"World Aids Day – What is it for? What's expected? How do we decide what to do about it? A practical one-day workshop [..]" for people working in the health promotion field.
The date? 4th December…
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The Dogs Trust – owners of the trademark 'A dog is for life, not just for Christmas' – are going after the Anne Summers sex shop chain which has been advertising a vibrator under the phrase 'A rabbit is…'
Let's see, ten years ago… (imagine a fancy flashback visual effect)
… is getting the various 'unofficial' mixes that are otherwise unobtainable. I think I've mentioned the fabulous intermingling of the strings from Eleanor Rigby with Kraftwerk's original Tour de France, for example.
Of course, sometimes the people who do / post them don't know who or what they're using. So today's "Freelance Hellraiser – Kraftfwerk vs Whitney Houston" turns out to be New Order's Blue Monday mixed with Kylie's 'nah nah nah' Got to Get You Out of My Head.
How to realise you're getting older #271: You've got proof that not everyone can instantly recognise Blue Monday.
David Davies didn't stand for leader.
If he had done, he'd very likely have won. He'd certainly have won a two-way contest with Michael Howard, because the Tory membership unsurprisingly like him more.
The only thing that could have stopped him is coming third in the MPs' vote to select the two candidates for the members to chose between, a la Michael Portillo last time.
(IDS beat Portillo by 'one MP' and went on to trounce Ken Clarke. Apparently, if Portillo had been more polite to Boris Johnson, it'd have been the other way around. But who could resist being rude to this particular unlovable mop-head?)
David Davies would love to be PM. Hence the only reason not to stand is that you don't think the Tories have any hope of winning next time…
… so he's waiting for Howard to lose and stand down, and go for the election after next. Assuming they both keep their seats, of course, as they're both vulnerable to the LibDems.
A man is sitting beside a table in someone else's house. He notices a bowl of fruit. Continue reading
For some reason, it had its undercarriage down, which it doesn't usually do – perhaps they're flying it as slowly as possible?
Shareholders in London Mardi Gras may decide to close the company which runs the capital’s annual Pride party and parade.
The decision will be made at a crunch meeting on 23 October, as the Pink Paper hits the streets.
Bosses have been told by the Royal Parks that they will not be able to hold the event at Hyde Park again next year after they failed to pay the quarter-million pound fee for renting the land this July.
And now shareholders have been told in a set of notes circulated by bosses before Thursday’s annual general meeting that “it is still unclear whether or not the company is legally solvent”.
The notes, which were leaked to the Pink Paper, give shareholders four options.
They can “inject new share capital”, but many have already accepted they have lost tens of thousands of pounds.
Alternatively they can put the company into liquidation themselves or get creditors to do it for them.
Lastly they could choose to “try to continue with the existing company” and hold the festival “in a different location”.
However, some shareholders have already accepted that the event will never make a profit unless it is at Hyde Park and the notes tell them that the Royal Parks will not let them return there. The firm still owes the venue £210,000.
The company has been running Pride since 1999 but has only made a profit once, in 2001, and it lost almost half a million pounds in 2002.
Jason Pollock, festival director, said he didn’t know what would happen at the meeting.
“My personal feeling is that it won’t close,” he added. “But it is a bit of a knock that [Hyde Park] won’t let us go there.
“Of course I want it to continue but I am just one of 29 shareholders.”
(Article in the now dead pinkpaper.com)
… and a well-paid employee of the company too, presumably.
It's incredible isn't it? The people who failed to save the Pride Trust when it owed a few tens of thousands of pounds on the grounds it was 'unprofessional' have managed to lose hundreds and hundreds of thousands of pounds. They've lost more than PT did in four out of their five years: 1999, 2000, 2002 and 2003.
Of course, some of this is because they've paid themselves, either directly or indirectly eg through advertising, a pile of money, but you still wouldn't trust this bunch of 'professionals' to run a whelk stall, never mind a festival.
Now to see what happens.
.. was very good last night at everything except timekeeping!
Kraftwerk once arrived on stage early, said "We start at eight!" and stood around doing absolutely nothing for a couple of minutes before they started playing.
This was meant to be 'doors at 7, main act at 7:30'. In fact, they were just finishing the support act's soundcheck at 7:30… They went on at 8:30, with the man himself at 9:30.
From a couple of reviews of the gig I missed at the ICA (grrrr) this one was structured better – couple of KW classics, one from his new album, couple of KW, one new one etc. My only moan is that there was nothing from his earlier solo albums, and with an eighty five minute set, there was plenty of room for this.
The lighting crew probably had their easiest ever evening – it changed slightly between songs, but the main visuals were provided on a couple of large screens: a mix of computer graphics and webcam shots of Karl and the other keyboard player.
The sound was excellent, with bass you could feel right through you, but not painfully loud in the treble.
I took along my mini digital video camera, and rested on the back of the sound and lighting area to get a good visual record, but unfortunately the audio proved to be completely thrown by the bass 🙁 Still, the sound crew were recording it on DAT, so who knows, it may come out officially or otherwise.
Slight update: Oh, I was particularly amused to see him cater for both the general public and the purists by alternating singing the verses in English and German for most of the songs!
You know the sort of thing. "My husband, the late dictator of Wherever, left $20 billion dollars, but I need your help in exchange for 10%…"
My two current favourites are the one that purports to come from a Parsi in South Africa who mentions a relationship with some people I have a 'three link' with (ie I know someone who knows someone who knows them very well) who are Not Very Nice and Would Not Appreciate being used in this manner, and the one who tries to gain my trust by telling me he was intending to steal the money himself, but became a Christian and
After my fasting and prayers, I asked God to make his choice and direct me to a honest Christian or the chosen ministry that deserves this fund by his Grace. I then came across your address on the Internet as I was browsing through a Christian site, and as a matter of fact, it is not only you or your ministry that I picked on the Christian site initially, but after my fervent prayer over it, then you were nominated to me through divine revelation from God, so these are how I received such a divine revelation from the Lord, how I got your contact information, and I then decided to contact you for the fund to be used wisely for things that will glorify the name of God.
Apparently, Britons fall for this to the tune of £150 million.
I don't understand – is it that there are some people who don't get at least one of these a day and respond to the only one they see, or do they go 'oh, this one sounds more genuine than the rest'? Or are there some lunatics who reply to them all in the hope that one is genuine?