The beastie wasn't feeling all that great this weekend. His temperature spiked on Saturday night and has been up and down since, and our nights have been less than peaceful. Still, he seems to have had a better day today so hopefully he's starting to get on top of whatever bug he's picked up.

Sunday was a truly shit day, weather-wise, so we spent it inside putting up the Christmas tree. I had a helper (though he was more interested in trying to eat everything in sight so we did most of the trimming while he was taking a nap).

  

I'm amazed that the tree has been up for two days, so far, and the cats haven't been at it (yet!). Still, go tree!

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I've discovered that I like Rome, and that November is a great time to visit.

I attended the EMBL Council meeting that was held in Rome in the last week of November, and the weather was balmy. People were sitting outside, eating in terraces and walking in shorts and t-shirts. The tourist volume was also very low, according to locals.

I've also come to the conclusion that Ryanair are bastards with carry on luggage allowance. They had us queueing in the departure lounge for half an hour while they measured that all carry-on bags fit in the little blue rack. There was drama in the queue as overloaded italians were complaining. I saw a man trying to close his suitcase by sitting on it, while wearing 2 winter coats. He also had fabulously chavtastic bling and designer stubble. Fantabulous!

We made it to Rome without major hiccup. It was amazing to see Roman aqueducts from the air, right next to modern train tracks. The hotel, apparently a very posh one, was rather bemused at my dietary requirements but they did their best not to kill me. One thing I discovered about Italy is that everybody - and I do mean everybody - says that "the rules are just a suggestion". Crossing the street becomes a challenge. Apparently the key is to show no fear. If you blindly set out from the corner, the traffic will stop. If you're hesitant, they'll ignore you. Either way, you run a good chance of still being run over :)

There was a little memo card on the desk in the hotel, saying that local fire prevention regulations prevent ironing/tea making facilities from being made available in the rooms. This little memo card was located right next to an ashtray and complimentary pack of matches.

Indeed.

I made a tactical error when I thought that the formal council dinner was on the Tuesday and our informal Staff Association dinner was on the Monday. Turns out it was the other way around, so I ended up going to a very posh dinner with all the council delegated wearing blue jeans and a sweater. The good news was that I was with the rest of the plebs, way at the back of the room, so nobody really noticed or cared. The food was good, the wine was ample, which was a very good thing considering that there was about an hour of speeches with a non-functional microphone. The people at the head tables seemed to be enjoying them, but the only thing we heard of the speeches were sounds of Charlie Brown's mother. This again being Italy, a dinner that was supposed to be ending at 10 was cut short at 11:30, when we were told that the buses were leaving in 5 minutes (and most people had just been served their pudding).

I had a decent breakfast the following morning, fuelling up for a full day of listening to people (thank god for wifi). I had lunch with the council delegates from the UK, Luxembourg and Finland. The council meeting went well and we got through the agenda in one day. All the contentious points passed (though one required a bit of back-room deal-making, but such is politics).

I ate more pineapple and rocket than I can remember in recent times, and drunk way too much (good!) coffee, which is probably a good thing considering all that wine.

We had time to go walking on Tuesday night, before going to our SA dinner. We went to the Pantheon and then crossed the Tiber to go to a restaurant in Trastevere called Ripa 12 that is supposed to be well known for its fish. I tried some really nice tuna carpaccio and had excellent swordfish. And more wine. And then GELATO! At midnight. In November. Brilliant :)

The italian mentality for not giving a damn about the rules came up again while we were heading back to the hotel. We were told never to buy a bus or tram ticket. They have to pay people to check them - so they don't - and if they do happen to find you without a ticket, they generally just drop you off at the next stop.

On Wednesday, I channeled my inner Italian and decided to go to the Colosseum and to the Forum in the time I had before my flight back to the UK (I even took the bus without a ticket on my way back!). I had a really good time at the Colosseum and my piece of advice is to always book a tour guide. It cost me 20 euro to get ticket entrances to the Colosseum and the Palatine gardens, with guided tours for both. This might seem a lot, but if you consider that entry fees for both are generally 12 euro, and you get 3 hours of tour guides in total, that's not a bad deal. What's the clincher though is that you bypass all the normal queues! That's worth the money by itself.

I wish I had had more time to visit the Palatine and the ruins of the Forum, but I had to cut my tour short so I wouldn't miss my cab to the airport. Still, I had a very good morning and took lots of pictures.

   
   
    

All of these, and more, are available here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/rome_nov_2009/

My flight back was uninteresting and I wanted to kill the drunken lot behind me, but such is cheap air travel. The airport gods were clement on the way back though, because I managed to get through immigration and baggage reclaim at Stansted in less than 10 minutes. Unheard of!

Random quote of the airport, as said to a custom's officer: Excuse me sir, but somebody's sausage fell out near the baggage carousel.

The gods giveth, the gods taketh away. Our cab driver managed to misplace his parking ticket, so he had to make his way back to the terminal and get that fixed. We came back fairly chipper though, and when I asked him what sort of fine he had to pay, he said it was only 2. I asked him was his secret was and he said that he looked pitiful and sorry for himself. I said that that normally only works if you're blonde and perky, but he said that it also works if you're old and senile :)

Made it home, kissed Katy, ate take-away. All in all, a good trip :)

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I've been accumulating bits of paper with random quotes in my wallet for the past few weeks, in the hopes that I'd finally take the time to post everything. So here goes:

Katy: I always feel better after my bi-annual mental breakdown.

Me: Yell if you need aught.
Katy: God, you sound like me but with a Canadian accent. It's so bizare!

Katy: At my funeral, make sure that everybody has lots of cake
(while we got lost, walking in a cemetery, in Leics)

Official diagnostic for the Beastie, as given by our local GP, when he was feeling under the weather a few weeks ago: Iwantadaywithmommyitis.

Katy: *laughs maniacally*
Mel: Do you have feathers down your drawers?
Me: Do I need to topiary the aviary?
Katy: You know what they say about a bird in the hand
Me: It's worth two in the bush?
Katy: *laughs maniacally*

I agree, gentle reader, for a few of those, you had to be there :)

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We've noticed that the beastie has learned to head bop along to music he likes.

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Katy got some postal spam yesterday from a "personal finance" company that targets people with a bad credit history. It's all shiny and lovey and sparkly, telling her how she can get lots of stuff for cheap, and how she can "make this Christmas the best ever!"

Among the shiny-shiny, there's this little gem:



At first, I thought it was a typo, but no. It does, in fact, say 235.5% APR.

And if things couldn't get any sillier, I went on their website and had a play with their loan calculator. There's a little disclaimer, hidden away in the FAQ, that reads:

The Annual Percentage Rate (APR) on your loan will depend on how much you want to borrow and how many weeks you choose to repay it over.

So, if you try and borrow the maximum amount of money they'll lend (500) for the shortest period (23 weeks), it works out like to a weekly payment of 32.50, for a total repayment of 747.50. In other words, you get charged an APR of 545.2%

And people wonder why the UK has one of the worst credit profiles in Europe.

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We were in Leicester last weekend to celebrate the Beastie's first birthday. One whole year of us not killing him by incompetence. Go Team!

All pictures, and more, are online: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/ben_birthday_2009

   

  

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Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I cant wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story thats not only better, but also more directly involves me.

Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the fuck was going on when I first saw it.

How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

Our generation doesn't knock on doors. We will call or text to let you know we're outside.

I hate when I think of something really great to say during a conversation but by the time I get a chance to speak, we're on a different topic. Do I let it pass and keep the good thought to myself, or do I awkwardly bring up the old topic again?

I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

Nothing brings two people together like the mutual hatred of another person.

Upon stubbing my toe while at my parents house, I yelled out "Mother Fucker!" at that my dad responded "Present!"... as gross as that was, I had to high five him.

How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

I think my other three stove burners are becoming jealous of front-left.

Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

Was learning cursive really necessary?

Every bar bathroom should have a cupholder.

I hate when I plan out a conversation with someone in my head and they don't follow the script.

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just arent doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Dammit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

I like all of the music in my itunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my itunes.

If anyone found out the one password I use for everything I'd be fucked.

"I had to walk to school 40 miles in the snow... barefoot" was good in it's day. But imagine the sheer terror on your kid's face when you drop "When I was born there was no internet".

There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

Eating dessert, skipping class, and having sex all have one thing in common. Once the idea crosses your mind it's almost impossible not to do it, and if someone else says it out loud, it's 100% going to happen.

Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

"Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

It never ceases to amaze me that the little space between the driver's seat and the center console in my car will fit any object that can possibly be dropped, but will not fit a hand.

I have yet to see a movie or TV show accurately depict anything near my experience in high school.

Whizzing backwards in my wheelie chair to get a book from the other side of my office makes me feel like a dynamic go-getter. Awkwardly waddling back to my desk again, not so much.

I can't help but wonder how I would fare if I were born during a different time period.

'm at that age where I don't like to be called "dude" but being called "sir" makes me feel really old. So until further notice, please refer to me as "big guy.

I'm much more prepared to handle an insult than a compliment.

Man, that .01% of germs that can't be killed by hand sanitizer must be some bad ass shit.

The worst feeling in the world is when you are in the middle of a good story and realize no one is listening to you.

As far as I'm concerned, the weekend really only has one day: Saturday. Friday doesn't count because we still have to work and Sunday doesn't count because its haunted by Monday

Kids today will never experience the joy and excitement of hearing the sound of dial up internet actually connecting.

It's never a good sign when you've exhausted your daily website routine within the first hour of being at work.

I know I would have no friends left if they could ever hear my inner thoughts.

Source: http://ruminations.com/

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They're antsy and edgy, tired of waiting for promotion opportunities at work as their elders put off retirement. A good number of them are just waiting for the economy to pick up so they can hop to the next job and get what they think they deserve. Oh, and they want work-life balance, too.

Sounds like Generation Y, the "entitlement generation," right?

Not necessarily, say people who track the generations. In these hard times, they're also hearing strong rumblings of discontent from Generation X. They're the 32- to 44-year-olds who are wedged between Baby Boomers and their children, often feeling like forgotten middle siblings and increasingly restless at work as a result.

"All of a sudden, we've gone from being the young upstarts to being the curmudgeons," says Bruce Tulgan, a generational consultant who's written books about various age groups, including his fellow Gen Xers.

This isn't the first time Gen Xers have faced tough times. They came of age during a recession and survived the dot-com bust. In recent years, though, more members of the generation - stereotyped early on as jaded individualists - began settling down. It was time, they thought, to enjoy the rewards of paying some dues.

"We were starting to buy into the system, at least to some extent," Tulgan says, "and then we got the rug pulled out from under us."

Now, in this latest recession, nearly two-thirds of Baby Boomer workers, ages 50 to 61, say they might have to push back their retirement, according to a recent survey from Pew Research.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the age spectrum are members of Generation Y, who are often cheaper to hire and heralded for their coveted high-tech knowledge, even though many Gen Xers consider themselves just as technologically savvy.

"It's so annoying," says Lisa Chamberlain, another Gen Xer who wrote the book "Slackonomics: Generation X in the Age of Creative Destruction." "First, it was always the Baby Boomers overshadowing everything. Then there was this brief period in the mid-'90s where Gen X was cool.

"Now it's, 'What are the new kids doing?' It's like 'Yo, hello, the Google guys are Gen Xers.' "

They can sound a little whiny. But there's also some evidence that Gen Xers really are being taken for granted at work.

One survey done this year for Deloitte Consulting LLP, for instance, found that nearly two-thirds of executives at large companies were most concerned about losing Generation Y employees, while fewer than half of them had similar concerns about Gen Xers.

The assumption is often that members of Generation Y are the least loyal and most mobile, says Robin Erickson, a manager with Deloitte's human-capital division.

However, she points out that a companion survey found that only about 37 percent of Gen Xers said they planned to stay in their current jobs after the recession ends, compared with 44 percent of members of Generation Y and 50 percent of Baby Boomers.

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Wikipedia has a list of the highest grossing films of this decade so far, and somebody noticed that of the top 20 films at the box office, only one movie was not based on a past film or tv show (remake/sequel), or an adaptation of an established property (be it a comic, book, play, toyetc).

In fact, out of the top 50 grossing films of this decade, there are only 9 movies based on original properties. And five of those nine films were created by Pixar Animation Studios. How sad

The full list, with the original material in bold.

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)


2. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Mans Chest (2006)


3. The Dark Knight (2008)


4. Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (2001)


5. Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (2007)


6. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)


7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)


8. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)


9. Shrek 2 (2004)


10. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)


11. Spider-Man 3 (2007)


12. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)


13. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009)


14. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)


15. Finding Nemo (2003)


16. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005)


17. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)


18. Spider-Man (2002)


19. Shrek the Third (2007)


20. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)


21. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)


22. Spider-Man 2 (2004)


23. The Da Vinci Code (2006)


24. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)


25. The Matrix Reloaded (2003)


26. Transformers (2007)


27. Ice Age: The Meltdown (2006)


28. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)


29. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002)


30. Kung Fu Panda (2008)


31. The Incredibles (2004)


32. Hancock (2008)


33. Ratatouille (2007)


34. The Passion of the Christ (2004)


35. Mamma Mia! (2008)


36. Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa(2008)


37. Casino Royale (2006)


38. War of the Worlds (2005)


39. Quantum of Solace (2008)


40. I Am Legend (2007)


41. Iron Man (2008)


42. Night at the Museum (2006)


43. King Kong (2005)


44. Mission: Impossible II (2000)


45. The Day After Tomorrow (2004)


46. Madagascar (2005)


47. The Simpsons Movie (2007)


48. Monsters, Inc. (2001)


49. WALL-E (2008)


50. Meet the Fockers (2004)

Originally published at The beaver is a proud and noble animal. » Click here « to leave any comments.

Edit: In case the video goes away, which it surely will after a while, here are some screencaps:

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Some people make you feel like you're wasting their time. Some people just come out and tell you. It's always fun when some uber-people combine both things in one.

Originally published at The beaver is a proud and noble animal. » Click here « to leave any comments.

Last weekend was very productive!

Katy's parents were over for the weekend and we managed to:
- install stair gates at the bottom of the stairs and in the kitchen, because Doofus has officially started to crawl
- put up some Christmas decorations
- clear out some weeds in the garden and rip out more of that bed liner crap
- plant our tulip and crocus bulb
- put the sleepers back around the empty pond

We also got our FU DOGS!!! Woot!

I've been going crazy trying to find a pair of fu dogs for the garden. It took me 6 months to find some. And now we have them! Behold the glory of Elvis and Jeff.



I'm so happy I could burst.

Reenie also showed off her tree climbing skills and I managed to snap a few pictures of the gorgeousness.




It's been getting colder these days, which is nice. The beastie is also starting to go back to his happy, non-permanently-pissed-off self, for which we are thankful.

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I tried this last weekend, as a practice run for our xmas roast.

Start with a 2.5 kg turkey breast from our local butcher and cut it open.

Stuff it with 500g of sausage meat and one envelope of Paxo stuffing.

Roll it and tie it back together and season with pepper and rosemary.

Top it with latticed bacon and give it a good glug of lemon-infused olive oil and leave it overnight in the fridge.

The following morning, put it in a roasting pan, add about an inch of water to the pan and put two large pats of butter on top of the roast to keep it moist while cooking.

Make a tent out of foil and place it over the turkey breast to hold in heat for even cooking. Remove it during the last hour of cooking for a nice golden brown colour.

Check the water level periodically and add more water if needed.

Cook in a pre-heated oven at 170oC

The typical turkey breast cooking times for thawed turkey breast in a conventional oven are:

* 2 to 3 pounds - 1.5 to 2 hours
* 4 to 6 pounds - 2.5 to 3 hours
* 7 to 8 pounds - 3 to 4 hours

Cook until the internal meat temperature is above 165oF and the juices run clear. (Took us about 2.5 hours in a fan-assisted oven)

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Articles like the one below really point out to me the digital divide between the upper management of large media conglomerates and the man (and especially the teenager) on the street. Rupert Murdoch wants to block Google from indexing his news. The chairman of Sony has been quoted saying Im a guy who sees nothing good having come from the Internet. Period.

The bottom line is, of course, the bottom line. Big Entertainment wants to make as much money as is can and will spend millions of dollars trying to prevent the loss of a few thousand. Yes, piracy has had a major impact. But look at it now. the RIAA and MPAA are spending millions upon millions of dollars to try and stop piracy. In the end though, they're generating so much bad publicity, resentment and spite that they seem encourage the act they rant so much about. And the weirdest bit? Digital sales are actually going up, now that new pricing and distribution models have been introduced. It's time the dinosaurs caught up with the times. The old bosses just don't get it, and are so entrenched in the "good old times" that they can't even begin to comprehend that those rules just don't apply any more.

Murdoch may block Google searches

Rupert Murdoch has said he will try to block Google from using news content from his companies. The billionaire told Sky News Australia he will explore ways to remove stories from Google's search indexes, including Google News. Mr Murdoch's News Corp had previously said it would start charging online customers across all its websites.

He believes that search engines cannot legally use headlines and paragraphs of news stories as search results. "There's a doctrine called 'fair use', which we believe to be challenged in the courts and would bar it altogether," Mr Murdoch told the TV channel. "But we'll take that slowly."

Mr Murdoch announced earlier this year that the websites of his news organisations would begin charging for access. The target had been for all its sites to charge by June next year, but indications are that this is now unlikely. News Corp owns the Times and Sun newspapers in the UK and the New York Post and Wall Street Journal in the US.

Newspapers across the world are considering the best way to make money from the internet, particularly in a time of falling advertising revenues. The risk is that charges may alienate readers who have become used to free content and deter advertisers.

Source: BBC

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Louis Walsh is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the biggest crackpot I've ever seen and it would seem that his tenuous grip on reality is slipping.



The whole "I'm a judge, I'm allowed to have an opinion. You're not a judge, so shut up" thing with the host of X-factor was already a pile of horseshit, but then he said the same thing to the whole audience - with lovely visuals - after his pair of trained monkeys sang the Ghostbusters tune. Stay classy, Louis.

Seriously. I can understand the financial reasons to keep the twins (I refuse to call them Jedward) on. They cause controversy. It's like the Howard Stern show in the US. More people who hate the show listen to it than people who actually like Stern. Why? Because they want to hear what he says so that they can complain about it. Same difference here. The idiots are a cash cow. Of course they can't sing and have no talent. Of course they're going to be toned down, tuned out, voice-overed and backup-signered to death. It's still car-crash TV. You know it's bad, but you can't help yourself. And that's why Simon Cowell didn't vote them off. It's better for the ratings and therefore his own bottom line in merchandising tie-ins, show tickets, tour tickets, yada yada yada. He knows they're not going to win, but he's going to make as much money from them as he can in the process.

Cowell's motives are based purely in capitalism and greed and I can respect that. Louis firmly believes that they're good and they can win. For that, he must die!

Originally published at The beaver is a proud and noble animal. » Click here « to leave any comments.

I've been lusting after a SmartPhone for a while now, and until the Android phones get some serious real-world use and reviews, the best money is still on the iPhone, even if it means selling your soul to the devil. I was really looking forward to seeing what Orange would do, price-wise, and if that would start a small price war.

Orange, you're a bunch of stupid, stupid, stupid wankers.

The Guardian ran an article about the tariff comparisons and, in a nutshell, there is less than a quid's difference between the two. What's worse is that Orange, in their usual shoot-yourself-in-the-foot mentality, have decided to put a 750MB data download cap on the contracts. They have later mentioned on the Beeb that they're "re-thinking" this policy after it caused a small bit of uproar in their potential user base... Idiots.

What's the deal killer for me though, is that Orange's terms and conditions for its mobile internet ban applications like Spotify, Facebook and YouTube.

In the company's T&Cs, it says: "Not to be used for other activities (eg using your handset as a modem, non-Orange internet based streaming services, voice or video over the internet, instant messaging, peer to peer file sharing, non-Orange internet based video). Should such use be detected notice may be given and Network protection controls applied to all services which Orange does not believe constitutes mobile browsing".

Orange has, however, commented to the BBC - saying: "We do recognise that iPhone customers will use popular streaming services such as YouTube, Spotify etc. As a result we do not intend to apply network protection controls to anyone, as long as they are within their usage allowance. The T&Cs are in place to reserve the right to restrict access should they continue to exceed our Fair Usage policy, and our other Mobile data users suffer a reduced data experience as a result".

</blockquote>

So yeah. That's my main reason to buy an iPhone gone out the window. And having to rely on the good graces of Orange not to do something terminally stupid? Not going to happen.

*Sigh*

I'll keep my much-battered LG for now and hope Vodafone have more than two braincells they can spare and/or that Android really takes off.

Originally published at The beaver is a proud and noble animal. » Click here « to leave any comments.

Wannabes queued up to conceive a baby with a stranger live on air for a 100,000 prize. The show was a spoof, but what does it say about reality TV?

It started as a challenge - to come up with the ultimate tasteless reality TV show and test the boundaries of the format. But in just eight weeks, "Let's Make a Baby" came dangerously close to becoming a real show. Hundreds of reality TV hopefuls jammed the phone lines when the show advertised for contestants, and TV channels from all over the world offered vast sums of money to buy the rights to the series.

"Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine we would get that far with such little effort," says the programme's producer and director, Helen Sage.

The undercover experiment was for BBC Three's current affairs series Mischief. The programme's makers came up with the most "tasteless and morally dubious" idea they could, and a fake production company to sell it. Let's Make a Baby would centre around contestants - all strangers - living in a "fertility house", with the least attractive being voted out each week. The remaining two couples would then have a race to conceive a child and win 100,000 each.

The idea was first pitched to focus groups, all of which agreed it was morally questionable but said they would watch it. "It's completely offensive," said one group member. "Would I watch it? Yes."

More than 200 people - including a gay man who was up for the challenge of trying to have sex with a female - applied to be a contestant. They were not told the show was a fake until after the auditions. Real reality stars also bought into the idea of the show. Makosi Musambasi and Craig Coates from Big Brother 6 agreed to host it.

Finally, a party was put on at Europe's biggest TV sales fair in Cannes to pitch the fake idea to TV channels from all over the world and test their reaction. Disturbingly, it created a real buzz and several offers came in. "As a TV producer, I was really interested in the question of how low my industry would go in its bid to attract viewers and attention, the answer is very low indeed," says Ms Sage.

Professor David Wilson, who walked out as a consultant on Big Brother for ethical reasons, says the premise of Let's Make a Baby is morally repugnant and all about cheapening life, but he is not surprised that it attracted so much interest. "Reality TV is not only reinventing the freak show, it's about bedlam," he says. "It's the TV equivalent of slowing down to get a better look at the accident on the other side of the motorway. It's about getting a view of other people's misery.

"Those who take part are considered odd or bizarre for wanting to do so, but they are merely products of a society that now holds fame above anything else. All cultural reference points are now rooted in being a celebrity, and not attached to having an intrinsic skill."

He says there should be an independent body to regulate reality TV, and is also critical of the psychologists and other academics who take part in the shows and "endorse the programmes with a fig leaf of credibility". But the prize of large audiences and the chance of a big reward take over people's moral compass, says Alan Hayling, head of documentaries at the BBC.

"Very intelligent people are operating in a moral vacuum," he says. "The moral of the tale of Let's Make a Baby is, sadly, that it is terribly, terribly easy, over only eight weeks, to show how low reality might go."

So what is the future of reality TV? Will the public lose its appetite for it, will programme makers get a conscience? Neither, and things could get far more extreme, says Professor Wilson. "The limits of this type of TV are limitless. The other year there was a huge web audience for a film on the net of hostages being beheaded. It is about how deep and depraved our imaginations can go."

And as for Let's Make a Baby? A Dutch television company is currently making a reality TV show called I want your baby, not your love. In it, men compete to be the one to donate their sperm to a single woman who wants a baby but not a boyfriend. Not quite the same, but close enough.

Let's Make a Baby will be broadcast on Thursday 26 January at 2230 GMT on BBC Three.

Source: BBC

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Council bans parents from play areas

Score one for Britain in its contest with the United States to create the stupidest fear-based society. The Watford Borough Council took the lead by banning parents from supervising their own kids in public playgrounds, "because they have not undergone criminal record checks."

The only adults allowed to monitor the kids are idiocracy-vetted "play rangers." The children's parents must "watch from outside a perimeter fence." A council notice to parents explains that: "Safeguarding the children and young people who use the site is one of our top priorities.

"Due to Ofsted regulations we have a responsibility to ensure that every authorised adult who enters our site is properly vetted and given a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check by Watford Borough Council."

Council Mayor Dorothy Thornhill argued they are merely enforcing government policy at the play areas, in Vicarage Road and Leggatts Way. She said: "Sadly, in today's climate, you can't have adults walking around unchecked in a children's playground and the adventure playground is not a meeting place for adults.

Originally published at The beaver is a proud and noble animal. » Click here « to leave any comments.

I've finally been able to update the comic page with stuff I've been squirrelling for ages.

Some favourites:

Originally published at The beaver is a proud and noble animal. » Click here « to leave any comments.