Things Noticeable this week

[squigg58]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-18502818

I can only assume that Spelthorne Borough Council hasn't heard of telephones!

"Hello, is that The Feathers? You do know that your licence doesn't allow music to be played at 4am?"

"4am? It's the name of the band. You can check with their agents."

"Okay. Thanks!"

Now that wasn't difficult, was it lads?

I'm just surprised they didn't call in a police helicopter and a K-9 unit!

[Greenman]

Do you believe that technology is running away from us? It made me wonder when I look at the humble television. I still have the cathode-ray-tube sort by SONY which I've had for around 9 years and sooner or later I feel I will have to upgrade to a flatscreen sort. However, which one to get, it has to be 19in as anything else would be too big for the attic. It seems to me that once we were content with the box in the corner and four channels, now you can play games, surf the Net and interact with it via your mobile phone for heavens sake. I like the idea of a mobile phone that can scan something and you get a picture or superimposed information-the possibilities are endless with that technology but surely you can't get anything else into a phone? You've got cameras, both stills and video capability, the ability to surf the Internet, play games, a radio perhaps or MP3 player, I mean what else is left? Use it to control your garage door? have a built-in taser device? scan your lifesigns(a la Star Trek's Dr McCoy)? control your car with it remotely(like Pierce Brosnan did in 'The World Is Not Enough')?... I wouldn't put any of that past the manufacturers in the future. I wonder if anyone actually uses it for a telephone?

[squigg58]

Originally Posted by Greenman

Do you believe that technology is running away from us?

It's been the case for ages as new technologies have a habit of being developed well beyond actual usefulness. The trend now is to have as much information as we can get, just because we can. However, we then suffer from "information overload" as so much of it is absolute garbage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/17/te...pagewanted=all

Originally Posted by Greenman

I wonder if anyone actually uses it for a telephone?

Yup ... I do! My phone doesn't connect to the internet, but it does have a camera. However, I've only ever taken one photo, and that was a couple of days after I got the phone. I went to visit York, so took a picture of York Minster and sent it to a friend. When I stopped to think about it, I did wonder why I'd sent a photo of York Minster to someone who'd actually lived in York for 20 years!

Just bringing it back to "things noticable this week", I went to the park at lunchtime as it was a beautiful day. While I was there, reading a book, I saw three lads wandering at a snail's pace along the path. Each lad was entirely focussed on his mobile phone. They eventually sat down and carried on doing whatever they were doing on their phones. Hardly a word passed between them. After about half an hour, they got up and wandered off, still staring at their phones. I couldn't help but wonder if, when they eventually parted company, they arranged to "get together" again, just so that they could ignore each other! Now that's what I call socialising!

[billybunter]

My dinosaur phone has a camera and video camera, and i opens my garage door. you can set it up to make a cup of tea in the morning as well. You're behind the times GM

[billybunter]

[blueballsdc]

Originally Posted by billybunter

I've been wondering what my dad has been getting up to. Nice to see he is still keeping his dream alive.

[squigg58]

Twenty three point five million quid!!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18518062



According to Sotheby's Helena Newman, the high figure reflected the current "unprecedented demand" for the best of 20th Century art.

The best of 20th Century art???
Sorry luv, it's sh*t!
I know it's sh*t.
You know it's sh*t.
If a six year-old had painted it, he'd know it was sh*t!

It took no talent whatsoever to paint, and it has less artistic merit than the illustration on a fag packet. I have personally thrown away more creative bits of random doodling. In fact, I have flushed more "artistic" things down the toilet!

I was tempted to include this in the "What Annoys You The Most" thread, but this doesn't actually annoy me. It makes me laugh! What really amuses me is the thought that there are people out there who've read the old story of the Emperor's New Clothes, but just didn't get it!

[ubu_roi]

Newly discovered Chinese mushroom turns out to be an abandoned sex toy

http://io9.com/5919849/newly-discove...-toy-semi+nsfw


Residents of the Chinese town of Liucunbu recently unearthed an unknown rubbery "fungus" deep underground while drilling a well. Perplexed by this mycological mystery, the workers consulted the investigative journalism program Xi'an Up Close, who sent reporter Ye Yunfeng on the scene. Once there, she soon identified the find as a mushroom of the region.

The only problem? The villagers had actually dug up a lost sex toy depicting a grotesquely disembodied vagina and anus.

From the show's transcript (via Shanghaiist):

"On this side, you can see what looks like a pair of lips," [Ye] adds. "And on that side, there is a tiny hole which extends all the way back to this side. The object looks very shiny, and it feels really fleshy and meaty too."

[Greenman]

Just noticed this on Ceefax or whatever the BBC thing is these days.
William Shatner has apologised for making a crack about Illfracombe, when he was guest presenter of 'Have I Got News for You?' last month as being "laced with prostitution" The mayor said it wasn't and he has said sorry but it seems to me now what with the Internet(Youtube) and other social media stuff, plus the fact that programmes are seen around the world, you cannot make a joke about anyone without raised eyebrows or "outraged of Kiribati". It reminds me of a comedian who asks if there are any people in from Scotland, Wales, Ireland - some people yell out so he starts his joke with "there was this thick Norwegian..." Nowadays you would probably get "outraged of Reyjavik"-you can't win mind you that doesn't stop Jimmy Carr and other comedians doing it and of course Clarkson's throwaway lines on 'Top Gear' - remember the hoo haa with the Mexicans.

[Mal Hombre]

You mean Outraged of Oslo....