Dawn

Dawn

Thursday, August 11, 2011

The War of Jenkin's Thumb. When playing the piano, I have a bad habit of leaving my thumb off the keyboard. When using my Mac, I have a bad habit of leaving it ON the keypad, causing the machine to do all sorts of clever things I don't want it to do. Which is a tad annoying. But that's what separates us from the other primates, I guess - a prehensile thumb. Or is it the other way round?

The trouble with events like the UK's urban riots is that you can't get near the facts for the smell of axe-grinding. Both from the Left and the Right. My only comment is that, while I admired the mother who dragged her errant son to the police station, my immediate thought was Where's his father? So, I wasn't surprised to read this today:- “A large and increasing number of youngsters are brought up without dads. The majority of rioters are gang members whose only loyalty is to the group and whose only authority figure is the toughest of the bunch. Like the overwhelming majority of youth offenders behind bars, these gang members have one thing in common: no father at home.” More here. Albeit with the smell of Catholic axe-grinding from a prominent member of that Church. Which doesn't mean she's wrong, of course.

And here's the most (only?) heartwarming article I've read so far. Sample: “Across the country, ethnic communities have emerged as the heroes of the week’s riots – and, in the case of the three Muslim youths who were killed as they defended their neighbourhood in Birmingham, its martyrs. They have shown themselves to be not just as law-abiding as the Anglo-Saxons, but far more inspiring.”

Reading The Baldie's blog recently, I saw mention of a voice-changer. Not knowing what this was, I googled the term. And came up with this . . . MorphVOX® Junior is free voice changer software that will modify your voice to match your personality. You can sound like a man, woman, or little folk. Why??

Here's a decent article on the under-trod bit of the Camino from Santiago to Finisterra. Don't believe what he says about the Galician battle, though. The Reconquista began much earlier at Covadonga in Asturias. If that doesn't satisfy you, click here.

Finally . . . I received what I hope is my last mobile phone bill from Orange today. It contained an item of 2 euros for two one-second internet connections. Despite trying to avoid these, I've had about ten of them in the last year, compared with none at all during the previous three or four years. It happens (or did) when I switched on the phone and I suspect it's not a coincidence. Five million customers doing this several times a year adds up to an awful lot of pure profit. So . . has anyone else suffered from this? Or is it another thumb problem unique to me?

Postscript: I didn't want to venture this prediction that I've just seen but, now that someone else has done so, I will . . .

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