“But cranes are involved”

Brian Micklethwait featured some crane photos on his blog this week, of which this is, for me, the pick of the bunch.

CranesFeb03

As Brian states:

A bit of a cheat, because not really a crane picture.  It’s really Battersea Power Station with sun setting behind it.  But cranes are involved.

Also featured is a photo of the replacement crane for the one which was hit by a helicopter back in January.

Terrifying runways

Going flying this weekend?
If so, don’t read this.

Gizmodo has put together 23 of the scariest runways in the world. The most local one is the Matekane Air Strip in Lesotho:

image

which is described as:

400m long, and then nothing.

Asia and South America are particularly well represented.

I’m staying with my foot firmly rooted to the ground, thank you very much.

Because dungarees

Lying in bed, idly flicking channels, then suddenly: those violins, those dungarees.

So many memories, so why not?

Incidentally, VH1 followed this up with Dire Straits, Stevie V and I only had to switch over when they hit me with Maria McKee. There I went, flashing fever from my eyes, to 184 and a rerun of Top Gear.

Now we’re DOOMed

LOL. See what I did there?

No, of course not, not yet anyway.

wastesometimem

But:

The widely-used insect repellent Deet appears to be losing its effectiveness against mosquitoes, scientists say.

Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine say mosquitoes are first deterred by the substance, but then later ignore it.

This explains a lot. Despite my best efforts, I am still regularly attacked in my bedroom late at night (please note that no links to current bail hearings are implied here). And while I’ve tried many different repellents, I’ve never been able to get hold of any N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide. Just as well, it turns out, since, like antibiotics,  it doesn’t work anymore.

But how did it even work in the first place?

For many years, it was not clear exactly how the chemical worked, but recent research suggests that insects simply do not like the smell.

So whoever came up with Deet obviously never had to change a nappy then. Because you have to become resistant and immune to that nasty smell as well. You can overcome it. As can mosquitoes with Deet, it seems.

So we need something else. Some way of “Deet”erring these vicious bloodsuckers. And there’s definitely money to be made here.

I’m still working on my Castle Milk Stout ingestion method. As yet, there appears to be no discernible effect on the insects, but the research has been fun and probably deserves a whole lot more investigation.

“Twitter not the judge” revelation shocker

An article in today’s Business Tech warns twitter users (primarily South African twitter users, one would imagine) against tweeting potentially defamatory statements about athlete Oscar Pistorius, currently – in case you hadn’t heard – charged with the murder of his girlfriend  Reeva Steenkamp.

According to legal expert Paul Jacobson:

“While our Bill of rights gives us the right to express our opinions, our rights are not absolute and, in the context of defamation, the defamed person’s right to dignity often holds sway unless there are clear public policy reasons to allow the comments to stand.”

He pointed out that Pistorius is yet to be found guilty and is therefore, still under law, innocent.

“Drawing conclusions about Pistorius’ guilt and publishing those conclusions online can lead to a defamation claim down the line.”

Who knew?

Well, aside from the whole common sense thing, the warning signs were there for all to see late last year in the Lord McAlpine/Newsnight scandal:

The legal position of an individual who posts content online, be it on Facebook, Twitter, or on comment sections of online news pages, is clear: He or she is responsible for that content. Ignorance of the law is not a defence.

It’s not that hard to understand why: the viral nature with which content – and therefore false or defamatory content – can spread on social networks is one of their strengths and yet one of their biggest downfalls as well. And:

When individuals post material online, they act as publishers and their publications are subject to the same laws as those of professional publishers, such as newspapers.

This includes publications made by way of a tweet. A retweet also amounts to a further publication.

The person who retweets that material will be responsible for the content of that retweet.

So yes, we each have to be responsible for our 140-character output. And that seems reasonable to me.

One wonders, however, where that leaves twitter users who – in good faith – share stories from recognised and “reputable” sources – namely our national newspapers.
Last Sunday’s City Press is a good case in point. The “facts” it published ahead of the Pistorius bail hearing, have since been shown to be almost entirely incorrect, but they were widely lapped up and regurgitated by a gossip-hungry twitter audience on the weekend.  That “Exclusive” was shared on over 1000 occasions directly from the page alone and excerpts and quotes from it many more times over.

That’s a lot of people who could potentially find themselves in trouble.

UPDATE: Or at least be “asked” to make a donation to charity.