h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.rp-online.de/nachrichten/Katze-ueberlebt-wochenlang-hinter-Kuehlschrank_bid_54072.html

(Okay, the story is in German, so here is the gist:

The cat on the pictures was found under and behind kitchen furniture after being stuck behind the coverstrip of a kitchen cabinet for six weeks. It probably survived by licking condensed water off surfaces and possibly getting water from a malfunctioning dishwasher.)

Oh, and the lucky finder is one of my in-laws

Y.

>>The main problem is that the information was untrue. I have a real problem with that, and I'm surprised that you don't.<<

I do have a problem with the information being untrue. But the whole gist of this news story has not been about that. It's been about the fact that the leaflets were sent to cancer sufferers and that's what I was commenting on. In most of the articles I've read about it, they don't even mention whether it is or is not untrue. Instead they made it a story about (alleged) inappropriate use of personal data, as did the original post on this thread.

And you don't think that political parties accessing your health data for party political ends is inappropriate? Do I need to remind you of the last political party to adopt such a policy?

RF

*summons Godwin*

You're quite right of course RF. If they only sent these things
to cancer sufferers, or targetted them. I got one, today as it goes.
I don't have cancer, so far as I am aware.

Scratch that, it was from Cancer Research. I binned it before
opening it.

I'm Irish and I received a letter from my local labour candidate (who is Afro-carribean) this very morning telling me how she is going to address issues faced by the Irish community in my constituency (as it happens, the borough I live in is one of the most multi-racial in London according to the last census).

I think that's quite clever campaigning on her part. And some people (less cynical than I) would probably think, good on her, here's a politician who is actually doing a little bit of research about her electorate and addressing issues or topics that are relevant, important and specific to them.

And I don't think that is any different to writing to cancer sufferers about issues relating to cancer care. It affects them more acutely than me! I'm guessing they're going to want to know what each party is going to do about cancer care, before they start to worry about issues facing the Irish community for example. It would be just like if I was an MP and I found out that a local oncology unit in my constituency was scheduled to be closed down, a move to which I was opposed. The first thing I would do by way of campaigning for it to be kept open is try to get a list of the people actually visiting/using the unit to let them know. This isn't any different.

Besides, as consumers, we're all very well used to targeted marketing by now. I think we should therefore reasonably expect election campaigning to be targeted too.

We're talking about politicians accessing medical records fir propaganda purposes here.

How happy would you be about the BNP having this access and targeting voters on racial lines?

How happy would you be if the Christian Party accessed the records looking for women who have had abortions and then targetting them?

How about if you're a cancer sufferer but you haven't told your family yet and a leaflet addressed to you as part of a targeted campaign arrives on your doormat?


Medical records should always be PRIVATE, not used by grubby politicians to point-score.

Annnnnnnnyyyyyyyyyyyywwwwwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy



Pornographic magazine for the blind launched

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/7581230/Pornographic-magazine-for-the-blind-launched.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63B4JQ20100412?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FoddlyEnoughNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+Oddly+Enough%29&utm_content=Google+UK

Two Chinese singers have become the first people in the country to fall foul of new rules banning lip-synching

'Winnipeg Muslims are building a little mosque on the Prairie, and plan to ship it to the Arctic.

Dozens of Muslim families in Inuvik, in the Northwest Territories, currently send their children to live elsewhere in Canada because the community doesn't have a mosque or Islamic education centre.

A Winnipeg-based charity plans to change all of that.

The Zubaidah Tallab Foundation is raising money to build a mosque in Winnipeg then ship it 4,000 kilometres by truck and barge to the northern community.'

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/manitoba/story/2010/04/13/mb-mosque-inuvik-arctic-winnipeg.html#ixzz0l0aUuK7J


Personally, I think it's wacky to send your kids thousands of miles away for religious education, so simply to keep the kids at home this project is worthwhile.

Couldn´t they have built an igloo mosque instead? That would have looked great.

Vatican forgives Beatles for 'Satanic' messages

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/apr/12/vatican-beatles-john-lennon

ah. yes. the old igloo stereotype.

It would be a little difficult in the summer.


Unless you're meaning simply a domed mosque, similar to the Catholic Church in Inuvik: http://www.inuvik.ca/images/igloochurch.jpg


It seems it's been done.

The domed shape of an igloo would just fit well with the dome shapes of many mosques. They just need some icicle minarets.

Not in Switzerland

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100413/twl-baa-rmy-fugitives-dress-up-as-sheep-3fd0ae9.html

A couple here...

A man leaves his mother-in-law in a multi-storey car park while he takes his missus to France - he "forgot", honest!

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/04/14/darling-i-ve-left-your-mother-behind-in-dover-115875-22184716/

And what Britains get up to on the loo:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/6077112/Twittering-on-the-toilet-Britains-bathroom-habits.html

You probably wouldn't want to know where I was when I read that one!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8618878.stm

The Catholic paedo problem is all down to the gays

Words really do fail me...

"It's wacky to send your kids for religious indoctrination"

Fixed

>> http://uk.news.yahoo.com/5/20100413...ives-dress-up-as-sheep-3fd0ae9.html <<

This is an interesting story: It is on Yahoo! News, but has a Sky News strapline. The Sky News report is quoting a story in The Sun. I don't believe the Sun got this news first-hand, so they're probably getting it from a South American news source.

I wonder if anyone has checked whether it's true?

RF