The world is getting bigger; your penis has to get bigger too. September 27, 2006
Posted by britishbullblog in Email Spam, General, Humourous.1 comment so far
Received this as sp*m and it just made me laugh out loud. The stuff I usually get is so boring, but this one brightened up my sp*m folder no end!
Imagine if anyone actually ever read that and went ‘You know what they’re right, what can I do!’
Brilliant.
Politically incorrect post – what’s normal? September 20, 2006
Posted by britishbullblog in General, Questioning.2 comments
I remember a few years ago being told about a conversation to with people suffering from disabilities. Person X stated that people with disabilities are ‘not normal’, to which person Y replied ‘well…what’s normal?’ Suggesting that no individual is normal.
According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary, the definition of normal is as follows –
normal
• adjective 1 conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.
• noun 1 the normal state or condition.
If we were to look at some statistics for the UK regarding people with disabilities, what conclusions can be drawn?
According to Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), it is estimated that there are about 9.8 million people in the UK with some form of disability – approximately one in seven of the population.
If just one in severn of the population has some form of disability (and this covers the entire range of disabilities from very minor to the most sever) can it be considered conforming to a standard? Typical? Expected?
My view is no, if I am truly honest with myself, I do not expect to see a person with a disability. Surely, it’s resonable to be of the opinion that people with disabilities are not normal?
I have a number of close friends who are partially deaf and rely on lip reading to communicate with those that do not sign. So this post is not about any prejudices against people with disabilities. My issue is with the suggestion that people with disabilities are the same as everyone else. They aren’t, they have a disability. Just like some people can run fast, others can paint and so on…
I think the issue is that people have stigmatised the term ‘normal’ by accompanying it with a foolish and ignorant impression of someone with a disability. The same situation occurred when a charity here in the UK was forced to change it’s name from The Spastics Society to Scope.
Opinions?
Weird news day? September 19, 2006
Posted by britishbullblog in General, Humourous, News and Current Affairs.2 comments
Just looking through the paper this morning whilst listening to the radio on my MP3 player, and it just struck me as a weird news day.
I learn that undergraduates from one of the top universities in Britain have sent a helium balloon to the edge of space with a camera attached to it. That’s not too weird, but when the balloon burst, the camera floated all the way back down to Earth (over 20 miles) and landed a mere 7km from it’s original launch pad!
I then read that scientists have discovered a “walking” shark off the coast of Indonesia –
Lastly, I then read that a man in Brazil can do this –
At least my commute was interesting!
Can you guess the celebrity? September 16, 2006
Posted by britishbullblog in Celebrity, Entertainment, General, Humourous.2 comments
Answer…
7 Continents Challenge – Update 3 September 15, 2006
Posted by britishbullblog in Geek, General, Internet, Personal.2 comments
Well, here is the third update from the original post in this series of posts. After Lauro’s comment on Update 2 dated the 11th September I was expecting this third update to be posted a little sooner. However, it seems I have had a number of hits from the South American continent and can safely strike it from the list below:
1. North America
2. South America
3. Europe
4. Africa
5. Asia
6. Oceania
7. Antarctica
This now does just leave Antarctica, I really don’t know how I am ever going to get a hit from there! Anyone know someone that is currently doing research on Antarctica?!
What counts as a life? September 10, 2006
Posted by britishbullblog in General, Questioning.add a comment
If a bomb goes off and a pregnant women is killed, is the body count one or two?
7 Continents Challenge – Update 2 September 9, 2006
Posted by britishbullblog in Geek, General, Internet, Personal.4 comments
Well, here is the second update from the original post in this series of posts. It seems someone has hit my blog from Kenya! Wohoo!! Thanks whoever you are! So, this just leaves 2 remaining continents.
1. North America
2. South America
3. Europe
4. Africa
5. Asia
6. Oceania
7. Antarctica
Blogvertising – Blog off or blog on? September 3, 2006
Posted by britishbullblog in Blogging, Blogvertising, Geek, General, Internet, Questioning.2 comments
I watched the latest epsiode of the BBC News 24 show >Click and they discussed, all be it briefly, the issue of online advertising. However, in amongst the debate of pop-ups, overlays and paying search engines, they looked at the issue of blogvertising.
Blogvertising is basically when advertisers pay ‘respectable’ bloggers to endorse products. The question the programme raised was ‘Is this in the spirit of what a blog is?’ Tim Phillips, technology journalist was quoted on the show as saying
“The whole thing defeats itself. Either they don’t say that they’ve been paid, in which case it becomes a time bomb and it immediately self-destructs if it comes out that they’ve been paid to do it. Or they do say they’ve been paid, in which case they lose the respect of the community they’ve built up.”
The definition provided by the Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang for the word ‘blog’ is –
An Internet website containing an eclectic and frequently updated assortment of items of interest to its author.
I have some reservations about this term for a blog. Whilst it would perhaps surfice as a very generic term to cover the majority of blogs, it does not go anywhere near to really defining the nature of blogs in their entirety. Some blogs are not just an eclectic mix of ramblings, but rather more focussed with their content.
If a blogger creates and develops a blog that is about something specific and then gains a significant readership as a result, does that not give some value to the opinions being expressed by the blogger. If it does, then wouldn’t it be of benefit to the readership if the blogger promoted products thet s/he felt were worth promoting? Well, no.
This is where blogvertising falls done as it does with all advertising when being endorsed. Why should you trust the opinion of someone that is getting paid to say something is great? Of course they’re going to say ‘yeah, this new mobile phone is the best’ because they’re getting paid a wedge to do so!
So, should bloggers be allowed to advertise and promote products via their blog? In my opinion, yes, what they do with their blog is up to them. If they do and readership falls, well, it was their call. If readers purchase products solely on the basis of an endorsement and it turns out the product sucks, well, they’ve learnt the hard way. Don’t by into products purely on the basis of advertising and I don’t me just endorsements, but any advertising.
Let advertising spark an interest, but then research the product, try it out if you can, ask other consumers what they thought of it. If you do this then you will save yourself a considerable amount of grief and money.
My advice is to become a discerning consumer, not a foolish one.
Checkout my bite! September 3, 2006
Posted by britishbullblog in General, Pain, Personal.add a comment
I became the host of some blood sucking insect for a short period over a week ago, but the damn thing is still giving me hell! So, I thought I should document this damage for future posterity and to remember that it really BLOODY itches!!!
British Bull Blog 