Please engage brain…
Okay, bear with me here I'm going on a bit of a rant.
One of my biggest frustration these days is glaring examples of where people plainly don't think. And filling up the car with petrol gives us a classic example of this.
It is not uncommon these days to see a queue of cars waiting at a petrol station for a pump to become available. However, something that drives me up the wall are those people who will block others out for the sake of parking on the side of the petrol cap. And this drives me mad because I hate queuing at the best of times.
I don't know how long modern pumps have been this way but almost all petrol pump pipes will reach to the far side of the car, so it doesn't matter whether you park to the left or to the right of a petrol pump.
I know it's going to make me sound like a grumpy old man but please can we start some kind of campaign to get people to start realising that any pump on any side will do when filling up the car. It doesn't matter where your petrol cap is, just move out of the way and lets get on with our lives.
Okay, rant over.
I'd love to hear about your examples of where people plainly don't think, so please feel free to write them in the comments box below.
What to do when you hear someone say “I don’t do politics”
“I don't do politics” is such a dumb thing to say...
I couldn't even begin to count the number of times that someone I know has said “I don't do politics” and it always makes me laugh.
I've worked out a number of reasons why people say it (let me know if you can think of more):
1 – they choose to remain ignorant
2 – they don't understand it and try to ignore it
3 – they really believe that politics doesn't affect them
4 – they're plain stupid and have no idea what they're saying
So le me deal with these in list order:
1 – ignorance
In my view, those who don't show any interest in politics have no room to make comments. Far too many people are politically ignorant and choose to stay that way.
The problem with this is that everyone has an opinion (and you're currently reading mine) but those who have no idea about what's happening in the political arena speak from a position of little or no knowledge.
These folks really ought to take this to heart: “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”-- Mark Twain (1835-1910)
2 – Lack of understanding
I think that the majority of people fall into this category in that politics is so poorly understood. I'm not sure if the political establishment intends it this way but poor turnouts at elections tend to favour the incumbent government. So it could be argued that political education is deliberately left out of UK education.
But, just like being ignorant, there's no excuse for not understanding. It'll take a bit of study but politics is far from as complex as many people seem to think.
3 – Politics doesn't affect them
I've actually heard a few people say this, and to call the person who says it 'stupid' is really being kind.
You can't help but be affected. Politicians make decisions on loads of different things in our lives, even down to the amount and content of advertising allowed during your favourite TV shows.
4 – Stupidity
This is more common than even I expected. Far too many people have an opinion on politics but are just too stupid to stop and think about what they believe. The popular press does little to help by sensationalising the absurdities in politics (and yes there's a few of them).
But I often wonder how many people stop and think about or question whether what they're being told is actually the truth.
So next time someone says “I don't do politics” just remind them that 'politics does you”.
Whether it's through taxes, city planning, school funding (or lack of), state benefits, driving speed limits, where you can and can't smoke, the price of the sugar that goes into your chocolate (I could go on) or a large number of other things – these things affect you, it's impossible to escape.
So to say “I don't do politics” really is just dumb!
Do you have a thought on this? By all means make a comment below...
Modern pop music all sounds the same – and here’s why -
You may remember the days when your parents were telling you that all the music you listen to sounds the same (although U2, Simple Minds, Talking Heads, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Cult and Siouxsie Sioux all sound very different to me).
However, even the pop industry now seems to (subliminally) admit that a lot of music released today sounds like a lot else. And here is why I think it so:
You see, if you listen to a pop station like Capital (I like to refer to it as 'Crapital') you might begin to notice that many of the songs begin by announcing the name of the artist - as part of the song. In other words: the performer is telling us who they are.
J-Lo, Shakira, Beyonce, Tinie Tempah, Rihanna, JLS and many others have all been at it.
And I think it's because they finally realise that if you weren't told you wouldn't readily recognise who the artist was because they all sound pretty much the same.
Having said that, I've listened to Planet Rock a fair bit this week (bearing in mind that I'm a fan of rock music) and even many rock bands sound largely the same.
Is it me?
Being a trainer is sometimes painful…
A conversation that took place while trying to teach a classroom full of school teachers how to use a website...
Staff member: I can't change my password - says its incorrect.
Me: Oh, which browser are you using?
Staff: Chrome
Me: But line 1 of the instructions say "this only works in Internet Explorer"
Staff: Yeah but I hoped it would work in Chrome - its much faster
This only further proves my theory that being highly educated doesn't necessarily make you intelligent.
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The News of the World is gone but so what?
So news publishing history was made on Sunday with the demise of the News of the World but so what?
I know it's sad that many journalists and support staff have lost their jobs at short notice but do we really need the News of the World? Is there now a gap in the market where the newspaper leaves off?
Well I'm confident that many of the journalists will find other work, the newspaper industry is renowned for its flexibility in the workforce. As a result of the closure it's likely that other Sunday papers will take a larger market share and this should open up opportunities.
But the point of this is that News International has been planning a Sunday Sun for a little while now. Even Rebekah Brookes indicated that NI was preparing for 7 day reporting as much a 2 months ago. So the signs have been there.
However, further to the NOTW allegations, it seems that the Sun and Sunday Times have been implicated in further scandals with Gordon Brown accusing the Sunday Times of colluding with criminals and gaining access to his son's medical records and possibly his own tax and financial details too.
So it seems that News International have even more bad publicity to deal with from 2 more of their publications. Closing NOTW hasn't had what they hoped would be something akin to closure on the phone hacking and data security scandals.
By now, even Rupert Murdoch must be wondering what to do next and it's almost certain that his proposed takeover of BSkyB is dead in the water. He owns a lot of the news media in the UK but there's still enough force amongst the rest of the field to keep scandal inflamed for some time.
There is also speculation (and a good few voices in parliament fuelling this) that the government are considering legislation to regulate the amount of news media share that any single organisation can own and influence. Not a bad thing in my view.
So, should we lament the passing of the News of the World? Definitely not!
Is anything likely to improve for News International any time soon? I certainly hope not!