves of any responsibility it doesn't make it any less compelling. Or scary