So Meh

A new word “meh” made into Collins English Dictionary following a campaign that encouraged the public to suggest words that they used frequently that were not already in the dictionary.

“Meh”, beat similar catch phrases like “frenemy” and “huggles” as the latest Collins inclusion.  Frenemy refers to a fake friend and a huggle is a combination of a hug and a cuddle.

“Meh”, made popular by the Simpsons, is an expression of indifference or boredom, or an adjective meaning mediocre or boring according to Collins.

Popularity of the word increased when Homer asked Bart and Lisa if they would like to go on a day trip, without taking their eyes off the television they replied, “Meh.” After he asked them again Lisa said, “We said MEH- M-E-H, meh!”

Prior Simpsons Contribution

This is not the first word introduced by the Simpsons that caught on and become popular slang. Homer’s famous “D’oh” was added to the Oxford Dictionary in 2001.

D’oh is a comment expressed when commenting on an action that is stupid or perceived as stupid.

Mad about meh

Public comments about the latest Collins addition have not all been positive. Some are very meh about the inclusion but others think that street talk should never make it into the dictionary.

“Now I find that semi-literate Joe Public is telling the dictionaries what they should include”, commented one angry reader of an online article on the topic.

Forum for slang words

Website www.urbandictionary.com features words added by the public, it claims to be “The dictionary you wrote”. Words like “aight”, “chill” and “shizzle” can be found here.

www.slangsite.com is another such website where popular slang can be found.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Techno savvy from the womb

New technology belt enables movements of babies still in the womb to send automatic updates to message website Twitter.

Expectant dad Corey Menscher came up with the concept to keep tabs on the progress of his wife and baby.

 

‘With the Kickbee, I intend to extend a baby’s minute contact with the world beyond the mother’s body by sensing these movements and transmitting them’, said Menscher.

 

He got the idea from a current service at Portland Hospital where moms can have 3-d images of their foetus in the womb.

 

The belt detects motion of the baby and sends a message like, “I kicked mummy at 11:38am” to the Twitter site.

 

Website Slash gear describes exactly how the belt works. The belt sends a Bluetooth signal to a nearby Macbook Pro, and that’s how the signal gets sent to Twitter, but it does it automatically.

 

Menscher hopes to continue honing this development so that it can also send updates to mobiles and says that the belt is still too “touchy” and has bugs to be worked out.

 

Future versions of the technology could incorporate Facebook and other social sites to receive updates as well.

 

Menscher’s wife is the guinea pig for the project, but Menscher hopes that the belt will be widely used in the future and expects it to have other uses as well, for instance, low activity by the foetus could signal distress more quickly to parents and doctors.

 

Feedback for the innovation has been good so far, but there have been concerns expressed about whether or not the wiring can have a negative impact on the baby.

For those of us who are less technologically inclined, here’s a video on how to use Twitter.

If you’re using Internet Explorer now, read this.

 

Apparently, anyone using Internet Explorer in the last three years could have been a victim of hacking according to some Chinese hackers who recently made this claim to CNN reporters.

 

 

The hackers were accessing information from a number of sites, although they failed to identify which ones.

 

The whole thing seems rather suspect because CNN refuses to reveal where the address where they interviewed the hackers?

 

The hackers refused to say who had accessed the U.S. Defence Department database because “It is very sensitive.”

 

Does this only strike me as fishy?

 

Why if these hackers are willing to meet reporters and reveal that they have been illegally intruding our personal information, would they not also want to boast about infiltrating top secret US government information?

 

And why oh why, won’t CNN report their butts to appropriate authorities?

 

One of the hackers claims that a colleague of his was paid by the Chinese government to attack the Pentagon, but not only do Chinese officials deny this fact, but US officials also do not believe them?

 

Chinese Foreign ministry representative Qin Gang said, “If they have any evidence, I hope they would provide it. Then, we can cooperate on this issue.”

 

While James Mulvenon who works with US intelligence said, “These hacker groups in my opinion are not agents of the Chinese state.”

 

So if no one believe them why are we listening to them?

 

Supposedly the site developed by these hackers where they can access information such as your passport information and credit card information is a major site for Chinese hackers, but I’ve spent enough brain cells trying to understand why these guys aren’t in jail.

 

Either for hacking, which as I last understood was illegal, or for wasting out time, which may not be punishable by law, but perhaps in this case an exception can be made.

 

It got so far that users of Internet Explorer were asked by Trend Micro, anti-virus software makers, to use other browsers until IE could get the situation under control, which reportedly could be as far away as early January.

 

If someone can shed some more light on this topic, please be my guest, but only if you’re using Safari or Firefox.

Between a butt and a hard pane: Top 10 things I hate about commuting in London

So after riding the National Express from Harold Wood to Liverpool St. this morning with some guy’s ashy elbow fixed firmly in my ribs, I decided it was finally time I spoke out against my hate for commuting in London.

I will try to keep it down to just the top ten and my great dislike will increase as I move from ten to one.

 

10. People who open the windows without asking others if they mind. I mean for goodness sakes it is Winter, and you did just come on the train and meet people there already, you could ask them if they mind.

 

9.   People who talk loudly on their mobiles. I mean, who cares if he doesn’t want to pick you up at the train station?

 

8.   The litter. My goodness there are bins on most trains, but still the chewing gum, drink bottles, candy wrappers and even spit abounds everywhere. The worst of the litter is newspapers, which fine, you might justify it by saying that someone will come o after you and read that paper, but the ones left on the escalators, I mean there’s no cause for that, it just plain wrong.

 

7.   Every time one person gets sick on one train, the entire line is delayed for so many minutes when there’s a quick and easy solution to this problem. Toss the bugger off and use of those discarded papers to cover up the mess and let’s get on with the show.

 

6.   Signal failure or signal problems. That just signals to me that I’m being lied to. What does it mean when they say that? I actually overheard a platform assistant telling a friend that a driver was late getting to work and that’s the reason the train was delayed, yet the PA announcer was talking about signal problems.

 

5.   The sniff, sneeze, cough symphony. Yeah I know it’s Winter time and cold and everybody is coming down with the cold, but I’m such a huge germaphobe that I can almost pictures the spores from someone’s sneeze dancing around in the air and invading my nostrils before they finally rest on my skin and clothing. Oh yeah PS. tissues can be purchased just about anywhere, even pound stores.

 

4.   So then the evening comes and I’m heading home and have to witness the silent symphony. Gas escapes from all orifices with nowhere to escape to. Needless to say I don’t mind the windows being open on the trip home. Yeah sure everyone has to pass gas, but that doesn’t mean that I have to like it.

 

3.   The self-righteous passenger. You know that person who gets mad when you hold the hand rail that they are holding, but if you let go and the train jerks, they get mad if you bump into them. Make up your mind, what do you want me to do?

 

2.   A crammed train or underground car is the most inhumane circumstance I have ever experienced and it happens to so many Londoners every morning during rush hour. One morning trying to get the Circle line, I was being pushed into passengers who were coming off the train, I spun around and rudely gestured to the idiot behind me that he could go ahead if he wanted to. After he had squeezed his body barely into the boundaries of the door another guy pushed past me to get into the crammed cart. Idiot number one then starts to shove him off the train after he just pushed to get on. Idiot number is fights him back and also manages to fit himself into the cart by ducking under Idiot 1’s flailing arms. Incredible!

 

1.   And the worst part about the whole thing is that in a few weeks the prices are going to be increased. I sure hope that commuters will be getting better service for the already pricey tickets.

 

Is there anything I do like about commuting in London?

 

To be perfectly fair though, there are also some things I like about commuting in London.

 

·     Getting on the tube just in the nick of time. 

·     The cute platform attendant at the Elephant and Castle Underground station.

·     And my absolute favourite thing about commuting in London is minding the gap. I love hopping over the gap and seeing other people with shorter legs or who are too busy trying to read/send  texts on their phone (when they know there’s no signal) stumble off the train. I mean don’t they listen to the announcements. “Mind the Gap!”

Russia beats India and Trinidad

 

Russian Ksenia Suchinova just beat Parvathay Omanakuttan of India and Gabrielle Walcott of Trinidad for the title  of Miss World 2008-2009.

 

The pageant was held in Johannesburg, South Africa and the finals were broadcast in a two-hour show from the Sandton Convention Centre.

 

The remaining two of the five finalists were Brigith Dos Santos of Angola and Tansey Coetzee of South Africa.

 

Participants from 109 countries wordlwide competed in the competition.

 

Aside from the main pageant there were also several sub-titles that the contestants were vying for:

 

Continental Queens of Beauty:

·     Africa: Brigith dos Santos (Angola)

·     Americas: Hannelly Quintero (Venezuela)

·     Asia & Oceania: Parvathy Omanakuttan (India)

·     Caribbean: Gabrielle Walcott (Trinidad & Tobago)

·     Europe: Ksenia Sukhinova (Russia)

  

Miss World Beach Body:

• Winner: Mexico
• 1st runner-up: South Africa
• 2nd runner-up: Russia

Miss World Top Model:

• Winner: Russia
• 1st runner-up: Angola
• 2nd runner-up: India

Miss World Sports:

• Winner: Iceland
• 1st runner-up: Nigeria
• 2nd runner-up: Portugal

The pageant seems to be encompassing many more categories than it has in the past, but even when it was little more than a glorified swimsuit competition, these pageants always had me mystified.

 

I would look at them on television and see all these tall, slim beautiful women and after the show was over I would go put on some heels and stomp up and down the corridor.

 

So I am quite happy to see that the pageant now encourages the girls to represent charities and have platforms because I think they really could inspire a lot of young girls.

 

Of course there’s the whole issue of body image and these pageants that can send the wrong message to young girls that if they don’t look like these women that there is something wrong with them.

 

There has been a recent rend however for European models, that they cannot be smaller than a size two. So I think a healthy balance can be struck upon.

 

Positive role models for girls, who have healthy physical appearances and take pride in the way they look. I’m quite happy to see the way the pageant has developed, especially the Miss Sport award.

If shoes could fly

Well maybe they can.  Two sure did as outgoing U.S. President George W. Bush was giving a press conference in Iraq.

BBC coverage of the incident shows the President ducking the approaching shoes which were hurled at him by an Iraqi journalist Muntadir al-Zaidi.

“So what if the guy threw a shoe at me?”, said Bush when asked later by a reporter.  Bush said that Zaidi was probably looking for attention and that his display was effective since it caused reporters to question him about it.

While Zaidi was throwing the shoe he yelled at Bush calling him a dog in Arabic, according to CNN reports.

Bush was there to say farewell to Iraq and was also  to sign, with Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki, a new security agreement that promises US troops will be out of Iraq by 2011. US troops have been in Iraq since 2003.

Why did he do it?

Some say the throwing of the shoes is symbolic as it is a sign of disrespect in arabic culture to show the bottom of one’s shoes to someone else.

Zaidi was wrestled to the ground and pulled out of the room by security officials. Al-Baghdadia, Mr. Zaidi’s employer, a Cairo-based TV station is calling for him to be released although they cannot explain why he did it.

The real reason for the visit?

This was a surprise visit to Iraq and Jon-Christopher Bua, Sky News’ US Political Analyst said, “This is possibily Bush’s last attempt to restore his legacy and begin the revision of his own history regarding his decision to invade Iraq.

“His decision to invade Iraq and its unanticipated consequences will be fodder for historians and the centerpiece of his legacy for years to come.”

He added that Bush would be trying to do anything in these last few weeks as President to make for mistakes that he has made throughout his presidency.

Whatever the reason for the shoe-hurling reporter’s actions were, it is a clear indication that not all Iraqi citizens have forgiven the President for the invasion of their country.

Props

President Bush may have been called dumb and slow and a host of other negative words during his 2 terms, but you’ve got to admit, the man sure can duck a shoe or two.

Crapland shut down

 

 

Parents getting into fist fights with Santa  and the elves, a nativity scene made of cardboard set in a muddy field and Santa taking a smoke during his break.

 

 

Sounds like the scene of a holiday comedy, but this was the reality that many customers of Lapland New Forest (or Crapland as dubbed by some Youtubers) were faced with after having paid as much as ₤100 to enter the family attraction.

 

 

Visitors of Lapland New Forest were upset because:

 

·     they stood in queues for hours

·     the melted snow made the entire site muddy

·     they had to pay extra for parking, to take a picture with Santa, for food and more, after paying high ticket prices

·     the Tunnel of Light (also called the Tunnel of shite) was not as advertised, the same was true of many othe features

 

 

The Christmas themed site was closed due to an overwhelming number of complaints. The publicity was so bad, that another Lapland themed attraction in the West Midlands closed before it even opened.

 

 

Even this West Midlands version though, seemed to be advertising more than they could provide and the authorities, already on to the hustle shut it down before it even opened. Sky news has this coverage.

 

 

 

 

Poor Elves

Employees of the site were reported to feel sorry for the customers but were themselves duped.

 

 

One elf, though sympathetic to customers, quit after she was slapped in the face by an angry mother.

 

 

Recruitment agency Richards Events pulled their recruits from the site after several incidents of abuse had been reported.

 

 

What recourse can be had?

Well it doesn’t look promising. One patron reported that a Lapland security guard told her to contact her credit card company to get a refund.

 

 

Others who paid for tickets and visited the site are still awaiting news about how they can get their money back. Dorset Trading Standards does provide some information to swindled Lapland customers, including a phone-in service to make a report, but no concrete decision has been made for compensation.

 

 

And the owner? Well he’s been unavailable for comment since the complaints started rolling in.

 

 

Are all Laplands a sham?

Actually there is a Lapland attraction in Kent that is open to the public and believe it or not, it actually provides what it advertised it would.

 

 

Although it has an eco-friendly angle that is promoted throughout the activities, customers of this Lapland have not felt the need to inflict physical pain to Santa.

 

A Real Trini Christmas

“I give him bread and ham, together with a pastelle

ginger beer, ponche de creme and sorrel,

a glass of local wine went to his head,

he turned to me and said,

Oh yes, Trini christmas is the best!”

Lyrics from a popular Christmas, song in Trinidad. When you think of Christmas, you might think of snow, and reindeer pulling a fat guy around in a sleigh, but a traditional Trini Christmas is different from those of colder countries.

Sure we still have the ham, eggnog and fake Saint Nick’s in abundance, but I can’t deny the extral special feeling of ‘Christmas-ness’ that comes with a Trini Christmas.

Trini Christmas means parang. Parang is a type of music played mostly at Christmas time in Trinidad and the lyrics are mainly Spanish because it orignates in either Columbia or Venezuela, that’s in dispute.

Parang, comes from the Spanish word ‘Parranda’ meaning merry making or a group of serenaders. That’s how parang is sung, by a group of people called paranderos, with special musical instruments as well.

A cuatro, which is known in other Latin-american music looks like a small guitar. Maracas or shacks shacks are small hollow balls made from wood, which are filled with tiny beads and attached to a stick, these are shaken in time to the singing of the paranderos.

Trini food is different for Christmas as well, our version of eggnog is called Ponche de Creme  (pronounced punch-ah-crem) and is sweeter, creamier and of course, more alcoholic than your typical store bought eggnog. That’s because Ponche de Creme is mainly homemade.

None alcoholic drinks are sorrel and ginger beer. Sorrel is a drink made from boiling the flowers of the sorrel plant which blooms around Christms time and is red in colour. Ginger beer, although it sounds alcoholic is made from grated ginger that is set with rice and spices and left for a few days before being served.

Pastelle or Tamale is a dish made from corn meal, stewed minced beef, olives and raisins and wrapped and steamed in banana leaves  that has Mexican origin.

Local wines ranging from aloes to star fruit, strong fruit cakes, turkey and hams of all varities are also popular Trini Christmas food.

Christmas in Trinidad is all about family and friends. Aside from the food, there are also Christmas traditions that we Trinis observe.

Parang is not only a type of music, but it’s also a verb. To parang someone’s house can mean to go with paranderos to sing for them, much like caroling, but it can also mean to visit friends and eat their food. It is common Trinidadian custom to stock your cupboards well in case someone comes to parang your house.

Relatives that you have not seen for the year will show up for Christmas and people who have not seen the inside of a church for a year, will at Christmas time.

Although this year I won’t be experiencing an authentic Trini Christmas, the good thing about Trini’s is that we’re good improvisors.

There’s a Trini saying that goes, “If you don’t have mammy, pappy will do,” and that’s just what I’m intending. With some good Trini food, some sweet parang music and some relatives, I plan on having as close to a Trini Christmas as can I get in London.

Dead dog speaks out against cocaine

The Home Office’s FRANK which is the national drugs information service has launched a controversial ad campaign which features a dead dog named Pablo as their spokesperson.

Pablo has been used as a cocaine mule and comes back from the dead to see “What’s the big deal with coke?”

He speaks to a drug dealer who has a gun, a girl who has a heart attack but still asks him for a tenner to buy more drugs and a few other druggies in equally bad states.

The campaign was launched to deal with the drug problem in the UK since it’s been revealed that they are the biggest consumers of cocaine in Europe and cocaine use in the last ten years has doubled.

The ad campaign is geared toward the 15-18 age group and so is played on YouTube as well as on television, but it has been very controversial.

Pablo is shown with a slit down his belly and after parcels of drugs are taken out of his abdomen he lifts his head to address the camera.

The graphics would be very disturbing to children and in fact one woman said her children cried after seeing the commercial. I mean, who wants to see a cute doggy like Pablo slit from throat to tail?

There are also other ads in the campaign that have been controversial. One features Baggy, a bag of cocaine that tries to entice Pablo to do coke.

While I understand that the Home Office is appealing to this particular age group, the ad which is referred to as hard hitting, is quite a lot to take in.

It attempts to bring humour to the situation so that the ad is not morbid, but the fact is that none of the issues being addressed in the ad are at all funny so I did think it was a strange track for the Home Office to take.

Never the less, the ad will definitely have shock value and it will be discussed and watched, so maybe they have achieved their objectives in this regard.

 

 

 

 

 

Brutes Bomb Bombay

Mumbai was a state of siege as terrorists disregarded the lives of many innocent people to follow a selfish agenda.

 

Formally known as Bombay, Mumbai is known as the financial capital of India and it was for this reason that terrorists chose the city as their point of attack.

 

The Deccan Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, or whoever else the terrorists are (as there is yet no absolute confirmation of who they are) have been credited with being very precise and calculating, but they seem more confused than anything else to me.

 

Although their agenda is yet unknown, we do know that were targeting foreigners with the attacks, and yet more Indians have suffered than any other nationality.

 

Aside from the 2 luxury hotels and the popular tourist café, the terrorists also targeted a hospital and a police headquarters.

 

One of the terrorists called a media outlet before Indian military and police got the situation under control, and asked for the release of a prisoner who was part of the Deccan Mujahideen.

 

What did terrorists achieve?

 

• The prisoner was not released
• All but one of the gunmen were killed
• And many innocent Indian nationals as well as foreigners have died

 

Aside from reckless death and destruction, did they really gain anything by these attacks? No!

 

Repercussions

 

The terrible loss of life aside, they have also gained India, a bad international rap. While I hope no one blames the Indian government or people for this tragedy, I’m sure that tourism industry in India will suffer tremendously because of the thoughtless actions of these individuals.

 

Cunning or cowardice?

 

While being strategic about the places they attacked, the terrorists did lack the planning to see their goals achieved.

 

They shot and bombed unprepared civilians and also members of the police, but were also killed themselves after many hostages were killed or escaped.

 

They planned for the attack but did they ever think about what would happen next?

 

There was no negotiator who spoke with national defence to try to achieve their goal and they killed with almost no discrimination when bombing the rail way station and shooting civilians with their AK47 rifles.

 

In hindsight?

 

Having failed to get their colleague freed from jail, I wonder what the remaining, if any, members or associates of these terrorists think about their brilliant plan now?

 

Reports since the situation has been contained, show that Lashkar-e-Taiba, renamed the Jamaat-ud-Dawa have denied their involvement in the tragedy and actually condemn it.

 

To the contrary, the one remaining gunman, Azam Amir Kasab,  told authorities that he, “was trained by militants for the Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan  for three months and asked to cause maximum casualties in Mumbai.”

 

Kasab felt no remorse for his actions and reported, “I have done right and I have no regrets.”

 

 

 

 

 

Shocking News

The Home Office plans to train 30,000 police officers to use taser guns and purchase 10,000 of the weapons, but not without concerns from human rights group Amnesty International.

In the past only specialist officers were allowed to carry the weapons, but current plans will authorize significantly more officers to have access to these weapons which is where the problem arises.

Oliver Sprague of Amnesty International told BBC’s Today show that he didn’t think that a couple days training for officers, no matter how intensive would be sufficient. Sprague reported that in America, since 2005 more than 320 people have died after being tasered. 

Alan Campbell of the Home Office, said that he didn’t recognize Sprague’s statistics, and called the stun guns “low risk” particularly in comparison to guns.

I think

More than training of how to use the stun guns is necessary before these police officers are given the weapons. 

While Campbell does say that officers will not be using the tasers as “weapons of choice”, I think that such an increase in the amount of officers with them is scary.

Sprague has commented that last year there were only 93 incidents where stun guns were used, but that says nothing about how many more incidents there could be when 10,000 more tasers are out there for use.

All police officers are not the responsible and objective, law abiding citizens that we would like them to be, and I am afraid that there will be misuse of these weapons, which although, not as fatal as guns, can still cause serious damage.

50,000 volts is not a trivial matter. I hope that the police are also being heavily trained on responsible use of the weapons and the “ongoing training” that Campbell says they’ll be getting is not an overstatement.