RandomJottings.co.uk

Sandra Bullock – Leigh Anne Tuohy
Tim McGraw – Sean Tuohy
Kathy Bates -Miss Sue
Quinton Aaron – Michael “Big Mike” Oher
Lily Collins – Collins Tuohy
Jae Head – Sean “S.J.” Tuohy, Jr.
Ray McKinnon – Coach Cotton
Kim Dickens – Mrs. Boswell
Adriane Lenox – Denise Oher
IronE Singleton – Alton
Catherine Dyer – Mrs. Smith

Based on the book The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game by Michael Lewis, the film tells the story of Michael Oher, a homeless teenager who gets accepted into a Christian school on the grounds that he may be good at sports, being the only black kid in school leaves him isolated until he is befriended by SJ.

Seeing “Big Mike”  walking in the rain in just a t-shirt and pants, SJ’s mum, Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) takes pitty on him and offers him a place to sleep for the night, the start of Michael’s adoption into the family.

Along the way we discover that Michael isn’t the stereotypical dumb brute that his teachers have pegged him as, just neading additional help to release his intelligence and Leigh Anne Tuohy’s pep talk on the football field to unleash his prowess there.

The film has been accused of being racist, another example of the “magical-negro” stereotype, and while I suppose this may be the reason the film was made (although probably not intentionally) you’ll have to judge for yourself what the real motivations of the story were.

A more important question is asked towards the end of the film, where the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletics Association) investigate Michael’s scollarship to the University of Mississippi and whether his adoption by the Tuohy’s has a more sinister side – was he adopted and the effort put in to boost his educational grades purely to boost the “Ole Miss” football team.

This film  is a heartwarming character piece, a bit slow in places (as such films generally are), with a realistic humour to it. Unless you analyse it to the extreme it isn’t racist, but it does come over as a “party political broadcast” on behalf of the Tuohy family protesting their innocence, you can only hope that the truth does in fact live up to the story portrayed on screen.

In documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, the Daily Express has revealed that Labour’s policy of mass imigration was expected to raise strong opposition, but that the government decided to ignore the racist views of the voters.

Whether the views of the voters are racist or (as I believe to be the case) not, this government seems to forget that it was elected to represent the voters, not to dictate to them, another sign that Labour has been in power too long and should be kicked out at the earliest opportunity.

I strongly believe that there is a streak of xenophobia that runs through British society (I suspect that it is the same in all cultures) but there is also a huge streak of fair play that overcomes it.

We express reservations when a new wave of migrants comes here, but given a short time in which they prove that they are willing to work and contribute to society, for most people, those reservations evaporate. This has pretty much held true throughout the centuries until recently when political correctness has raised it’s ugly head.

The PC brigade try to bypass the natural acceptance process by making the newcomers more equal by laying down laws to make sure that impose quotas for everyone but the majority. In the short term these policies might actually work, but the policy itself is racist and far more dangerously,  in the long term, breeds resentment in the population who now consider themselves to be the ones being treated unfairly.  It also leads those that get the PC benefits into a culture of separation, they don’t want to consider themselves British because then they wouldn’t get the favourable treatment.

We’ve no axe to grind against the majority of legal immigrants and on the whole they are treated with respect, but surely we have the right to expect an equal respect from those entering the country and a right to say, this is our country, these are our rules.

I was shocked to hear this week that Greater Manchester Police has thrown all common sense out of the window and decided to class incidents of snowball throwing as “serious violent crime” even though none of the incidents led to injury.

As if their crime statistics weren’t bad enough to start with there seems to be a culture of over-egging the pudding, it doesn’t help that none of these miniature sub-zero terrorists has been traced, bumping up the unsolved-crime rate.

Granted, with the amount of bureaucracy policing involves these days writing a report on serious crime is probably a good way to stay inside during the cold spell we’ve been having, contributing to the 6 million hours a year lost to form filling.

There has been some criticism of whoever called the police when the kids started throwing snowballs, but to be fair, it’s got to the point where you daren’t challenge them.
 
Gone are the days that you could shout at the kids and they’d disappear off and keep their heads down for a bit, now you’ll get a torrent of abuse and a police officer at your doorstep (within 5 minutes) arresting you for hurting their feelings!!!

To stop the generational descent into barbarianism we need to take action quickly. The police need to be relieved of the red-tape that is hampering their efforts and have their common sense reinstated. Parents also need to be made responsible for their children’s behaviour so that police can go back to using the time honoured tradition of the “clip round the ear”

This “clip” in this day and age wouldn’t be physical chastisement, but it is wrong to either drag children through the courts for minor offences or let them off because it is a waste of resources to pursue it.

In this case the “clip” should be an order to make good any damage done (preferably with the child involved in the repair not just by the parent digging into their pocket) or it could be a small community punishment that once completed wipes the slate clean. Either way, the parent should be the one responsible for seeing that the task is carried out and could face further proceedings if not complied with.

Parliament seems surprised that the expenses scandal is still an issue, after all they’ve told us they’ll behave better in the future!!!!

The fact that the rules (and they haven’t yet been changed) are so lax that only four MPs are currently going to be charged over the scandal seems to be unimportant to those still standing by the trough.

It makes sense to me that MPs need a second home close to parliament in order to do their job and that to allow MPs from all walks of life, they should be able to claim expenses for it (not choose the most profitable one to claim on).

The point is, however, that home doesn’t have to be a mansion in Kensington, it doesn’t have to be furnished with antiques and it doesn’t need a 72″ plasma TV to keep them up to date with the news.

Instead of second home expenses, we need to pay a fixed allowance based on running a reasonably affordable home in the area, then the MP can choose whether they want to spend their own cash to improve on that or if they really want to, live more frugally and pocket the savings.

I don’t see why MPs can’t employ their relatives (I’m sure most wives/husbands work to help their partners anyway) but wage levels need to be set centrally and audited to check that the jobs that are paid for are being carried out.

Until we see hard and fast rules in place to stop abuse of the expenses system though, this topic is going to rumble on and on and on and…

Arround 30,000 tonnes of batteries are bought in the UK every year, but considering that they contain some of the most environmentally damaging chemicals, only 3% are recycled (the rest goes into landfill!)

New rules mean that soon every retailer that sells more than a pack of batteries a day will have to have a recyling point in store, but manufacturers are pessimistic that the target of 25% recycling by 2012 will be reached.

Undoubtably, point of sale and the visibility of the recycling bins will help, but the size of batteries means that they don’t always make it to the bin (how many of us have batteries lying in a draw that we’re not sure work) never mind getting collected together and taken back to the shop.

With alcaline batteries useing 50 times more power to produce than they ever give out, the better option is to switch to rechargeable, but the problem that I’ve always found is that they discharge over time even if you don’t use them, so by the time you need them you face the wait of a few hours before they’re of any use.

A new product by Duracell gets round this, charged in a normal NiMh charger (and costing around the same price as ordinary rechargeable batteries), Duracell ActiveCharge are capable of holding 80% of it’s charge for a year, meaning that those batteries are ready for use whenever you need them.

I’ve been using these since Christmas, and having a couple of sets for my camera means that it’s ready the moment I need it and I don’t have to plan my trips in advance. When the ones in the camera run out through use, I can be sure that the replacements are ready and it also saves recharging half used batteries just to make sure they’ll last.

Whilst we were in Australia we caame across slush cocktail mixes, basically just add the necessary spirit to a cordial and freeze, ready for a cooling drink around the pool later on (Slush Puppie for adults 🙂 )

I remember about 10 years ago Tesco sold something similar (but with the alcohol already mixed)

Anyway the good old Internet has tracked down something similar on Firebox.com…

Ice Republic Cocktails, sourced from New Zealand. Instead of a cordial the mix comes in a dehydrated form, but add a litre of warm water and half a bottle of the required spirit, replace the screw cap and shake you have 1.6 litres of the cocktail ready to freeze (8 Hours).

Having made up my first batch (the Pina Colada tastes great) it’s worth bearing in mind that whilst the instructions say to let it defrost for a few minutes before serving it’s going to take 20-30 minutes at UK room temperature before this stuff is pourable from the bag.

For personal consumption I suggest pouring it into ice-cream tubs so you can scoop it out as and when you need it.

As before, perfect for those summer parties and barbeques, and if you’re going camping or on a picnic these make the perfect cooler block and drink combination 😀

Years ago when I wasted some time at university I took out one of those student loan things (well beer doesn’t come cheap you know) and basically, I don’t need to pay anything back until I’m earning above the average wage.

Last year that came to £2161 a month (just under £26k a year). Now, with the recession and everything, I assumed that there wouldn’t be much difference, in fact with all the fat cat bankers and money launderers going out of business maybe the threshold would come down.

Anyway, deferment time is rapidly approaching, so I went online to check where I stood (I’ve never earned above the average wage so far, but sometimes I get a month, with overtime, which would put me above the monthly limit so I try to make sure I don’t get one of those in the three wage slips they assess me on)

To my suprise, despite times being hard the average wage has gone up to £27k, around £100 a month more than it was last year (a 4% rise).

With a lot of perople at the lower end of the scale feeling the pinch and being told there’s no money in the pot for wage rises, I wonder who it is that is raking it in…

As far as most people were concerned, mountain rescue was just a matter of winching ill prepared walkers from the Lake District or Snowdonia, but the recent cold snap has hilighted the larger scope of their role as across the country they have helped the emergency services cope with the treacherous conditions, you may also have been suprised (as I was) to find Mountain Rescue Teams in places that are only slightly bumpy.

Today, I was further suprised to learn that unlike the RNLI which is exempt, the Government charges VAT on the equipment that these volunteers use, in fact 35-45p of every £1 raised to fund this service is snatched away by various taxes (For instance 4×4 vehicles are essential to their work, yet in an effort to crucify the Chelsea Tractor more and more taxes have been heaped on their purchase and use).

The Government’s stance is to blame European rules on taxation and that it would be difficult to change the European rules since our voluntary service is fairly unique (most mountainous countries have state run rescue teams) and that the RNLI exemption was negotiated at the time of these taxation rules being put into place.

Although the Government’s litteral interpretation of the rules is correct, Laszlo Kovacs, the European Commissioner for Taxation and Customs, has pointed out that there is nothing stopping the Government from refunding the money using direct subsidies.

“Such tools are entirely a matter for individual member states and do not depend upon European Union legislation”

In the grand scheme of Govenment finances, the money snatched from the charitable doantions is small (especially when you consider how much it would cost them to provide the service themselves), but for the volunteers and those helped by them, the money would make a huge difference.

After last year’s scandal with the leaked e-mails which possibly show that The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tried to suppress conflicting views, now we find that a key part of their reports was effectively copied off the back of a cerial packet.

The IPCC had claimed that the Himalayan glaciers would have melted by 2035 due to climate change, they even labeled the Indian Government’s study that disproved this as “voodoo science”. Now it turns out that the claim was lifted from an interview in New Scientist magazine, an interview that the scientist in question admits was his own personal opinion and not based on any scientific research.

Professor Julian Dowdeswell, a glacier specialist at Cambridge University, said: “The average glacier is 1,000ft thick so to melt one even at 15ft a year would take 60 years. That is a lot faster than anything we are seeing now.”

The IPCC seems to have been taken over by politicians whilst still masquerading as scientists, they seem to have forgotten that the role of scientists is to constantly challenge and reassess conventional wisdom, especially in a subject where we know so little. It is certainly questionable that the chairman of the IPCC, Rajendra Pachauri (Who has incidently a degree in Industrial Engineering and a PH.D. in Industrial Engineering and Economics – no environmental qualifications as far as I can see), is reported to have business interests that receive millions of pounds of funding derrived from IPCC policies.

The Climate Home Guard are quick to point out that there is a difference between climate and weather (or at least they are when an unexpected cold winter comes along and makes everyone question their dogma) but climate is made up of all the little pieces of weather. It’s hard to take these people’s rightiousness seriously when we can’t accurately predict conditions a week away (we certainly have no idea how much of it is caused by human activity) and these people are evangelical about what will “definately” happen in 40-50 years.

There is global warming, historically we’re near the bottom of a cycle that has been going on for millions of years, it’s also possible that global warming won’t be good for the human race (a change in the opposite direction certainly allowed the mammals to take over from the reptiles as the dominant class. The real question is how much of this climate can we change, (the world will continue to get warmer even if we stop all man-made carbon emissions).

We just don’t know and until science can understand the subject well enough to separate the natural changes from the man-made ones scientists need to continue questioning and challenging people’s views on the subject not silencing each other.

In a suprise result yesterday, Alan Ellis, who ran the Oink Bittorrent site was found not-guilty of the charges of Conspiracy to Defraud.

It seems that the record industry used the “Conspiracy to Defraud” law as an angle to get file-sharing prosecuted as a criminal rather than civil crime, unfortunatly as this definition from the FACT website shows, intention plays a huge part in the definition:

It is an offence contrary to the common law for two or more persons to agree to embark on a course of conduct which, if the agreement is carried out in accordance with their intentions, will necessarily amount to or involve some third party being deprived of some thing which is his or to which he is or would be or might be entitled.

In this case Alan successfully argued that the site was intended to improve his programming skills, and that since bittorrent can be used to  distribute any files (and indeed has since been developed for legal commercial uses) the responsibility for the content shared lies with the people using the site, not himself.

The Oink site and bittorrent tracker did not store any copyrighted files and the shared files did not pass through the Oink servers, it also seems that all donations to the site were voluntary and intended to cover running costs not make a profit.

Since copyright law in the UK doesn’t allow for a charge of  ‘facilitation’  the failure of this prosecution will make it very hard to bring charges against website owners/administrators for running a tracker.