Eddy Grant cover reggae collaborations in 1994 that reached #1 in UK charts and was the 4th biggest selling single in 1994 UK do it for me

I've said it before and I'll say it again...



I miss the '90s :(

Tragic Waste

I noticed my friend Emily's facesbooks status was

``Emily O'Dell rolled her car in the ice this morning :'( and it apparently lucky to be alive``

Convo:

iBen: You Rickrolled your car?

*types furtively into youtube for humerous link to copy*


emily: yeah and i should be dead so its not funny

*iBen is confronted with moral dilema for some time*

*lets comedy gold moment slip by*


Ben: *hug*

Pic of the car can be found here

i

I think the most extraordinary PR convention of this century is the prefix `i`. I think started this with the iMac PC, which was nice but even so the iMac still played secondary fiddle to the PC... Then when the iPod came out, IIRC, somehow the i became synonymous with the revolutionary ground breaking technology of the f(√-1), mixed with the sleek sexy design of the device.

I think `i` became a vision of the future*... Or at least a vision of a new kind of future. Tomorrow's technology today - the gratification of a demanding and wallet happy consumerist mentality. The iPhone, iPlayer, iTunes, iMax, iMan, the iRon man, iCar etc etc. These are all versions of what we all had before but just one notch better. However, as a consumer body, we didn't want `phone 2.0` or a `mp3 player de-lux`, instead `i` became the new new. The prefix of a new generation. So we became (indeed so we remain) excited by `iPhone` and `iPod`.

I think it's amazing that that simple wee letter can influence the consumer market and product perception so much. After all, it is meaningless. It's not trademarked, there are no real corporate brand values associated to it (aside from 's of course), no watchdogs governing when and by whom it can be used, no critical scrutiny only a shared idea of what `i` should entail. And still the little `i` has more power than `beta`, The Macdonald's `mac`, `[product] de lux`, `[software] 2.0`, `[Someone's name] & Sons`, brands/prefixes/redundant appendages put together.

Maybe `i` is a deliberate subconscious tempatation of the original personal pro-noun. An intentional ploy by the marketing industry. A PR new era.

Either way, I like my iPod and it feels nicer because it's not an mp3 player, and I guess that mentality (and the reliance of people's gullability to swallow it whole as I do) is what the whole `i` phenomenom is about.



*Not the pragmatic future that 1950s sci-fi envisaged with robots clunking around the house putting the washing on calling you `master` while you tan yourself with the tin foil ray gun.

Working Unpaid overtime is like Pandas having sex

... no one wants to see it done but the long term results are worth it

Dear Karla Natasha Smith Cohen

Dear Karla Natasha Smith Cohen (University of Maryland, College Park ; Lecturer ;BSOS-Criminology & Criminal Justice)

Greetings from across the pond that is the Atlantic Ocean. My name is Inspector Benjamin Francois Fosterson. Your name was given to me by Hercule Christie, a remarkable young man.

I do hope you'll forgive this intrusions but I have a murder mystery that only you can solve. You'll excuse my Byronic side stepping of chit-chat-chot and get straight to the knitty and the gritty.

On the 11th of December 2008 a young man called Patricia (it's a British thing) Harrington-Blyghte was walking home past the hedge that he always passed when he went by that spot. What was curious about this time, (which we assume was the FERST time) a man/woman/murder leapt from said bush and knifed to death Mr Pat with a blade of some sort. What was curious as to this particular incident which the police are calling `Stabzilla` was that the `Ty-stab-asaurux Rex` left a tantellising clue at the scene of the incident that police are treating as a crime due to the suspicious circumstances of Mr Pat's death. (Suiside is all but ruled out due to the repeated lunge blows to the Julugar vein).

This clue was in the form of a pine cone. Inside of which was left a bug that has hitherto been seldom seen. About the bug, not much is known save that it is called the `Jewbug` (Often refered to as the `Hayfever Beetle`) and can only be seen in certain places of South Norfolk. It is categorised by yellow `go faster` stripes along its flank and long neck.

After seeing the Silence of the Lambs I realise that bugs mean a lot when dealing with Stab-a-sauri and wondered whether you knew could enlighten me as to the meaning behind the Hayfever Beetle in a pine cone at the scene of the crime.

Any information you have will be literally helpful. My telephone number is 07890 189390 if you wish to discuss this matter further. Failing this, write to me on this adress.

Time is of the essence!

Yours sincerely

Detective Benvolio Francois Fosterson

P.s I do hope you'll excuse me writing from a personal e-mail adress but the Metropolitain Police Computer we all share has been taken away for cleaning this week because DCI Rogers spilt tea on it (the tit!). Next week I can be contacted on crime@met.police.com.uk as usual though.