(1977) Close Encounters of the Third Kind debuts
(1981) First cases of AIDS are confirmed in homosexual men in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco
Co-incidence? He thinks not!!
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For a couple of days, I'd noticed that the main PC at home's display was a little odd. There was a slight shake and, particularly when looking at a picture, you could see some flecks of white flickering. One vertical line of pixels had a habit of going missing.
My first thought was that it was a loose connection between the graphics card and the monitor, but no. Continue reading
Oooh, emails from a Queen and a Princess today. Continue reading
Today's call – with the usual caveat that I've only heard one side of the story…
He's out somewhere, a bit drunk, and pinches a woman's bum. Enough of a fuss is created for him to be arrested and held overnight.
In the morning, he's offered a caution for sexual assault, section three of the Sexual Offenders Act 2003:
(1) A person (A) commits an offence if-
(a) he intentionally touches another person (B),
(b) the touching is sexual,
(c) B does not consent to the touching, and
(d) A does not reasonably believe that B consents.
The consequences of this – that it's an admission of guilt, and it's an offence that gets you on the sex offenders register – are explained to him, but he accepts it because he wants to go home and doesn't want to end up in court.
Now he's going 'oops', but it's a bit late for that.
While part of me goes 'yeah, that's what should happen if you grope someone without their consent', I am a bit sorry for him – she made it clear that she didn't regard it as serious, so if he had declined the caution, the Crown Prosecution Service would probably have dropped the case rather than take it to the Magistrates Court.
I'm also a bit surprised that it'd be treated as a sexual assault – do you, 'reasonable person', think pinching someone's bum is 'sexual'? – but maybe I'm not being told everything.
Coo – an email from the late Sanni Abacha's wife and one from his second son.
I'm a bit sorry for her, though. Apparently, second son knows about an account with FORTY MILLION THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS, but she only knows about TWENTY MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS.
Perhaps that's why she's offering me just 25% of her money whereas he's willing to let me have 30% of his…
Hmmm, should I tell her about the other money?
In 1994, HM Customs & Excise decided that since the introduction of VAT in 1973, they had been wrong to categorise Marks & Spencer's tea cakes as 'biscuits wholly covered in chocolate' (hence liable to the full rate of VAT) rather than 'cakes wholly covered in chocolate' (and thus zero-rated).
In 1995, M&S asked for repayment of all the VAT, £3.5m, they had been wrongly charged. The Commissioners said, no, you passed the cost onto the customers so we're only giving you the VAT on your profit: £350,000.
Ten years on, the case still continues… and is heading off to the European Court of Justice.
I wonder what the total in legal fees will be?
… and if you've got a receipt for M&S tea cakes between 1973 and 1994, I'd ask for a refund of the excess money you were charged.
"Wigan have had a dream start. They were at two games and no points and if that run had continued they would've been in a bit of trouble."
Let's look at that…
Wigan's 'dream start' consisted of them losing their first two games.
Had they continued to lose every single game, they 'would've been in a bit of trouble'.
You can see why the BBC pay him so much, can't you?
(1) For people not in the UK or interested in football, Alan Hansen is a former Scotland player who now works in TV and whose basic routine is to say 'that was rubbish, if I'd done it, it would have been much better'.
As well as wondering if that means he's bisexual, one only has to look at Scotland's record to judge how accurate that is.(2)
(2) To save you looking it up, it's a complete failure to get past the first round in every World Cup they've managed to qualify for, including the only one he played in – where the defence he was part of let in eight goals in three matches, including two against New Zealand which meant they went out on goal difference.
In fact that was one of only three times out of their eight appearances when they didn't finish bottom of their first round group. The other main one was 1974 when… they went out on goal difference having only put two goals past a hopeless Zaire team. One more, and it'd have been Brazil going home.
Perhaps fortunately for those of us with any Scottish blood, the last time they qualified was 1998, when they finished bottom of their first round group.
The two highlights of Scotland's World Cup history are
a) the brilliant but ultimately pointless Archie Gemmill goal against Holland in 1978, as featured in Trainspotting and
b) moaning about a Russian linesman saying Geoff Hurst's shot crossed the line in England's 1966 World Cup Final win, leading to England winning the thing.
The lowlights are… everything else including
a) everything else about 1978, one year when they qualified and England didn't, and
b) losing to Costa Rica in 1990.
In fact, it's so bad that WorldCup-History.com reckon their best performance was in 1986, when they came bottom of their four team group… again.
I hope someone asks him if he regrets not contesting the previous one.
I still think a) he knows that had he stood, he would have beaten Michael Howard but b) he chose to step aside then because he knew the Tories would lose the general election. Why be yet another losing Tory leader?
Well, because instead of resigning after the general election, all it would have taken is a 'no-one expected us to come this close a year ago, see you in Number Ten after the next election' speech and he'd have been happily in place now, instead of wondering if he can beat someone who hardly anyone had heard of a couple of months ago.
It'd have helped if Partition Magic was honest about what its system requirements really were, but a theoretically simple upgrade managed to stop my PC from booting thanks it to going 'oooh, there's something odd about the partition table' and going ahead with changing it anyway.
"A few years back, Mr Mandela arrived at the restaurant I worked at in Westminster. It was my job to serve him his carrots.
While doing so, I felt compelled to ask him a personal question – a once in a lifetime opportunity, right?
I decided on asking which music had brought him solace and hope during those years on Robben Island. I'd read the biography and knew 'Shosholoza' was a favourite, but get this.
He beckoned me closer and told me quietly, 'Actually, it was "Shosholoza" for my brothers, but when I really needed some me time, I'd stick on some classic Kraftwerk."
– Simon Strevens, Time Out letters Oct 12th: "Werkers of the world unite!"