'frogs and snails and puppy dogs' tails'

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Dennis on the post by Debbie Schlussel on the review in the WSJ on the book she hasn't read - The Dangerous Book for Boys:

Dennis The Peasant:

You know what? When I was a kid I didn't crave either adventure or danger. And most of the kids I knew where exactly the same as I was. The boys that craved adventure and danger were, for the most part, the assholes, psychos and bullies of the neighborhood. In the age of Columbine and Virginia Tech, I'm thinking that most boys of 10 have enough danger in their lives without Dad introducing more in some sort of dimwitted attempt at "making a man out of the boy"....the bottom line of what most boys want out of their fathers: More time, not more macho.




...is other people, especially theologians

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Most Britons damned to hell
Ninety-five per cent of Britons are heading for hell, according to the principal of Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, who has been under fire from some staff for taking one of the leading Anglican theological training colleges in a conservative direction.

Richard Turnbull, appointed two years ago, made the claim in a speech to the annual conference of Reform, a conservative evangelical pressure group within the Church of England. If he truly believes it, the figure would encompass at least all non-evangelical Christians, including many members of the Church of England, and those of all other religions and none.



Black coffee it is, then

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Scotland - Fizz taken out of sugary drinks sale in hospitals
HOSPITALS are to be banned from selling sugar-laden fizzy drinks to staff and visitors in the Lothians as part of a new health drive.

The soft drinks will be removed from canteens and cafeterias, while vending machines will be ditched or re-stocked with healthier alternatives.

The move has been ordered by NHS Lothian in an effort to help improve the health of staff and patients. The ban covers full sugar soft drinks such as Coca-Cola and Irn-Bru, but not diet versions of the same brands.

 Reacting to the move, one nurse said: "Don't we have a right to choose anymore? Sometimes you want to have a fizzy drink even though you know it's not good for you. I know some of the doctors like to have an Irn-Bru when they are hung over." (emphasis mine)

Another said:

"Where is it going to end? Are they going to ban crisps and chips too? It's treating us like babies not offering us a choice." And another NHS Lothian worker who contacted the Evening News added: "Staff are not happy and are questioning why the [health board] - if it really is interested in the health of visitors and staff - doesn't also remove ice cream, crisps and all sorts of other junk foods and improve the quality of the hospital food? It is viewed amongst staff as a dictatorial measure that is well beyond the hospital's remit."

But Margaret Watt, chairwoman of the Scotland Patients Association, said that the move was a "step in the right direction".

I believe barley sugars will still be available, as will Mars bars, ice-cream and MRSA.


Search me

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Google's goal to organise your daily life
Internet users of the future could find themselves turning to Google on a daily basis for guidance on how to live their lives, the search engine has predicted. Google could become an even bigger part of people's daily lives Google could become an even bigger part of people's daily lives Thanks to the increasing amount of personalised information it is accumulating on individuals, Google will be able to advise users who type in questions ranging from "what job will I take?" to "what should I do on my day off?"

Jeez! Don't know what to do on your day off?! Pathetic. Here's one suggestion:




Moving stuff around

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I've used Blinklist as my main social bookmarking site almost from its beginning. I like it. it allows me to do things no other bookmark manager does, in particular , formatting text in the content section and including hyperlinks, very useful. But I fear the time has come to move. The service has been erratic of late (I can't log in at the moment, for instance) and is completely flooded with spam. On average, over 90% of the bookmarks on its public page is spam. Which leads me to wonder just how many non-spammmers are using the service.

Given that bookmark sites are notoriously vulnerable and can suddenly disappear I decided to export my bookmarks to another site. I chose Magnolia. I've looked at it before and decided it wasn't quite ready but it has improved enormously since its early beta days and there seems to be a fair number of well known web names using it (which has to be a good recommendation).

I've changed the feeds in the sidebar and in the newspages to pull in from Magnolia. This is a seamless change but the RSS links will still point to Blinklist for a while as the imported bookmarks are headline only, with no content. Things should be up to speed in a day or two.

If you're looking for a bookmark site check out Magnolia. It's very good looking, the support is excellent and it has some really useful features.


Just a minute...

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A MINUTE FOR MADELEINE
A MINUTE'S silence to remember missing Madeleine McCann and pray for her safe return will be held at noon today. An anonymous email has swept through Portugal calling for the "minute of hope". Yesterday there were plans to extend the silence to Britain. The email reads: "Madeleine, Monday 12 o'clock - a national one minute's silence to raise consciousness about the disappearance. Pass on the message."
If we spent a minute in silence for every missing/dead child we know of we'd have to keep schtum for at least 60 solid weeks just to remember the children of Iraq.

This whole saga has got completely, obscenely out of proportion. It's become another Diana moment. But why hasn't any newspaper or columnist written what every law enforcement officer in the world knows. After 24 hours the chances of recovering a stranger-abducted child alive is well under 10%. After a week it is virtually non-existent. It does happen, in very rare cases, and nobody could blame the McCanns for clinging to any vestige of hope that their daughter will be returned to them safely, but looking at this case dispassionately suggests that outcome is unlikely.

The facts of the case indicate that this was not some opportunistic abduction by a passing childless couple. There is little chance that Madeleine is being cared for in some Gypsy encampment somewhere. This is very different from what happened in the Ben Needham case.

Whoever took this young girl knew perfectly well that her parents were out. It was almost certainly someone living or staying in the area and that person is likely to have abducted this poor girl for one reason. If that is the case (and I hope I'm proved wrong about this) she is likely to have been dead within 48 hours of being taken.




Class(room) war

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Janet Daley: When did wanting the best for your children become a crime?
The Cameron project has, at a stroke, restored patrician condescension to the heart of Conservative philosophy. Apparently oblivious to the sinister aspect that their own upper-class, public-school backgrounds would inject into this debate, they have revived a species of class war that prevailed in this country long before the Marxist version: the aristocratic loathing of the middle-class upstart. The destitute are sympathetic because they can be patronised and "helped": the real enemy is the striving, overly-conscientious burgher who insists on helping himself.