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Posts Tagged ‘hmm’

  1. Cat Stevens = Yusuf Islam = Microsoft?

    February 15, 2005 by dafyd

    The BBC’s story about Yusuf Islam, the singer formerly known as Cat Stevens, winning substantial damages from two UK newspapers (the Sun and the Sunday Times) which falsely claimed he supported terrorism contains a link to Yusuf Islam’s site – but when you click on it in Firefox… you end up chez Bill Gates. Interesting.

    I know why it happens – the BBC reporter missed a colon out of the address, making it http//yusufislam.org.uk, which their website has interpreted as http:// http//www.yusufislam.org.uk (note the space). What I don’t get is why it redirects to Microsoft in Firefox, when in IE it just gives me the standard network error. I think there be some mighty clever gubbings inside that there browser… but which give a slightly unexpected result in this case!

    Wahhey! I’ve just written a whole 150-word post about a missing colon! Watch out, Lynne Truss

    In other news, David’s started wittering on about something or other. Not sure what. But it involves the names Dafyd, Jennie, Bill, Tom, Dick, and Harry. And the French language. Approximately.


  2. New blog design … maybe

    February 10, 2005 by dafyd

    I’ve had a play with the design of the blog – which eventually I’ll carry over to the rest of the site.

    Before I actually implement it, though, I’d like your comments – you can see a screenshot of it here. Ignore the content… and it is quite a large image!

    Please do let me know what you think – I like it … but I want to know if you do too!


  3. “There was no plot to it, it was just sex”

    January 27, 2005 by dafyd

    Note especially in this article from BBC News the line “My wife and I were very shocked but we watched it until the end because we couldn’t believe what we were seeing.”:

    A devout Baptist couple who bought a Doris Day DVD from a supermarket were shocked to find a sex film instead.

    Alan and Anne Leigh-Browne, from Wellington, Somerset, had been expecting to enjoy The Pajama Game.

    Instead they were confronted by Italian sex film – Tettone che Passione, which translates Breasts, What a Passion.

    “Some topless young women appeared and started talking in Italian… it’s not what you expect from a Doris Day film,” Mr Leigh-Browne said.

    Retired doctor Mr Leigh-Brown, 67, said he picked up the film, which was sealed in plastic wrapping, for £2.99 from the bargain bin of a Safeway supermarket in Taunton.

    No ‘plot’

    The couple, regular attendees at their local Baptist church, settled down with a cup of tea to watch the 1957 musical which has a U (universal) certificate.

    “It was a pretty raunchy, explicit film, it certainly pulled no punches,” Mr Leigh-Browne said.

    “My wife and I were very shocked but we watched it until the end because we couldn’t believe what we were seeing.

    “The film became progressively more graphic, there was no plot to it, it was just sex.”

    Alan and his wife Anne, 60, a retired teacher, complained to Safeway the next day and all copies of The Pajama Game were removed from the store.

    Hmm.


  4. How bizarre

    January 18, 2005 by dafyd

    I’ve just come across this Arabic sentence in an exercise I’ve been doing:

    I have a cold and a headache in Arabic

    It means, for those of you who don’t speak the language, “I have a cold and a headache”. Which is exactly what I have. I was about to give up on the exercise and go to bed because I felt so ill when I came across the sentence. Now I’m going to finish the exercise to see what other gems come up in it…!


  5. Bush – schizophrenic?

    December 20, 2004 by dafyd

    From Reuters:

    “Now, the temptation is going to be, by well-meaning people such as yourself and others here, as we run up to the issue, to get me to negotiate with myself in public,” Bush told the questioner on Monday. “To say, you know, ‘What’s this mean, Mr. President? What’s that mean?’”

    Negotiate with yourself, George? How do you do that? Good cop, bad cop, all in one?


  6. That’s No Moon…

    December 19, 2004 by dafyd

    …it’s a space station!

    Saturn's moon Mimas

    I happened across this photo of Saturn’s moon Mimas, which looks surprisingly similar to the Death Star from Star Wars, taken by the probe Cassini. Mimas is 398 km (247 miles) across, and that’s not a superlaser you see, but a giant crater called Herschel, which is a third the size of the moon itself.

    Here’s a picture of the ‘real’ Death Star for you to compare it too…

    Death Star


  7. Weird spam

    December 7, 2004 by dafyd

    Like everyone else, I’m getting loads of spam at the moment. It doesn’t bother me too much, I just delete it all. But one email I got this morning struck me as a really weird piece of spam. At least, I hope it’s spam – I didn’t recognise the sender… so if it’s you, I apologise!

    Hello, playmates! :)

    I detest the man who hides one thing in the depth of his heart and speaks forth another. The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his way.
    Growing old is like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven’t committed.
    There is nothing certain, but the uncertain. To educate the intelligence is to expand the horizon of its wants and desires.

    If you find yourself further from God than you were yesterday, you can be sure who has moved.

    A wise system of education will at last teach us how little man yet knows, how much he has still to learn.
    There is no one so old as to not think they may live a day longer.

    Communism is a cow of many well milked and badly fed.
    All fine architectural values are human vales, else not valuable.
    A house is a machine for living in.

    Much learning does not teach understanding.
    To business that we love we rise bedtime, and go to’t with delight.

    Either this is not the Gospel, or we are not Christians.Life is too short for a long story.

    Anything in history or nature that can be described as changing steadily can be seen as heading toward catastrophe.

    If the Sun and Moon should ever doubt, they’d immediately go out.
    It is the duty of the President to propose and it is the privilege of the Congress to dispose.
    How inimitably graceful children are in general before they learn to dance!
    A critic is a man who knows the way, but can’t drive the car.
    A church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.
    That must be wonderful I have no idea of what it means.

    Conscience does make cowards of us all.If you want to be enthusiastic, act enthusiastic.
    For they conquer who believe they can.

    Adi-e

    Tell me I’m wrong, but I honestly can’t work out whether it’s trying to sell me herbal medicine or transfer £5,000 to a bank account in Nigeria. It’s really weird.

    On an other note (yet still related to tinned processed meat) … did you see the story about Lycos’ Make Love, Not Spam campaign? It was a good idea, but perhaps a little hastily thought out. Oh well.


  8. Bumbling Boris scoops gobbledegook award

    December 5, 2004 by dafyd

    It seems that in the last few days 14 people have arrived at my site having searched on Google for “Boris Johnson and Plain English Campaign“. How strange, I thought to myself. Surely there can’t be a connection there…? How wrong I was. A quick search leads you to the Plain English Campaign, and the following press release:

    Boris Johnson MP has won Plain English Campaign’s annual ‘Foot in Mouth’ award for the most baffling statement by a public figure. And eight organisations have won ‘Golden Bull’ booby prizes for gobbledygook. But campaigners praised other organisations for producing particularly clear documents.

    Broadcaster and journalist Ian Hislop will host the Campaign’s 25th annual awards ceremony in London on Monday (6 December) to mark Plain English Day. The Campaign is a pressure group fighting to get public information written in clear and straightforward language.

    Speaking on the 12 December 2003 edition of BBC TV quiz Have I Got News For You?, Mr Johnson said, “I could not fail to disagree with you less.”

    Well… at least he wins something this year!

    (The headline, by the way, is from the Telegraph)


  9. ThankYouTony.com

    November 30, 2004 by dafyd

    I came across the site ThankYouTony.com as I was browsing the World Wide InterWebNet.

    Whereas, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, has vigorously supported the United States in the disarmament of Iraq;

    Whereas, the United Kingdom is a strong and loyal ally to the United States;

    Whereas, Prime Minister Tony Blair has committed substantial military forces of the United Kingdom to the current action in Iraq;

    The American people extend their heartfelt thanks to Prime Minister Tony Blair for his courage and leadership; and

    Extend their deep appreciation to the United Kingdom and the men and women of its armed forces.

    Once again, the Americans manage to carve their own way across the world, completely ignoring global opinion.

    Hah!


  10. Michael Howard has left the building

    November 27, 2004 by dafyd

    I came across this article on the site of one of Britain’s foremost tabloid newspapers (tabloid, not compact) – complete with picture:

    Michael Howard = Elvis?

    YES, I’M A PM IN DISGUISE

    TORY leader Michael Howard hopes to get his party All Shook Up for the next election – by adopting an Elvis Presley song.

    Instead of playing Elgar or Andrew Lloyd Webber tunes, he wants his battle buses to blast out The King’s A Little Less Conversation.

    Aides believe the line “A little less conversation, a little more action please” would focus on Labour’s failure to deliver on key pledges.

    Mr Howard, a big Elvis fan, is said to do a mean impersonation of the pelvis-thrusting legend. Our picture shows how he could look in action.

    READY FOR A BIG SWING?

    Songs Michael ‘Elvis’ Howard might sing include: True Blue Suede Shoes, Howard Dog, Love Me out-to-Tender and I’m Right, You’re Left, She’s Gone.

    Give you three guesses which paper it was in

    Talk about blowing a minor story out proportion…!