How Nice It Must Be To Take Pride In Your Work...

...just not, alas, if you are a professional signwriter. *sigh*

You Don't Say..?

If there's an award for 'Most Glaringly Inappropriate Headline In A Local Newspaper', I think this might be a contender...

All The News That's Fit To Print!

Woah! Steady!

Sunday Funnies...

Keep it simple, stupid...

Oh Noes! It's The Printing Press Disaster All Over Again!

Books for 20p..? Great, yes?

This process is bad for literature says Poole.

"Part of the function of publishers and high-street book shops is to filter manuscripts, to ensure the good float to the surface. It has always been subjective but it has always required both to put their money where their mouth when it comes to books they believe in. Now anyone can self-publish, that is exceptionally important."

Translation: 'OMG! We've got to share our captive market now with just anybody! Even...the hoi polloi!' 

See also: journalists vs bloggers

Physician, Take A Good Look At Yourself In A Mirror...

Over at CiF, another broadside against the awful terrible Tory (actually Labour!) policy that sees those in receipt of state benefits being asked to justify that they are applied correctly:

The assessors do not ask GPs like me to provide any medical information about patients to help them make their decisions, even though someone may have received incapacity benefits for many years.

The GP herself - who remains anonymous, of course - shows no insight as to why this might not be considered such a good idea.

And of course, the comments are filled with those supporting this idea, and hurling invective at ATOS. This one, in particular, sums up so many:

Ahhh, yes, the idea that the medical profession are modern saints, always thinking of the best interests of the patient, shunning the modern capitalistic drive to create easy 'get out of jail free' policies...

Meanwhile...

Who would have thought that the future of weight loss might lie in the hands of the inventor of the Segway? Dean Kamen, creator of the two-wheeled wonder, along with a team from Aspire Bariatrics, of Philadelphia, has applied for a patent for a pump that can suck food and drink straight out of the stomach.

Say what?!

Users are able to stuff their face before draining their stomach by connecting the pump to a valve surgically installed in their abdominal wall. The makers hope to use it to treat the morbidly obese, and to provide an alternative to a gastric bypass.

Oh, good grief! Well, surely no doctor would countenance this?

Initial setbacks – and here's the really yucky part – have occurred because the pump struggles to break up large foods. One patient reported "clogging" and had to avoid eating cauliflower, broccoli, Chinese food, stir fry, snow peas, pretzels, chips and steak. No chips? It will never catch on.

Don't worry. I'm sure it's just a minor setback. And I'm sure no-one from the 'do no harm!' medical profession will prescribe it.

Right..?

What Is It They Always Say? Follow The Money!

...and oh, boy, they certainly intend to:

But remember, it's all about 'closure' for the victims (if there really are victims), and justice at last (though a dead man can never be tried, at least under current law, but surely we wouldn't overturn laws to please a mob, would we?). Not about filthy lucre, oh, dear me, no! Perish the thought! How very dare you suggest it!

Nor is it about the rapacious demand for control and surveillance and the burdens of a state that distrusts everyone all the time. Oh, dear me, no.

I look at this circus, this return to the Salem Witch Trials (but hey, they were one up on us, they at least accused live people who could mount a defence!) and I think we've gone stark, staring mad. Maybe it's something in the water? It's a brave blogger or journalist who will swim against this tide.

I'd feel sorry for the BBC, but then I remember they've played their part in fostering a culture which leads to this sort of thing.

And then I remember whose money it is that the BBC will be handing out...