Woman Loses £70,000 bag - in space!

Only a bird could do this and only an American bird at that.

Stargazers are usually not the most exciting people you'll meet down the pub, but this one has to be a first - they've worked out how to track the movement of the £70,000 worth of tools that Heidemarie "butterfingers" Stefanyshyn-Piper through the night sky.

Scientists have used Newton's laws to calculate the progress of the missing bag (the toolbag that is, not the American bag). The ISS is far more interesting to look at and you can at least see that with a naked eye - the bag has been described as looking like a homogeneous blob; NASA refused to comment on the appearance of the toolkit.

See, this is what you get for making it normal for birds to dance around their bags in nightclubs. I always said it would all end it tears.

Suspended Baby P Doctor "Sorry"

Not a development, so much as a follow up. The fucking idiot "doctor" and locum paediatrician who failed to spot a child had a broken back, has been suspended following review.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7752231.stm

Dr Sabah al-Zayyat has been suspended by the GMC with immediate affect (but has been previously working under supervision).

WHY?

This doctor who "qualified" in Asia was considered to be sufficiently capable to work with children but then later missed a the simple fact that a child, with visible injuries, was in serious danger. She decided not to examine the child because he was "miserable and cranky."

He died less than 48 hours later.

What are they teaching these people and who is hiring them? The child had suffered, among other things, a broken back (he would be in intolerable agony) and so far this is this the closest I've seen to anything close to an apology:

"Like everyone involved in this case, I have been deeply affected by the shocking and tragic circumstances of this young child's death. My professional career has been devoted to the care of children. I will co-operate with any investigation to identify whether lessons can be learnt from this case."

What bothers me is not that this is a doctor from an Asian country, but that a so-called qualified practitioner could make such an egregious error! Is anyone checking these qualifications are actually being handed out to people who are actually UP TO THE JOB?

Here's a lesson for you, Doc. Quit!

UPDATE 1 December 2008:
BBC Reports -

"Haringey Council leader, George Meehan, and cabinet member for children and young people, Liz Santry, have resigned over the Baby P case, sources said."

What took them so long?

Now Ed Balls is reported to have confirmed that Sharon Shoesmith, head of children's services at Haringey Council, has been removed from her post.

Silly Season: Woolies to Close (OH no it isn't, OH Yes it is...)

Panto time is nearly upon us and the usual voices are complaining about hard things are, how wonderful this time of year is and how much we're going to get fleeced for Christmas gifts.

If there's anything left that is.

Breaking UK News. Woolworths UK has gone into administration. The flagging retailer which had refused to evolve (like some of its high-street counterparts like M&S) is destined to fail. Or maybe it isn't. Perhaps someone will buy it and mountain of debt that it's managed to wrack up.

The problem is more one of a knock on effect. If Woolies goes, its distribution arm might go to and that supplies DVDs and the like to places like Zavvi.

O Crap.

Personally, I can't feel sorry for Woolies management or MFIs come to that. Both have teams have been taking very fine salaries for themselves with absolutely no reflection on how the company is performing. I do feel sorry for the everyday joes who will lose their jobs. That's only going to add to the competition for newly created jobs and that can't be a good thing. Particularly as the way things are going, I'm likely to be joining them.

Bugger.

Local US Gun Law Challenged: Conservatives Angry

You would think that no matter which way your politics swing, it would be painfully obvious that losing a gun is pretty stupid thing to do.

Not so apparently.

Pittsburg Post Gazette

www.postgazette.com/pg/08329/930426-100.stm

reports that liberal councillors are playing fast and loose with the constitution by requiring that anyone dumb enough to lose their firearm reports it to the police

"Who really cares about it being unconstitutional?" said Councilwoman Tonya Payne, a supporter. "This is what's right to do, and if this means that we have to go out and have a court battle, then that's fine ... We have plenty of dead bodies coming up in our streets every single day, and that is unacceptable."

If that's really unconstitutional then surely the US Constitution is faulty (it's had loads of amendments already so no one can say it was ever perfect).

Common sense should be common sense and while the right to carry a firearm (outmoded as it might be) remains enshrined within the US constitution, the right be be stupid enough to go lose one isn't!

Over a Conservative Dakota Voice, things take a different spin as blogger Bob Ellis selectively misquotes:

When opponents questioned the constitutionality of the law, Democrat Councilwoman Tonya Payne dismissed such concerns:

"Who really cares about it being unconstitutional?"

Everyone should care whether our laws are constitutional.

While even I have to agree in pricipal, those nice people at Dakota Voice want to have it both ways and misquoting like this is an insidious way to make a point. People who sample a large number of news sources (most of us don't) see this happen all-too regularly.

Payne's point, which Dakota Voice savaged for its own end, was that a bad law ought to be challenged, repealed or replaced.

As a sidenote, after following Dakota Voice for some time now, I've notice that it has not once complained when the boot was has been on the other foot - for example when George Dubya Bush was running roughshod over the Consitution, DV were silent on the issue.

Now that Obama is heading for the Whitehouse they're understandably concerned. We'll hear more of this in the comming months.

Science Exams Eroded: Shocker!

BBC UK reports that children, in spite of getting better grades, are actually performing worse in real science.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7750717.stm

Well "d'uh"!

Anyone with a modicum of knowledge of science knows the world was created by a loving god six millenia ago: oh wait, that was Tony Blair's idea wasn't it. Course, he never said as much, but he is the fucking idiot who savaged the UK's education system replacing "poor performing" schools with Academies and was the architect of results-based education.

Science is hard folks. Science requires effort, and honestly, no matter how hard teachers try, not everyone will get it. This is an uncomfortable fact for politicians who want to show results: and this is what drips down to the education system. Results count, good results make politicians look good. It's tricky to massage actual results, so the education system moves the goalposts so that kids have an easier time and hey look, record results in science. Year on year since Blair and his lackies came to power shouting "Education, Education, Education" the results have improved by percentage points, the government looks smug and parents are proud.

The rot sets in when you take your eye off the ball. When these kids take their places at university, they are ill-prepared for the rigours of real science. It's no longer a case of join the dots, you suddenly have to reason for yourself: and for most that's going to be tricky to impossible.

No everyone is cut out for science and the sooner we accept that as parents, teachers and politicians, the sooner we can start moving forward.