Blogging The Fifth Nail - THIS IS SCARY

Sometimes you read something on the web that is just plain scary - Blogging The Fifth Nail - an accused kidnappers blog. It makes an interesting and chilling read - a view into somebody's mind.

See the news item for more information Wired News: Blog Bares Sex Offence

We live in a sick world and with the Internet it is right on our doorstep - no actually inside our houses as close as the screen on your PC.

Of course - he is just been accused and may still be innocent ...

Blog Spam - beter watch this Big Brother!!!

I never cease to wonder at the absolute dribble that the internet continually spawns.

If you look in the top right corner of a blog on Blogspot you will see a link called Next Blog - which takes you to some apparently random blog. I sometimes just click and see what comes up. Lately I have been seeing blogs like the following - openly advertising or just bringing up some crappy references to the same crappy spam that lands in your mailbox with increasing intensity.

Guess this should be called BlogSpam - and this will put a serious dent into the fun of reading blogs - my hit rate for these rubbish blogs was about 1 to 1. Soon these Blog Bots will ruin the whole blog drive completely or we will have to move to some other Blogspam unfriendly blog place. Lots of it seems to lead to the same place Blog Spam Central.


Some other advertising web side promotion crap:

Bridal

1 Stop Stained Glass

rqawoip

bagdzd Created about 100 posts in 12 hours

I suggest humbly to the big brothers from blogspot who are watching over us (yes bro - we know you are out there) to cut these blogs before it ruins the whole experience.

OK got that of my chest.

I'm back ... under house arrest.

Hmmm back to blogging

The summer weather is with us - temperatures as I am typing this is 30C (12:00 at night) but with the 80% humidity feels like 37C. Thats right - all Dubai residents is again under house arrest until October and I am back to blogging.

So what has happened the last 9 months - very busy - the culture in the ME is slowly but surely driving me around the bend. Tomorrow is another day - trying to get something done in a hurry - which translates to anything faster than snails pace - just do not happen!

Why you may ask? grin So have I. No real answer - it must be in the water -seems to slowly creep up on you - and one day you just find yourself caught in the same paralysis. And it attacks all nationalities - somebody save me I feel the lethargy seeping into my bones - I have to get out before it is too late ...

Another interesting thing - even though everybody takes decisions at a snails pace they drive like demons as if they have to get somewhere quickly (see upcomming blog on that). But in all reality they will be late for the next meeting, appointment - in reality anything that has any type of time associated with it.

Anyway- before I step on any toes - this enough for today ... have to get some or other picture to publish as my image

What the hell am I doing (here)?!

Robert Paterson's Weblog: Magic Numbers - School and Learning Engagment

Having read the above blog by Robert Paterson something struck me today - my son will never learn the things from me which I learnt from my dad. The way our kids are educated is changing into a factory -they are sitting and listening - similar to that which they do in front of the TV - and this is changing them. Once again have a look at the above blog - he has much more insight into the effect modern life is having on our children.

This is scaring me - where I was able to watch my dad do tinkering on the car, do some woodwork in the house - something he was looking forward to on retirement but never able to do as cancer claimed him at 54 - my son lives in a rented house, cars are serviced by a dealer, everything is bought and replaceable. We went camping often when I was a kid - getting away from the familiar home life to a place where we could spend time together.

What values am I teaching my son:

That money is all important?
That it is Ok to run away if things are not ok?
That values are transient - that we can change this?
That family is not important?

What do I hope that by giving him an education which he would not get back in South Africa:

Is going to make him a better human being?
Is going to enable him to re-act better to the quick changing Global Society we live in?
Is he missing a vital interaction to people, family and friends that was left behind?

I will have to sit down and think carefully:

About why we left out home country South-Africa?
Would we be ever be able to go back?
And if we stayed - what would he have been able to gain out of a country where crime is prevalent, corruption is to be increasing, government services is close to collapse and my experience and education is meaningless because I am white?
On the other hand - what are we doing here in a country which sees me as something to be used and to be thrown away once I have outlived my usefulness?

As you can see - I have at this moment lots more questions than answers ... and a lot of thinking to do.

Earth to America - Lighten up please

Sometimes I wonder (worry) about people who are supposed to be the most powerful nation on earth and self declared world leaders, and their decision making processes - an excellent example is the whole shebang about the Zippo Lightertrick Page - see Website explores dangers of playing with fire - BBC. Apparently the NFPA and US senators, who felt the site was encouraging young people to play with fire, called for the Zippo tricks page's closure. Zippo obviously had to comply as any fire, caused by an idiot with a lighter could have lead to them been sued - the US been the US ... enough said! What Zippo said that closing down this site will just drive it underground - which is exactly which has now happened.

It has now resurfaced as the Lightertricks page and I agree with their premise - anyone stupid enough to play with his lighter and burning his fingers (pardon the pun - NOT!) or burning the house down, has to take the consequences. Like we would expect from anybody able to surf the web and been able to actually read. You would have thought drugs, underage drinking and teenage pregnacies is a bigger problem - but then what do I know. Also had a look at the Extreme TV channel lately - now that is something no parent would want his teenage son looking at - I'm sure its sponsored by a few doctors and dentists!
Like they say in the warning:

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)