Tuesday 20 January 2009

I see dead people [instructions...]


Tuesday already. It's been a while since my last post - just like at school - 'must try harder'.
It's not all my fault I hasten to add, had an old friend over at the weekend, and we had a lot of drinking to do. It's hard work, but we make it look easy. Not that I spent the weekend pissed mind you, I actually did some clever type stuff by going to a few talks, one of which was by Ben Goldacre - a columnist for the Guardian newspaper and a very funny man. He was talking about science reporting in the media (as he does on his blog) and about how 80% of it is just made up crap, usually sponsored by some company trying to sell you something, and copy-pasted straight out of a press release.

Anyways, I was having a read on his blog when a story about seeing dead people caught my eye. This story has had quite a bit of media coverage over here, and was printed in the Express (a large national paper) amongst others. It's basically this: If you drink coffee, you will see dead people.
Now I know what you're saying, 'I drink coffee, and I don't see dead people'. Well, you're obviously not drinking enough coffee are you. Whole story is here.

It's a big day today for all our American cousins over there today. You get a shiny new president to replace the broken one you've had for the last 8 years. Apparently the new guy is much better, he can count to 10 on his own and can even feed and dress himself, so there's an improvement straight away.
I remember a while ago, just after the last election when 'W' got in, again, and I was talking to this American women who'd voted for him. She couldn't understand why everyone else in the world didn't think that was the best of choices. I remember her saying 'he's a very clever man you know'. Well he's certainly hidden it well.
As for the new guy, well, I think people are going to be disappointed when it turns out he can't walk on water or turn grass into marijuana or anything. I think he's a vast improvement and will have a positive effect on the US and the rest of the world, but it's going to be a series a small steps rather than a revolutionary leap.

Which brings us nicely on to white supremacists. They arrested a guy just after Obama won the election for plotting to assassinate him. These white supremacist types really should take a good look at themselves - this guy lived in a trailer with no job, no money, and couldn't even spell 'assassinate', thinking that there's not a problem in the world that can't be solved by guns or god. You'd think it would occur to him that if there is a master race, he's clearly not in it.


Anyways all you lucky people in blog blog land, to celebrate a new El Presidente, today you get a quote, and a song:

Quote of the day: 'It's a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.'

Old but still good:

2 comments:

Kimberly said...

I'm still pondering the "You see dead people if you drink coffee" hmmm. Haven't yet experienced that myself either.

Writers Block said...

With you there K2Comfort - a good day indeed.

Hillbilly - the headline was '3 times more likely', but the science was '3% more likely if you already hallucinate quite a bit.'
Though anyone who drinks more than 7 cups of coffee a day probably has bigger issues.