DIY Big Screen Telly

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I am constantly poking Mrs 6000 in the direction of a big screen telly, but she remains disinterested. That’s because Mrs 6000 doesn’t actually watch a lot of television. She only watches on Friday evenings because there’s some god-awful American programme with a plethora of bimbos throwing themselves at a bloke from Watford.

But I digress. The reason that is what is watched in our household on Friday evenings because there is no footy on. Which brings me to the second reason that Mrs 6k is against the big screen telly idea – that I would end up watching more sport.
This is an utterly ridiculous suggestion. I couldn’t possibly watch more sport than I do now. Unless they start regularly screening football matches on Friday evenings, of course. But if the payoff for a smart new TV was a continuation of Friday nights being crap American telly, even when Brentford v Swansea is on 203, then that’s fine by me.

And then there’s the money. Red wine is an expensive business and when you’ve got to bring up two kids on top of that – well, you can see that there’s not going to be much to spare. And then you have to buy them food as well. And pay for electricity, which is going up again next week/month/year/all of the above. It never ends.
(Incidentally, a big screen telly is pretty power hungry, but I’d be willing to limit the amount of time it was on by switching it off on Friday evenings.)

Of course, there’s actually nothing wrong with the telly we have at the moment. It’s just not very big. And no matter what they say, size is important.

Step forward Brian Micklethwait:

If I want a big screen telly, I move my small screen telly nearer.

Which sounds fine in principle, but it would be a little hypocritical of me to do that, since the kids aren’t allowed close to the TV screen and are constantly being chastised for it, drawn in by the gravitational spell of CBeebies (and not just Sarah-Jane Honeywell, like their dad).

So that leaves only one option, then. Shrink the furniture.

This almost happened to me once…

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Father-to-be misses birth of his son after being arrested for grabbing nurse’s breasts on way to delivery room

A father missed the birth of his first son after being arrested for groping a nurse on the way to the delivery room.
Police said Adam Manning sexually assaulted the nurse as she wheeled his wife into the delivery room.
The 30 year old had told the nurse she was “cute” then reached round to grab her breasts.

Police in Ogden, Utah, were called to the hospital and arrested Manning on charges of forcible sexual assault.
When later asked about his actions he said he had no idea why he carried out the assault. Police confirmed that he missed the birth of his son.

Class act, hey…?

To be honest, I think this could have happened to anyone. After all, every dad breaks the law on the day his son is born: it’s tradition.
Me? I did 150kph around Hospital Bend at 5 in the morning.
But probably only because there were no cute nurses to molest.

It never rains…

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That’s a complete lie. It rained all day today and it also rained a bit yesterday, even though the sun was shining at the same time.
Apparently, in the UK this is known as a “sunshower”, although I’ve never heard that expression. Still, I only lived there for 30-odd years.
In Cape Town, where the weather is just plain weird, this sort of thing happens far more often. It happened yesterday and I photographised it.

I have been told that the phenomenon is known as a “Monkey’s Wedding”. However, I have never dared use that phrase, just in case it was one of those Old Skool racist things that were “perfectly acceptable” to use “back in the day”, but that one – quite rightly – can’t say now.

However, having done a bit of research (ie.I googled it), I have discovered that the phrase comes, in fact, from the isiZulu umshado wezinkawu , meaning (perhaps unsurprisingly) “A wedding for monkeys”. There is no further explanation as to why this is the case. However, it would seem that I am safely able to use the phrase from now on without fear of prosecution.

There’s also an Afrikaans version, which Wikipedia tells me is jakkelstrou or “Jackal’s Wedding”.
This, it seems comes from the dainty little rhyming couplet:

Jakkals trou met wolf se vrou,
As dit reen en die son skyn flou.

Which actually makes perfect sense, because I did notice that there was a jackal in the back garden who seemed intent on marrying the wolf’s wife while the rain fell and the sun shone faintly. With hindsight, that probably would have made a more interesting photo than the one above.

I’ll try to remember that for next time it happens. Sorry.

Harper: “I didn’t say that”

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Following on from my post about the Natalie Morton case – in which a 14-year old girl died from a thoracic tumour, coincidentally on the day that she received the HPV “Cervical Cancer” vaccine, Cervarix – I was surprised (to say the least) to hear that Diane Harper, a woman involved with the development and testing of HPV vaccine had spoken out about how dangerous the vaccine was.

Strangely, when you try and look up that exclusive story on the Sunday Express website, you get this:

exp

So why is this “article missing”?

Well, it was removed by the Express after it was exposed as a complete sham, untrue or incorrect in every single aspect and detail.

On Wednesday, Roy Greenslade was one of the first to question the veracity of the article, but even his warning:

Once again, this tale illustrates how relying on a single “expert” to sensationalise a contentious issue – especially when the central “fact” of the reason for Natalie Morton’s death has been found to be inaccurate – is a journalistic no-no.

fell far short of the actual truth, which – as Ben Goldacre then discovered – was that the expert in question had been misquoted on every single statement (they even got her title wrong, calling her “Dr” Harper):

I contacted the professor. I will explain Harper’s position in her own words. They are unambiguous: “I did not say that Cervarix was as deadly as cervical cancer. I did not say that Cervarix could be riskier or more deadly than cervical cancer. I did not say that Cervarix was controversial, I stated that Cervarix is not a ‘controversial drug’. I did not ‘hit out’ – I was contacted by the press for facts. And this was not an exclusive interview.”

Brilliant journalism, then. But this is no more than we have come to expect from the Express – the stable which has paid out more in libel damages than any other British newspaper in recent years.

Several complaints have been made to the Press Complaints Commission (PCC), resulting in the deletion of the story from the website and a partial apology published on page 2 of the Sunday Express today:

Last Sunday we incorrectly suggested that the cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix could be as deadly as cervical cancer and that the vaccine is ineffective.
We now accept that there is no evidence to suggest that this is the case and that Cervarix in fact provides protection against the viruses that cause 70% of cervical cancers.
We are happy to set the record straight and apologise for causing undue alarm to all those women and teenage girls considering vaccination against cervical cancer.

Thankfully, that pitiful effort (which doesn’t even acknowledge their appalling slur against Professor Harper) will probably not be enough to save them from another hefty fine and further action.

It’s nice when the chickens come home to roost on these examples of shoddy journalism. It’s just a shame that Dianne Jefferson hasn’t complained about Ray Hartley and The Times here in SA about their made-up and sensationalist piece about her.
But it is another example of how lousy journalists (such as Lucy Johnston in the case of the Express and Lauren Cohen in The Times) can write complete and utter bullshit and publish it on their front page, then get away with it by dropping a couple of paragraphs somewhere deep in next week’s edition. Too little, too late when the damage is already done.

As one letter to the PCC states:

This is little more than ill-founded scaremongering and irresponsible journalism of the worst kind. Its only effect is bound to be — as was the case with the coverage the MMR ‘controversy’ — to reduce take-up of the vaccine, in which case the Sunday Express will share responsibility for further deaths.

I couldn’t agree more.

hat-tip to Jacques

Flying high

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We went to a rather windy Cape Town Kite Festival this morning. Of course, when you are attending a kite festival, wind is good. Otherwise it would be a string and colourful rug festival. Not that I am saying there is anything wrong with celebrating string and colourful rugs, but that’s not what we went there for and it’s not what we got.

Despite all the colour, my favourite shot of the day was this one:

One of the big “3D” kites which was tethered at ground level so you could get a really close look at exactly how it worked – which seemed to be somehow wind-related. You can find more black and white goodness here and a whole lot of colour in the Flickr set.

It was a cheap, fun day out, all in support of a good cause and I would fully recommend it: especially if you have kids.
The forecast is bright and breezy for tomorrow, so give it a go!