User:	megamole
	Date:	2009-11-11 10:24
	Subject:	Yay for languages.
	Security:	Public

I get briefings from a company in Sweden we've done work with (www.ts.se). And naturally they're in Swedish. I think Swedish is a great language.

Particularly with words like "bröllopsklockorna" and "hushållstäckning".

Yay for Swedish. Med gräddsås.

User:	hardcorezenfeed
Date:	2009-11-10 14:53
Subject:	More Ranting About "Cyber Sanghas"
Security:	Public

http://hardcorezen.blogspot.com/2009/11/more-ranting-about-cyber-sanghas.html

User:	fword_org_uk
Date:	2009-11-10 20:30
Subject:	Going to hell in a eunach-shaped handcart.
Security:	Public

http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2009/11/going_to_hell_i

I think we all know that Daily Failers live on another planet, but this article by Quentin Letts - taken from his fourthcoming book 'Bog-Standard Britain' - is so out of touch I was almost sick with laughter. In a gutter. While having an abortion. With my belly hanging rather unbecomingly over my appallingly low waistband. And it's all Germaine Greer's fault.

Yes, ladies, it's 'first ladette' Greer we have to thank for binge drinking, casual sex, high heels, violence against women, teenage pregnancies, the breakdown of holy matrimony, the loss of good ol' fashioned feminine demureness and the prospect of more women dying at sea should a large cruise liner hit an iceberg any time soon:

When the RMS Titanic sank in 1912, a large proportion of the female passengers survived, but 80 per cent of the men on board went down with the ship, doomed by chivalry. They had observed the code of 'women and children first' to the lifeboats.

Would that happen today? After the onslaughts of sexual equality, it seems unlikely. Anyone using such a term on a modern-day Titanic would probably find himself rapped on the shoulder by the ship's diversity champion and told he had uttered a sexist comment which would be investigated by the relevant authorities, just as soon as the lifeboats reached land.

In Shakespeare's day the gap-toothed country girl offering easy pleasure would later exact her price - the ball and chain of marriage.

Yet thanks to the messianic toil of the equality crowd, marriage has gone down the khazi, discarded by scowling intellectuals as a form of religio-sexual bondage, institutional sexism minted at the altar of a male-run religion.

And so women have been denied the financial and romantic security which came with marital vows. Women's lib gave men an excuse not to make a commitment and many of them promptly took it.

Hedonistic? Exciting? Novel? Daring? Germaine Greer's glory days were all of those. But the loss of dignity they entailed meant that the standing of women deteriorated.

With that, the conduct of men worsened. They no longer felt they owed their female acquaintances any sort of behavioural discount.

Statistics suggest that violent behaviour against women - and even by women against men - has risen. If women were to be treated equally, as Miss Greer demanded, surely it became no worse to hit a woman than a geezer. So certain cavemen seemed to think.

The very notion of being a gent became redundant if men and women were the same.

I almost feel sorry for the man.

	User:	derryderrydown
	Date:	2009-11-10 21:31
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

And, in a break from talking about Til Schweiger, I'm going to see Steeleye Span next month! Complete with Maddy Prior!

Steeleye Span was my first introduction to folk. (But can they be called folk when they use electric instruments??? Oh, the ructions!) And even though I don't listen to them too much nowadays, there's still so much nostalgia. The soundtrack of my childhood is a mix of Beatles and Steeleye Span.

I'm SO looking forward to this.

In other news, my hamster really is a hamster of very little brain. She's currently having a lot of trouble figuring out how to drink from her water bottle. Which is impressive, considering she's been using it quite happily for several months.

And in other, other news, somebody has offered RPF - Rugby League Superleague for Yuletide. WHOEVER YOU ARE, I LOVE YOU.

people have commented at http://derryderrydown.dreamwidth.org/1393396.html.

	User:	derryderrydown
	Date:	2009-11-10 19:11
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Dear Til Schweiger,

You took a role where your head came off but your clothes stayed on?

You have no consideration.

Love,
Me.

people have commented at http://derryderrydown.dreamwidth.org/1393000.html.

User:	fword_org_uk
Date:	2009-11-10 17:41
Subject:	Disabled Feminism
Security:	Public

http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2009/11/disabled_femini

I was very anxious before writing my first post here, but when the comments starting rolling in, I was overwhelmed by the positive messages in response to it.

Firstly, it really helped me. The encouragement that I am doing ok, I am doing good things, and I am making a difference, even if I can't necessarily do the 'outside' things.

And secondly, that it touched so many people. Not especially that my words helped, but that talking about disability and feminism seems such a rarity, and that many people were reading about it for the first time. I'm so glad I could do that, and I'm so glad that it provoked thought for some and reassurance for others, but we need much more!

I mentioned on my main blog that I had posted here, and one of the commenters there said,

Isn't it a shame that writing about disability and feminism and inclusivity is something that is still a remarkable thing?

I appreciate that some groups have limited resources, or not much choice of venue, but seriously, if you are a feminist group and you are not meeting in an accessible place, what are you thinking? Would you meet somewhere that excluded other groups of women? Some kind of white-only venue?

You wouldn't, because, even if the founding members of the group were all white, you would know instantly and instinctively that this went against every human and feminist value you have ever held. You would not want to associate yourself with a venue like that, nor would you want to support that venue in any way. If you did meet there, that would give out a message to black women that they were not welcome, so they would not enquire about the group, which might give you the impression that black women did not want to join the group, so it was ok, for the moment, to meet there. This might eventually give you the false impression that actually, meeting in a white-only venue wasn't so bad, black feminists weren't trying to join so it was less of an issue than you had predicted, and after all, the room hire is free.

You know, reading that, that it's wrong! And meeting in an inaccessible venue is the same. Even if no disabled feminists have enquired about the group, this may be because they know they can't use that venue. Or maybe they even turned up, waited outside for a while when they couldn't get in, then went back home. What if one of your regular members becomes disabled? Will they be no longer welcome?

However, overall there was a really positive message from the commenters to my original post, which is that online activism is relevant, is important, and does make a difference. Raising awareness, taking action and sharing stories and experiences can all be done extremely successfully online, and even more effectively than in real life at times. This is a good reminder to me, and to all the women who responded who also have limited spoons, whose uses have to be carefully chosen.

Kitt, in the comments, said

I know disabled feminists have a lot to offer - we have been forced to plumb the depths of our ingenuity to do the things we want to, using as few spoons as possible, and to choose our battles because we simply have to prioritise everything, everyday. Feminism has always benefited from the ingenuity of women - letting disabled people in will only add to this. We are another voice in the choir that will make the song sweeter and stronger.

	User:	lnr
	Date:	2009-11-10 17:40
	Subject:	My long weekend
	Security:	Public

Rae and Adam invited us and Fluffy for dinner on Saturday to say thankyou to Mike and Fluffy for being bridesmaids. So we got the train to Cardiff arriving late Saturday afternoon with just time to take the dog for a muddy 45 minutes walk before it got dark. Dinner was lovely, with good company and much playing of estimation whist and then hearts after dinner. On Sunday we got up and out of the house about 10:30 and took the dog for another much longer walk, about 2.5 hours with me on the lead for much of the time. I'm still surprised such a small dog is so strong, and so hard to wear out! We ended up with a nice walk along the cliffs though, and Mike and Monster made it down to the beach, although it was a bit too muddy for the rest of us to attempt. We finished off the weekend with a cheap and very plentiful lunch in the pub, and a lovely pint of Brains Dark, before Adam dropped us at the station.

Having gone all that way it seemed like a good idea to take a couple of days off work and go visit Mike's parents too. So we got a train to Newport, and the bus to Chepstow and a lift home from there to their house, for a lovely curry for dinner and much amusement for me with Gina's Wii Fit Plus: I've already put a copy on my amazon wishlist but Mike now tells me I may need to remove it again :) After dinner Evan dropped us at Phil's house for a pleasant evening of gossip and Rock Band.

On Monday we got up late and headed out after breakfast at nearly 12 for a nice little bike ride. 23.1 miles and 2100ft of climbing (and descending again!) in around three and a half hours rather completely wore me out, especially after all the walking the previous days. So we slumped on the sofa for the rest of the afternoon before trying to take Evan and Gina out for dinner. But despite us saying it could be a late birthday present to them they still insisted on paying for their half!

It was lovely to see them anyway, and we had a nice time, and have spent today travelling home again without having to worry about anything more disruptive to the rail network than a cow on the line at Roydon leading to a 15 minute delay. Tired now!

User:	fword_org_uk
Date:	2009-11-10 13:04
Subject:	Broadcasting Round-Up (Oxfordshire RTN, Sex Education, Body Hair & Calendar Girls)
Security:	Public

http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2009/11/broadcasting_ro

There have been a few radio ventures on the F-word front over the past week. You can catch Louise Livesey talking about last Friday's Reclaim the Night in Oxford on BBC Radio Oxfordshire (2.04.15) and regular guest blogger Kate Smuthwaite discussing sex education with Stephen Nolan on his show on BBC Radio Five Live (1.54.29).

Along with this, I took part in two discussions on BBC Three Counties Radio last week. The first was on Jonathan Vernon Smith's show and was about body hair, in the light of the Daily Mail's vicious and gleeful criticism of model Danielle Bux for daring to go out with hair showing under her arms. (The topic begins from 2.01.32 and my contribution comes in at 2.43.35.) Jonathan quite rightly suggested that it didn't matter whether or not Bux's body hair was intentional or the result of her "forgetting to shave" and pointed out that, while it's true that men are generally expected to shave their faces, people don't tend to look at them and say "ugh!" the way many of them unfortunately do when talking about body hair on women. However, he also said he hadn't heard from a male caller saying it was "disgusting" and brought up the apparent tendency for women to be the ones doing the disapproving during our discussion. I'm fairy sure there actually were some male callers making negative comments during the course of the show and, in any case, hairy women is sadly something I've seen women and men reacting badly to. Indeed, during a conversation before the show, Jonathan told me that Naomi Campbell had recently admitted to Jonathan Ross that she waxes her big toe, only for him to be taken aback that she even has it there in the first place!

The second discussion I got involved in was on the Nine o' Clock show and was focused on the decision to replace Jerry Hall with the much younger Kelly Brook as the character "Celia" in a theatre production of Calendar Girls (0.04.40 and 1.05.30). Apart from naked calendars being extremely commonplace (i.e. banal rather than daring) at the moment and this not being helped by the rather obviously conventionally sexy slant being given by Brook, it also has to be said that the original plotline was about older women, so it seems decidedly suspect that a woman who is only just about to reach 30 should be in the cast. And that's just one of the issues. We didn't even get around to touching on a woman's greatest asset apparently being her looks and that the need for older women to be included in that in order to feel "fabulous", or whatever, is arguably flawed from the start...

Photo by vår resa, shared under a Creative Commons Licence.

	User:	misty_goth
	Date:	2009-11-10 15:41
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

While its a bit chilly and dull here, i'm happy as i've been shopping! Went into M&S earlier as mum wanted a pair of the faux sheepskin ugg style boots that I got from there, and as I love mine so much decided to get a pair for when my current ones die. They're only £15 and much cheaper and comfier than my real cardy uggs (but they're purple so only come on a special occasion and I can wear these brown ones more often)

I'd certainly recommend them for comfort and keeping your feet warm (they also come in black!) the only issue I had was that my feet were really tired the first day I wore them, but i'd been wearing merrell walking type shoes that enable you to wear them all day and still feel ok so I put the difference down to that, they seem ok now if i'm just popping in and out of places.

	User:	burkesworks
	Date:	2009-11-10 12:50
	Subject:	Ambulance chasing monkeys
	Security:	Public
	Music:	Victoria bloody Derbyshire on 5 Live. Why didn't they hire Delia Derbyshire instead?

That's two unsolicited calls in three days from an illegal cold-calling agency calling itself the "Accident Investigation Bureau" which claims to be from the UK government despite the operative being a very thickly-accented Indian or Pakistani with a false English name who has absolutely no idea about who I am - it's news to me about having a car crash 12 years ago - and who cannot answer basic questions about his supposed employers. Withheld number of course, so TPS is useless here; does anyone know who they really are and how to get these monkeys off my back? Come to think of it, does BT have a facility by which withheld numbers can be blocked?

Those who know me best know that fools such as the above are not suffered gladly by me, and my mood is not helped by the swivel-eyed Fraser Nelson from the Spectator popping up on the Execution Channel™ trying to extract even more mileage out of the Janes case as I type, berating the hapless Gordon Brown and all but branding him autistic while praising Blair and the foul chequebook journalists of the Murdoch press to the skies. Lord knows I'm not the greatest fan of Brown or his party but the behaviour of NewsCorp and the usual suspects over this matter has been lower than a Jack Russell's arsehole. Good to see there are at least some other bloggers outwith the regular dissentient voices who feel the same way too; Mr Eugenides asks the questions that need answers in this excellent post (shame that some of the comments are by and large the usual bloggertarian bile, but it's not about them). Would that more Conservative bloggers showed the common decency that the Greek Baby does here.

Don't fancy rolling in to work later this afternoon, but a Man's Gotta Do what a Man's Gotta Do. At least there's pubbage to look forward to at the weekend - and a scrap G4 Powerbook I've just picked up for peanuts on eBay which appears to be an easy fix if I take a few bits out of that rather iffy G3 upstairs, and the remains of that should cover the cost. Should keep me going until I find a suitable netbook; if nothing else it's good to see the first fruits of those daily clicks starting to appear in the bank account (£53 and rising).

User:	fword_org_uk
Date:	2009-11-10 10:42
Subject:	October comments on features & reviews up now!
Security:	Public

http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2009/11/october_comment_1

The round-up of comments in response to features and reviews from October is up now!

Thanks once again to Helen G who has compiled and coded the comments. Her help means this month's comments are up once again in a timely fashion :-)

This month, Kate's piece on sexism in primary schools received lots of great responses.

And, from the archive, Anne's article on how male privilege affects men's role in feminist activism got another interesting comment.

Photo of an abandoned feminist surf school in Costa Rica is by linkzilla and shared on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

	User:	ghoti
	Date:	2009-11-10 10:06
	Subject:	Maclaren Recall
	Security:	Public

12 children got fingertips amputated before the recall.Yes, that's clearly the right number of irreversible accidents before it's not a coincidence.

(Edited: I wrote fingers first because I didn't read it properly)

	User:	derryderrydown
	Date:	2009-11-10 00:47
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Congratulate me - I've made it through the first page of Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch. Fear my awesome translating abilities.

Y'know, if we'd got to read novels in German lessons, rather than explaining where we lived and what we'd got for Christmas, I might have got higher than a B in my exams.

Or if we'd been tempted with the prospect of being able to work out what naked Til Schweiger was actually saying while glowering intensely at the other pretty boy. Education through porn!

people have commented at http://derryderrydown.dreamwidth.org/1392750.html.

User:	hardcorezenfeed
Date:	2009-11-08 19:53
Subject:	ST. PAUL DATES ADDED and (nothing about) JUKAI
Security:	Public

http://hardcorezen.blogspot.com/2009/11/st-paul-dates-added-and-nothing-about.html

	User:	ewx
	Date:	2009-11-09 22:29
	Subject:	Flashforward 5-7 (spoilers)
	Security:	Public

Episode 5

Characters

User:	fword_org_uk
Date:	2009-11-09 20:26
Subject:	Another Reclaim the Night: Portsmouth!
Security:	Public

http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2009/11/another_reclaim

Portsmouth's Reclaim the Night is taking place on Wednesday 25th November. Meet at 7pm by Spinnaker Tower at Gunwharf. This Reclaim the Night is part of the White Ribbon Campaign, is supported by Portsmouth Football Club and is open to all (cis and trans) women, men and children. Womensgrid has more:

Once again this is a real community response to domestic abuse and sexual violence and the Spinnaker tower will be coloured purple, we will be marching through Gun Wharf and then onto the streets of Portsmouth. At the Guildhall, we are hoping for refreshments and then the candle light vigil. We anticipate that the evening will end approximately 9pm.

	User:	hairyears
	Date:	2009-11-09 20:48
	Subject:	Lessons in practical electronics, and more reasons to loathe the iPhone
	Security:	Public

I am somewhere in East London, unable to make phone calls: the wonderful O2 network leaves my phone (and yours) hanging in the 'connecting' screen indefinitely - O2 calls in London frequently take more than a minute to connect, and often time out with 'call failed' at busy times - and the iPants has an particularly venomous incompetence: no-one in Cupertino anticipated that the network would be this bad, and there's no escape from the waiting state. If the network doesn't tell the handset that the call's failed, you've got a locked iPhone and it takes several minutes more to notice the soft-keys to power down.

Never buy any electronic device that you can't switch off with a 'hard' power down that physically disconnects the battery.

And don't buy an 'intelligent' device that powers up and remembers its pre-powerdown state: still trying to connect a call and *still* in the waiting state. Now I know why I keep seeing other iPhone owners performing a 'backstreet abortion' with a safety pin: they are disconnecting and reseating the SIM card... You risk losing all the data on it, but what are you losing if your phone inoperative anyway? Oh for the perfect sunlit Cupertino product lab where everything was tested thoroughly in a environment of unwavering strength-five mobile signal with a server always there, eager to act as a gateway to the Internet.

Time to stop daydreaming... Though it's a pleasant theoretical dilemma, being forced (oh noes!) to choose between nuking Apple's HQ campus from orbit, or leading an army of angry vigilante iPhone users there in person, strapping the bastards into Windows CE- device appreciation chairs and forcibly indoctrinating them into Bill-Gates worship while their ponytails are burning down to their scalps and their Segways are steamrollered in the parking lot.

Sorry. Daydreaming again. Where was I?

East London.

Silly me, halting my journey before the train went underground by hopping off at Shadwell Station: going underground *might* have coerced the iPhone into the 'no network found' state and broken it out of the loop... But hey, I'm in East London and on O2: a brisk walk to the far end of the platform is all it takes to find a commanding view of the landscape and 'no network'.

Job done.

Two restarts later, I've got a working phone. No texts, but that means nothing: O2 can detain texts for hours... Do I risk trying a voice call to the person I was hoping to meet, and risk starting the game all over again? Best not to. The TwitterFon app crashes on startup: some moron's coded up an advert that is incompatible with the IPhone. Again. It'll be replaced in a day or two... Which leaves me heading for home, and borrowing WiFi to communicate my apologies by eMail and LJ.

How was your day?

	User:	derryderrydown
	Date:	2009-11-09 21:03
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Dear Everybody Involved With Making The Red Baron,

There's this little thing called 'research'. You might want to consider it next time you make a historical film.

I know it's mentally taxing so you don't need to do a great deal. Just enough to work out why the subject of your film is worth making a film about. Here's a little hint - HE INVENTED FUCKING FIGHTER TACTICS.

Yours faithfully,
Me.



Dear Til Schweiger,

You're very decorative as a WWI fighter ace. You might want to consider that sort of role again.

Love,
Me.

people have commented at http://derryderrydown.dreamwidth.org/1392439.html.

User:	css_beauty
Date:	2009-11-09 07:37
Subject:	Dive Into HTML5
Security:	Public

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CssBeauty/~3/CPSNIvxWdtI/

Dive Into HTML5. A free illustrated e-book that explains some of the features of HTML 5. Pretty Handy.

	User:	misty_goth
	Date:	2009-11-09 15:36
	Subject:
	Security:	Public

Just looked out of the window at work and its really really foggy. Its like a sheet of white, might not go jjb and opt for straight home instead as after the rain on friday totally causing traffic chaos, it might be the same today!