Monuments to Stupidity

[mathare]

What is important here is whether the wi-fi owner is on a limited tariff. If he is then something tangible is being stolen, as downloads made by the piggy-backer contribute to the owner's monthly total. If the owner's deal is unlimited broadband then nothing tangible has been stolen.

One could also argue that anyone who can't secure their wi-fi deserves to have it stolen. But would you keep a kid's ball if it came over the fence into your garden simply because he wasn't able to keep it in his own garden?

[tophatter]

isnt it the supplier of the broadband who is been stolen from? I would not imagine BT would be very happy if they were only receiving one payment from a customer but supplying their services to others free.

Its daft taking it to court in any case. It is the technologies fault. People will always get something for nothing if they can.

[Win2Win]

But would you keep a kid's ball if it came over the fence into your garden simply because he wasn't able to keep it in his own garden?

I do :D ....and daddy daren't come around, they respect there own knee caps around here :)

[Onlyforfun]

33- What is the point of having a so-called Socialist govt and a communist Mayor, if we are still going to have the RMT bringing the Tube to a halt for a week?

And as for the who are striking. You want job security? Not the best way to go about it you morons. The Tube is hardly going to disappear, so you have more job security than all the hundreds of thousands of people you have inconvenienced.

If I was in charge -

1- 1 weeks pay docked for every day on strike
2- Sack them all and re-advertise their jobs at 60% of current salary.
3- Follow the Chinese way, take Bob Crow and shoot him in the back of his head and send the bill for the bullet to the RMT.

[Win2Win]

take Bob Crow and shoot him in the back of his head and send the bill for the bullet to the RMT.

He's turned into Thatcher.....

[sparkyminer]

He's turned into Thatcher.....

It was never going to be a long journey though was it?:D

[Onlyforfun]

He's turned into Thatcher.....

Au contraire! Confusingly, it now seems I have turned into Gordon Brown...

[Merlin]

What is important here is whether the wi-fi owner is on a limited tariff. If he is then something tangible is being stolen, as downloads made by the piggy-backer contribute to the owner's monthly total. If the owner's deal is unlimited broadband then nothing tangible has been stolen.

Thats the least important aspect , Matt....objectively.......your turning an objective issue into a subjective one...Its either stealing or its not...stealing....

[Merlin]

isnt it the supplier of the broadband who is been stolen from? I would not imagine BT would be very happy if they were only receiving one payment from a customer but supplying their services to others free.

Its daft taking it to court in any case. It is the technologies fault. People will always get something for nothing if they can.

In Brazil – primarily in favelas.....most, if not all of the electricity being used is taken for free……the community plugs-in to the main system – it is illegal, and dangerous too….people get killed everyday doing it…….the electricity company mostly turn a blind eye to it…as do the local govt…….

[mathare]

Thats the least important aspect , Matt....objectively.......your turning an objective issue into a subjective one...Its either stealing or its not...stealing....

I don't think I am turning it into a subjective issue. I think it's stealing but I was trying to define something tangible that could be stolen as OFF seemed to be struggling to even define what was being nicked. The item/object that is being stolen can hardly be described as the least important aspect in a theft case can it?

Sure, if they owner is on an unlimited tariff it is harder to define what exactly has been nicked but it is still theft. Someone is paying for a service and you're using it without their permission.

[sparkyminer]

I think it's classed as 'Obtaining goods or services without payment.'

[Merlin]

I don't think I am turning it into a subjective issue. I think it's stealing but I was trying to define something tangible that could be stolen as OFF seemed to be struggling to even define what was being nicked. The item/object that is being stolen can hardly be described as the least important aspect in a theft case can it?

Sure, if they owner is on an unlimited tariff it is harder to define what exactly has been nicked but it is still theft. Someone is paying for a service and you're using it without their permission.

If its stealing , Matt....it defines itself as being objective….whether the person is on limited tariff…or whether the company itself is on limited tariff is irrelevant….(coz as you know , suppliers have limits too)…..

Its either stealing or its not stealing – simple….

If I was to read a book using the light from your living room window……am I stealing your light?

[sparkyminer]

If I was to read a book using the light from your living room window……am I stealing your light?

No, but you'd probably nicked his book.:D

[mathare]

Its either stealing or its not stealing – simple….

I agree, and as I said I regard it as theft whether or not a data limit was in place.

If I was to read a book using the light from your living room window……am I stealing your light?

Assuming you're not on my property you are likely to be in a public place or on an adjoining property. And if you're in public I think you need to worry more about the type of book you're likely to be reading and the indecent acts it is likely to make you want to perform :wink

[Onlyforfun]

But anyway, moving ever onwards in my search for the absurd and truly idiotic:

34 - Food additives. Heard some simpering female fool this morning on the BBC saying "It's so hard not to feed your kids food with additives." Before I could snort with derision my normally mild-mannered wife was swearing at the TV shouting "It's not difficult, just get off your fat and cook!"

Here, here! I'm no macro-biotic, vegetarian, organic, tree-hugger (as you have probably guessed by now), but it is just as cheap, just as quick, and a lot better for you to cook using fresh vegetables and meat. Anyway, I'm happy to spend an hour of an evening cooking for the next day rather than watch the crap that passes for TV these days (except for Trawlermen, Mock the Week, Worlds Deadliest Catch and repeats of That Mitchell and Webb Look).

The only fizzy drinks that make it into our house are the industrial quantities of tonic for my Gin!

35- "Citizens Juries". Firstly, we are not citizens, we are subjects. Secondly, we pay a bog-standard MP £60,277 pa. and look at what the rest earn:

Prime Minister - 187,611
Cabinet Minister - 136,677
Minister of State - 99,908
Parliamentary Under Secretary - 90,358
Government Chief Whip - 136,677
Government Deputy Chief Whip - 99,908

Government Whip - 85,782

Assistant Government Whip - 85,782
Leader of the Opposition - 130,312
Opposition Chief Whip - 99,908
Deputy Chief Opposition Whip - 85,782
Assistant Opposition Whip - 85,782
Speaker - 136,677 (gorbals Mick gets HOW MUCH!)
Chairmen of Ways and Means - 99,908
First Deputy Chairman - 95,108
Second Deputy Chairman - 95,108
Solicitor General - 126,846
Advocate General for Scotland - 126,846
And the gravy train continues into the Lords and doesn't include "expenses" like getting the interest paid on second homes in London even if you rent them out.

Gordon, you get £180k a year to run the country, get off your and do it. It's all well and good having "convictions" but if you have no ideas on what needs done and how to do it I suggest you give your salary back to the taxpayer.

[Win2Win]

Leader of the Opposition - 130,312

Worth every penny.....a better comedy than even the Beeb can manage

[Onlyforfun]

36- "5th Richest Country - 17th Best Standard of Living". This is the UK according to The Economist. No big deal, after all, what do Economists know?

What really amazed me was the news as reported on the BBC that part of this was that we had "done well in alcohol consumption". State the bleedin' obvious I thought until they told us our ranking.

Top? Nope, thats Oz.
Top 3? Nope
Top 5 surely? Nope
Top 10, has to be? Nope
Top 20? Just, 18th.

17 other countries consume more alcohol per capita than we do, I hardly call that something to be proud of. :D

[Onlyforfun]

37- Received Wisdom, in particular "no 2 snowflakes have ever been the same".

HOW DO YOU KNOW?!?! Trillions and trillions of the things must have fallen over the last billion years, who has checked this so called fact?

(I have a problem with snowflakes having had just 10 minutes to remind myself how to make paper ones before my little 'un went to nursery with one).

[tophatter]

37- Received Wisdom, in particular "no 2 snowflakes have ever been the same

i agree there snow way of knowing

[vegyjones]

Tophatter, that's not ice!

[Win2Win]

HOW DO YOU KNOW?!?! Trillions and trillions of the things must have fallen over the last billion years, who has checked this so called fact?

Each one is made of different quantum particles, so none can be the same, as the energy would have moved on and been replaced by the time that particle ever makes another snowflake.

[Onlyforfun]

Prove it!

OK, I accept that it is likely that no 2 have ever had exactly the same molecuylar structure, but surely 2 in the whole of history must have had the same large scale pattern... prove they haven't, go on...

[bigcumba]

prove they haven't, go on...

Easy.... it's because God made them that way and God moves in mysterious ways. :wink

[wb]

Prove it!

OK, I accept that it is likely that no 2 have ever had exactly the same molecuylar structure, but surely 2 in the whole of history must have had the same large scale pattern... prove they haven't, go on...

Is it not the same with fingerprints? People say that they can't be the same, but what they really mean is that the chances are billions to one (or more?)

[Onlyforfun]

Exactly, DNA with all 20 marker sequences intact gives you a 1 in a billion chance of it belonging to someone else, but the vagaries of statistics mean it is just as likely to match the guy next door or some bloke in China.

[Win2Win]

You will generally find that around 10% of base pairs will not match anyone else on the planet, due to transfers between parents, even twins do not carry exactly matching sequences, as the 10% equates to around 3 million, so mix them up and you get the base odds, then throw in the other 90% which consists of race, length of colon, colour, hair, protein structures, how many arms, etc, which is 27 Million, and you can then work out the odds of getting a match with someone else......chances are their isn't one born yet, and unlikely to be, although statistically possible, probable, no.

[Onlyforfun]

38- £100k bank deposit gurantee??? There is no such thing as a risk free investment and the last thing we should be doing is nationalising banking risk. Yet another example of namby-pamby government.

Surely a better solution would be for banks / building societies to offer optional deposit protection in the form of lower interest. In effect we will now have a compulsory insurance as if it is funded by a levy on banks, they will cut interest rates on all eposits to compensate. And then you have the issue of how the levy will be invested, in an insurance company? They are far less secure than banks. No doubt the cash will find it's way into teh Treasury and be used for "investment" in increased public sector salaries.

Maybe, and call me a cynic if you will, that teh Govt and BoE know that if they big up this story the lumpen masses won't notice their salaries and savings being eaten up by inflation.

Anyone with a decent sum who doesn't take professional advice or educate themselves on how to protect it deserve what they get.

[Onlyforfun]

Silly me, if you want a bond fully guaranteed against UK tax receipts, National Savings already offered 5.2-5.5% vs Northern Rocks 6.2%.

Criminal madness

[Win2Win]

I get a lot more than that at the 'Betfair & Bookie Bank'....tax free...thanks Gordon...:)

[Onlyforfun]

39- Inflation again. 1.8%?!?!? Why? Because of front-loading by furniture companies before the "sales" start. Now how often do you buy a sofa, or a wardrobe, or a washing machine? Not very.

So let us look at the basics that have been important to man from the beginning of time; food, fire and shelter.

The cost of food is going up very rapidly, eggs up 30% in the last 2 months, milk up 16% and the average loaf of bread is over £1.

What about fire (or petrol as we know it these days). Crude oil is at all time highs and depite petrol approaching £1 / litre again, and it WILL break that with the 2p / litre rise in duty in a weeks time with the knock on costs to everything else we buy such as food, up nearly 30% from this time last year.

What are my other essentials? Transport? My monthly rail only ticket now costs almost as much as a zone 1-4 travelcard cost a 2 years ago, supposedly 6.3% per year, but in reality more as they have met moer punctuality targets (not that you'd notice) so the discount on that line has decreased.

And shelter? Mortgage rates rise as anyone coming off a fixed rate will tell you, up by 21% since last year (and mortgage rates probably even more).

My own "essentials" indicator therefore puts inflation at around 11.5% using 14% increases in food, 11% on petrol and 20% on mortgage. Add in council tax, increase in NI and I need a hefty pay rise just to keep still.