Round 2

Ok, the good news is that I suspect that my theory about the layout mess-up being to do with the image on the Vote Manor Lodge entry could be correct, as looking at other individual entries, the layout in Internet Explorer seems fine.

The weird thing is that Firefox is managing to read the code and make it work fine and Internet Explorer is not, but at the same time I can only write entries or make template changes in IE as Firefox can't seem to manage that.

Layout problems

It's all been working fine for me in Firefox, but it seems that in Internet Explorer there is nothing to the right of the blog entries - i.e. where the links and such are.

I suspect that this is due to the image on the Vote Manor Lodge entry overlapping both columns.

If necessary I will just post enough new entries so it is not on the front page any more.

I'm sure that if I had the time and the energy I could suss out the code problems, but my meds have been whacked up and I can't think straight.

Spam and Strikes, Consumer Credit and Campaigning

A BBC Breaking News Alert tells me that

The amount of money owed by UK consumers breaks through the £1 trillion barrier.

Hmmm. Scary. Most of it is mine :-S

Stephen Newton's Museum of Spam is pretty funky. The email address which posts directly to his blog is advertised on the site, and thus all the bots pick it up, and all the spam he receives is instantly published.

I don't know why I think it's such a great idea, I just do.

The Sheffield bus strike is still going on. Day 9 I believe. And no prospect of return until mid-week next week at the earliest. It's fairly tricky to negotiate certain journeys at the moment, but it's First Mainline, not the striking drivers, who are to blame... They have too much of a monopoly on the public transport, and won't share a teeny weeny slice of their profits to actually benefit the people who keep the company running day after day.

And say hello to the new and exciting Voice-Hearers Action Group.

Vote Manor Lodge!

Everywhere I go, that is what I see - on the side of school buildings, facing out of office windows, everywhere is Vote Manor Lodge. So yeah, go ahead I reckon!

Sheffield Manor Lodge is the most important historic site in Sheffield, since the destruction of Sheffield Castle. It is an ancient monument and boasts three listed buildings, but despite this it is little known by the majority of Sheffield's population. This year, however, Sheffield Manor Lodge has been chosen to feature in the new series of the highly successful BBC 2 television series "Restoration".

To find out more about Manor Lodge, follow one, more or several of the links in that preceding paragraph.

To vote, call



You have from 2am on Tuesday the 27th to midnight on Wednesday 28th July.

Calls cost 50p each [34p goes to the Restoration Fund] and you can vote as many times as you want. Note: you can only vote by phone, not by e-mail or text.

There, I feel I've done my bit of citizenship for Sheffield for the day now ;)

Public Transport Woes

The buses are on strike. They have been since last Tuesday, and it seems that no agreement has yet happened, and no further talks are planned.

I do support the strike, of course. Driving buses has gone from a schoolboys' dream job, to a thankless occupation with long hours, abusive customers and, it seems, crap pay.

There was a series of graffitied adverts on buses these last few weeks. They were on a poster encouraging people to work for them and each perk of the job had been commented on by a presumably disgruntled driver.

They were comments along the lines of this:

Want to start each day with a smile like this driver?
He's only smiling cos he's leaving tomorrow or he's only smiling cos he's on drugs.

They pointed out the long hours, poor perks, poor pay, and bad shifts.

I am really, really grateful for bus drivers. They get me around and without them I wouldn't get far or out often. I want them to be paid a decent wage and work in decent conditions. And miserable drivers don't make for especially pleasant journeys for the passengers either.

So, if First Mainline are by any chance listening (of course they're not), please give these people a decent package, so I can get around again. Preferably by Tuesday please, as I have appointments then that I can't get to on a Yorkshire Terrier service.

Witness to the Witnesses

Blurry but fabulous...



It's almost subversive! Recruiting people to evangelise to Jehovah's Witnesses. Like a strange form of karma.

If you can't make out from the blur it is a classified ad calling for people to Help Jehovah's Witnesses to find Christ.

I wonder whether the JWs are actively sought out, or whether people have the relevant literature ready by their door just waiting for a visit.

I have fairly regular visits. I used to get lots of Mormons coming round too but the ultra-smart appearance and the American accent gave them away instantly so I soon stopped answering the door.

If I decide at any point that I am searching for faith, I can't imagine that it will be somebody waking me up on a Sunday morning or interrupting a quiet evening in that would make the difference. Really.

Logos and Links

TypoGenerator is amazing! Go and play with it! Now!!

I did!



Cheery stuff can be found here.

One example of how 50s scientists may have predicted the future would be... along with a mini bit of cartoon cuteness!

Of course, they were shamelessly stolen from b3ta.

On the theme of my growing interest in photography, I absolutely have to send you to look at the Slumbering Duckling. Wow.

I will end this feat of randomness with some advice. If you are feeling a bit too sane for comfort... maybe out of place amidst the world's insanity, go see magical Trevor.

The Steel Man in front of Sheffield Town Hall 

"I drink to make other people interesting"

Water from the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain has sold on ebay for £205. Bloody ridiculous! However, given that the 12 bids above £14 are all from the same two very low feedback bidders (one with 0 feedback, the other with -1), time will tell whether the opportunist seller will get the dosh!

And I'm not used to the Guardian being so gooey.

Incidentally, do people know about BugMeNot? If you want to get onto, say, a news site which requires registration, you can see if anyone there has a user name and password you can use, to save giving your details out to the world. Tis fab.

I went into WH Smith yesterday and they are re-doing the inside of the store. One thing they have done is make the shelf units for magazines and such much, much taller. I felt a bit like Alice - shrunk. It was all the same as usual, except much bigger... Strange experience indeed. It was only on leaving the shop I realised my height hadn't altered one bit. Which is good.

Oh, and I'm giving it a try. I have duct tape on my foot. Time will reveal whether it is the long-awaited cure, but I'm desperate enough to have a go.

Thou Shalt Beat Thy Kids

The Christian Institute have sent out an email as follows:

I would greatly value your prayers today (Monday 5th July) as the House of Lords debates whether to change the law on the parental right to smack. It now seems likely that the issue will be put to a vote.

This is extremely serious and could greatly affect Christian parents.

Please pray that

* the law would not be changed
* Peers and the media would see through the false and misleading claims of the children's rights lobby
* there will be strong speeches in the Lords against changing the law
* Christian Institute staff will be given great wisdom

There is growing pressure on the Government to ban all parental smacking, or come as close to this as possible.

Today Peers will be faced with a bewildering range of amendments ranging from an outright ban on smacking through to Lord Lester's proposal for a ban where prosecutors believe that the smack was serious.

It seems from press reports that the Government may be about to permit a free vote on this proposal from Lord Lester. In theory the amendment does not ban mild smacking, in practice it is not as simple. We have two very serious concerns about this proposal.

(1) It hands huge powers over to prosecutors and social workers. If they have a personal anti-smacking agenda they could try to use the new law to criminalise loving parents.

(2) It will sow great confusion in the law. We fear the proposal will lead to a 'rachet effect' where successive court cases decided by politically correct judges intervene ever more closely in family life.

Thank you for all your prayers.

Yours in Christ,


Colin Hart
Director
THE CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE

Ok. What was that again? We must pray that we continue to be allowed to hit our children. Indeed, this is extremely serious to us.

Umm...?

It scares me. I know they are horrible to gay people, but what have children done to deserve this?

Their briefing document talks of loving smacks, "The current law works perfectly well", and that a ban would open the door to massive state interference in family life and it would be hugely resented by the overwhelming majority of the public.

Ok. Right. Loving smacks... where do I start? If you love someone, you don't hit them. Fin.

The current law works perfectly well... ummm does it? Look at Victoria Climbie. I know it's been an overquoted example these last few days, but surely it does prove that the current child protection laws do not work perfectly well?

And about interference in family life and that being resented... isn't that what we said about Section 28? About partnership rights? About leaving me to live my own life with the person of the gender of my choosing?

Yes, I resent YOUR interference. I'm hurting noone. People hitting children are hurting someone. Get your priorities right. Use your frighteningly large amount of power for good. Support people who are good, and fight things that really are bad, like war and starvation and ethnic cleansing. And leave me and my girlfriend and my friends alone.

Hmm. Where was I? Sorry. Yeah, if the Christian Institute want to shout about things, why on earth are they shouting that they need to be allowed to continue to beat their kids? It really does make you wonder.

Shameful Childhood Afflictions as an Adult...

I really, really need some help. I am slowly coming out of the closet about a very, very delicate issue... something that adults don't talk about... admit to...

But it is driving me mad!!

Here goes [deep breath]...

I have a verruca

There. I've said it.

I got it after buying some new shoes last October / November time. Obviously someone with a verruca had tried them on barefoot and I caught the bastard soon afterwards.

And still have it.

I think Americans call them plantar warts by the way, in case anyone doesn't know what I'm talking about.

At first I ignored it, but it started hurting a fair bit, so tried Bazuka Gel from the chemist. It made no difference at all.

At this stage I decided to leave it alone again, as these things really can just sort themselves out.

But mine refused to. And got more and more and more painful, I think because of just where it is on my heel.

Since then I have tried various salicylic acid concoctions, right up to the highest over the counter dose of 50%. This strength mainly causes me to feel that a hole is being bored through my foot for most of the day and is highly unpleasant.

I have also tried pure essential oils (lemon and tea tree), aqueous cream, leftover trimovate, and anything else I could get my hands on which may help.

I am getting totally desperate. In the hope of finding a cure not yet discovered by modern or ancient medicine, I have contemplated soaking my foot in wall paint, diet coke, cabbage water... anything to get rid of the increasingly ugly and hurty thing under my foot.

So I'm looking online for help. Not too encouraged by the first link for alternative cures for verrucas stating that According to available research papers, Hypnotherapy seems to be the most effective alternative treatment of warts. I mean, I'm open minded and all, but if the burn-a-hole-in-my-foot dose of salicylic acid won't get rid of it, I doubt that subconscious suggestions could...

The NHS Guidelines for warts and verrucae tell me that the 50% salicylic acid treatment can take up to 3 months, so I guess I will continue to do that.

However, it also led me to find that duct tape occlusion is supposed to be really, really effective. You stick duct tape over the thing and remove it after 6 days and do that again and again. 85% success, compared to 60% success for cryotherapy (i.e. freezing, i.e. the cause of much agony at chiropodists' when I was a child, i.e. the reason I haven't mentioned this to my GP!).

It also tells me that a website without a working link suggests:

a vitamin E bath with a bandage works wonders, as do crushed garlic cloves. According to Food Folklore, cutting an apple into as many pieces as there are warts, rubbing each piece on a wart and then burying it in the earth cures the affliction.

Hell, I'm desperate!

So I'm gonna carry on with 50% acid-foot-burning goo, until I can get hold of some duct tape or garlic(?!). But please, if you have any magic tips for getting rid of these monsters, tell me tell me tell me!!!!

Ouch!

Glasto Mud, Starbucks recall...

My referrers table tells me that I am in the top 10 Google results for a search for pictures of st christopher.com, and also for illegal copy of stormbreaker. Most worryingly, it seems Incurable Hippie is, frighteningly, the number one result for Joan Kilroy (did they get married???!).

I mentioned Glastonbury last time I wrote. And I mentioned eBay too. Now the two have merged. See Glastonbury Mud for Sale on Ebay. To give the seller credit, once bids got to £74, they announced that half the money made would go to the charity WaterAid. Now that prices have hit £510, that's pretty impressive for all concerned!

Of course, many latecomers hoping for a similar fortune have now jumped on the bandwagon with highly optimistic buy it now prices of sometimes £450! Nice try, but you have to think of these things first, not be a poor disciple.

There's a Sheffield Indymedia Writing Workshop next Tuesday. Looks like a great idea!

Which leads me nicely onto the Product Recall of Faulty Starbucks Coffee Cups, which also leads me nicely onto wanting to win the texting speed record.

Of course, none of those things led to any of the others, but I thought I'd try and blag it.

BBC Fest, with eBay special mention

I know more about ragwort than I ever knew there even was to know. After an hour of learning about it, my theories are as follows:

• It is the responsibility of animal owners to keep their animals safe. Thus, if horses are poisoned by ragwort, it is the responsibility of the horse owners to make sure their fields do not contain any ragwort.


• There are 30 species of insect which eat only ragwort, including the (something) caterpillar. These would presumably become extinct if ragwort was eliminated. This would also cause a problem for the animals which eat those insects. So eliminating ragwort would have a rebound effect on many other species too.


• Mass elimination of ragwort would involve use of many chemicals and herbicides which would affect many other plants as well, not to mention leaving toxins in the earth for many years affecting future plants, and all animals which may eat those future plants.


• Nature generally has its own ways of keeping things in balance. I don't think you can eliminate a whole plant species and expect the balances within nature to maintain themselves.


• If there is a risk of ragwort in the hay that your horse is eating, then it is again the horse owner's responsibility to be sure they are buying their hay from a source which doesn't have ragwort.


• A man called Dr Knottenbelt tasted ragwort and said it tastes horrible but when it starts to rot the bitter taste goes which is when horses will eat it. (No point in telling you that, just that he ate the stuff, which is weird.)

Simple, surely. Why don't I rule the world? If I can formulate theories on a random wild plant after a one hour radio 4 programme, I can do anything!

Slightly disappointing pics from Glasto where a few of my friends were. The BBC usually does much more impressive and creative photography, but you can't win 'em all I guess.

This On the Beach selection, however, shows some fabulous photography and almost unreal colours.

This is a fantastic eBay "about me" page full of really bad advice for buyers and sellers on eBay.

Interesting programme about getting a healthy diet on a low income is here. You can listen to it from the site if interested.

I certainly need some tips!

Used Stamps Save Lives!!

You know when you collect piles of used stamps to send to charity but then never get round to it, cos finding info about which charities and organisations want them is just not straight forward enough?

Well now it is. I have created a webpage with information on charities and organisations worldwide which accept used stamps as a form of fundraising.

See also Indymedia article.

Byeee

Presidential aPologies and Pavarotti's Prowess

This clothes label is worth a look. A small American clothes company trading in France apologises for their president... Even snopes.com says it's true!

and, they do say the old ones are always the best ;)

Subvertising, Graffiti, Creative Anger...

Kim Sun-il has been killed. I know I only wrote about this a few minutes ago but I'm furious. Why are we still occupying Iraq? It's no good for anyone. We're killing people then are surprised when they retaliate? We won't let them take charge of their own country which we have wrecked, and we are surprised when they assert power in destructive and horrible ways?

This third apparent beheading is horrendous. And some people won't see beyond that. But we have to. We have to look at why it is happening, we have to get out of Iraq, and stop giving people reasons to do this stuff. It's not like we're even doing anything positive in Iraq. It's much worse than before we went.

I'm trying to channel my anger and dismay at the whole thing by looking at creative resistance.

Billboard alterations

Operation Scrub It

www.subvertise.org

Art Crimes - graffiti.org

Billboard Liberation Front

Kim Sun-il killed, airport accommodation for 16 years, gay tenancy rights, and hats

This snopes report is an incredible and true story of a man, Merhan Karimi Nasseri, now preferring to be known as Sir, (sic) Alfred Merhan, who has lived in a Paris airport for the last 16 years.

The incredible thing is that he has lived there because for the vast majority of that time, he could not legally leave the airport onto French soil, nor could he fly elsewhere. A long story of seeking asylum, having his papiers stolen, being refused refugee status on the basis of not having papers proving who he was, but not being able to be deported on the basis of not having papers saying where he came from.

After 11 years of this, he was finally given a residency permit, allowing him to leave the airport for the first time since 1988, but by this time he insisted he was not from Iran but in fact British, and he refused to sign the permit on the basis that it said he was of Iranian origin. His lawyer says, "Nobody could suffer all he did and stay normal" which seems true judging by some aspects of the article. What amazes me is just how together this guy still seems to be!

Having lived in France, I know the bureaucracy is a nightmare, but that a man can spend 11 years unable to legally leave an airport is a terrible indictment of European immigration policies. But reading of this man's survival and gentleness is also quite a heartwarming tale.

Noone is illegal!

Yey of the day goes to the Lords upholding gay people's tenancy rights. Yey!

Crazy and colourful hats at Royal Ascot is a BBC photo report for BBC's Children's Newsround. If you bear that audience in mind when you read the mundane comments, you'll be able to focus your attention on the bizarre and incredible things that women put on their heads at this event. It is a totally clear example of the kind of thing I don't understand at all.

It seems that Kim Sun-il has been killed :( It's breaking news just now but I don't think I want any more details. I hate all this.

Well, I do. 

ACTION!

Call For a Women's Day at the European Social Forum 2004, London

Appel pour une Journée des femmes au Forum Social Européen 2004, Londres
Appello per una Giornata della Donna all’ESF 2004, Londra
Llamamiento para un Día de la Mujer en el Foro Social Europeo 2004, Londres
Aufruf zu einem Frauentag beim Europäischen Sozialforum (ESF) 2004 in London (no working link as I type)

Dear Sisters and Brothers

As you may know the next European Social Forum (ESF) is being planned for London this October 14-17. Previous ESFs in Florence (2002) and Paris (2003) brought together 60,000 movement, community, trade union activists and other people from across Europe and the world, and were an opportunity for those of us in grassroots, independent networks to get together, in some cases meeting for the first time. At the Paris ESF, a Women’s Day took place the day before the main Forum started, and we are pressing for a similar event at this year’s ESF.

We have been attending planning meetings, and have also been pressing for free and low-cost entry for people with no- or low-incomes – particularly sans-papiers (people without papers) and asylum seekers; free transport and full access for people with disabilitities; no affiliation fees for groups which cannot afford it and in general visibility for people who are most discriminated against including people of colour, people with disabilities, single mothers and more.

As a part of this we have been circulating this proposal for a Women’s Day at the Forum since January, and we are now asking if you and/or your organization would endorse it, joining the growing pressure to ensure that there is a Women’s Day in London, with the widest possible participation. MIXED ORGANISATIONS AND INDIVIDUAL MEN ARE WELCOME TO SIGN.

We also welcome any information/ideas/suggestions you have. We have been meeting with women and men at our Women’s Centre and would like to hear from you, whether or not you have been involved in the European Social Forum. Please feel free to circulate this proposal in your networks and/or at meetings and events you attend.

For more info on the efforts to make the ESF accessible and accountable: www.esf2004.net, and www.indymedia.org.uk.

Global Women’s Strike: www.globalwomenstrike.net


We look forward to hearing from you

Power to the sisters to stop the world and change it!

Sara Callaway and Anna T, Global Women’s Strike

Call For a Women's Day at the European Social Forum 2004, London

We were asked by the Programming group in London to prepare a written proposal for a Women’s Day, for the UK Assembly and European Assembly. Our proposal continues what was established at the ESF meeting in Paris Nov 03 where a Women’s Day was held the day before the full Forum started. Over 3,000 women and about 800 men attended (men were not speakers). Many more women came to the main forum as a result and grassroots women were seen and heard. Sans Papieres (women without documents), and other women of colour had an impact at the final plenary because they got together at the Women’s Day.

Why we need a Women's Day

• Without a women’s day, sexism, and for those of us who are women of colour, racism, will prevent the visibility of women, our needs, demands and concerns. Women of almost every sector in society work harder for less -- doing 2/3 of the world’s work for 5% of the income and 1% of the assets. From breastfeeding, raising children, to caring for people who are sick, older, have disabilities -- our work, mostly without any wages, sustains life and communities. Our waged jobs are most likely to be the lowest paid with the worst conditions. We face rape and violence because our lives are not seen to count. We often spearhead movements for change (all polls show women are even more against war than men) but our daily struggle for the survival of our communities and for social justice are often invisible.


• At many forums and major events, even when the spokespeople are women, women’s experience doesn’t come out. Far from reducing women’s participation, as some have claimed, a women’s forum would make it possible for grassroots non-party political women from different backgrounds and experiences to have a voice. Whether it is single mothers or low paid women refusing to be sidelined; women asylum seekers fighting for the right to work and against destitution; Black and immigrant women fighting racist attacks, older women fighting derisory pensions; women with disabilities defending home care; women and girls demanding justice against rape and other violence; sex workers fighting criminalisation; lesbian and straight, from rural and urban areas, and every part of the movement – all would have space at the Women’s Day, making our achievements more widely known and strengthening the vital connections among us, women and men. Some key issues include pay equity for women and men in the global market; women’s anti-war organising; defending Haiti, and the Venezuela revolution which includes recognition of women’s unwaged work as economic activity producing social welfare and wealth, and entitling women to social security. These are among some of the many isssus we expect would be highlighted at the event.

We are in touch daily with women and men organising in both mixed and women's organizations, in Scotland, North & South of England, Wales, across Europe and internationally who support this demand.

On widening participation, Droits Devants, a grassroots organization of asylum seekers and others in Paris, succeeded in getting safe passage for Sans Papiers stopped at borders on their way to the Paris ESF. It is urgent to find out from Droit Devants how they achieved this, so the same rights can be secured for Sans Papiers/es to attend the ESF in London. Also can we organize video links to enable activists who can’t travel to participate in the Forum.

Proposers:

Sara Callaway and Anna T (England)
Maggie Ronayne (Ireland)
Sara Williams (Spain) Global Women's Strike
Ruth Luschnat, Frauenforum Berlin (Germany).

Email us at womenstrike8m@server101.com to endorse the call for a Women's Day at the ESF in London

Floundering, Farce and Foals

Today I have been mostly in bed. Lately I have been mostly in bed. Odd bits of tidying, nipping to the shop for baccy and diet coke, and occasional nattering on the phone, but mostly I have been in bed.

Depression is tiring. Very. When I get The Depression Exhaustion, I find it hard to believe that there is no physical thang behind it but no, I know it well, this is Depression Exhaustion.

The Exhaustion doesn't always come with the depression, nor is exhaustion always to do with depression, but this is.

EVIL GIGGLE OF THE WEEK goes to New Labour Rebranding...

And AWWW OF THE WEEK has to go to New Foals at Little Friends Ranch... (thanks b3ta).