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Friday, March 10, 2006

Planet Earth in danger from extra-terrestrial WMD

A report released today by a government intelligence group claims that the Earth could be at risk of attack from “extra-terrestrial weapons of mass destruction capable of unleashing planetary annihilation in 100 minutes”.

MI7 is the intelligence service charged with investigating extra-terrestrial threats to planetary security. Less well known that the domestic and international intelligence services of MI5 and MI6, its remit is to scrutinise all astronomical research and investigations from ground-based observations by amateur astronomers to satellite-based planetary missions, many of which have been until now classified.

Of recent concern has been the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn. MI7 intelligence operatives have been concerned about pictures received from the moon of Mimas since the initial Voyager images were recieved the 1980s. However the Cassini mission has allowed operatives more detailed images of the remote planet to run their analysis on.

In these pictures – never before seen by the public – MI7 operatives have identified Mimas (seen on the left from recent Cassini imaging) as an ancient Type I Death Star (seen on the right from historical pictures),

Mimas: That’s no moon. It’s a space station

The Death Star was an ancient WMD capable of wiping out whole planetary systems with it’s main armament. Until now, it was believed all the Death Stars constructed had been destroyed as part of the Galactic Civil War, which some historians argue might have taken place before the Egyptians had built the pyramids.

The discovery has brought both fear and excitement within the security and astronomy communities. Explains Prof. Mark Langstrom, astronomer at Cambridge, “We have always expected there to be a missing planet between Mars and Jupiter, yet all we see are remnants of a possible planet. Until now the gravity of Jupiter has been to blame for this planets break-up, but this discovery puts a new spin on things. We can see this missing planet being used as a testing ground for this early WMD. Of course it would have been too remote to make an effective demonstration …”.

Could this happen here?

An MI7 analyst who cannot be named for security reasons had this to offer. “Having put the image through very detailed analysis I can confirm that as it stands, the space station is in a dormant state, and has been for some time. We can see the surface structure has accreted a layer of dust and ice, with some minor visible cratering, however the super-structure seems sound, and the station as a whole looks intact and functional - indeed were there any problems with the stations core reactor, we would not have expected to see the superstructure as complete as we do in the Cassini images. It is this departments concern that this fully armed and possibly operational battle station could easily fall into the wrong hands. From it’s current position, it would be capable of reigning down Armageddon on this planet within 100 minutes of being brought back on line.”.

But security worries don’t end there – one unanswered question which is getting everyone hot under the collar is “what happened to those onboard?”. Are they still on board? Or do they walk amongst us here on Earth? The head of MI7 had the following sobering thought, “From the historical evidence we have, the Death Star was commissioned by one of the most evil men in history, known to some as Emperor Palpatine and to his inner circle as Darth Sidious. It’s quite conceivable to us he was onboard the Mimas Death Star when it travelled to our Solar System.”

“If this is the case, it’s quite likely he is at large at this moment. We have the following picture from our past records which shows how he used to appear on the left, and we have been able to build up on the right an e-fit of how Palpatine might currently appear. We are working with InterPol, MI6 and the CIA to make him one of the World’s Most Wanted. It is vitally important this man is kept away from the armed forces, as our records have shown him to us the military as the key players in any attempt for power.”

Left: The mysterious Emperor Palpatine. Right: E-fit of his current appearance

Sobering thoughts, but not everyone is convinced. “It’s a load of crap”, claims conspiracy nut Guy Chamberlain, “the Government is only releasing this now to take the heat off the some of the activities of cabinet members. People should check out http://www.astrobio.net/news/article1101.html to find out the truth”.


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The call centre blues ...


Well we've developed problems with our cooker AGAIN. This means the inevitable warranty call centre shuffle.

It's amazing how what infuriated you a few years ago you've developed a tolerance for.

Okay - the simplest call is going to take 40 minutes ...

Okay - you have to go through the touchtone menus again and again ...

Okay - the first person who actually answers the phone is not based in your country (actually she was Welsh and had a whole kind of Charlotte Church sexy voice thing going on, although she seemed surprisingly immune to the Crow's charms) then refers you to a second person and the wait begins again ...

Okay - person number two refers you right back to person number one, and the Waltz goes on.

In spite of all these indignities, being English I feel it's my duty to be brave, to queue with silent and polite dignity even if it is a phone queue.

But is it really necessary to subject me to a bad synth version of Rod Stewarts "I am sailing" throughout my time in phone queue purgatory? Oh the humanity!

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Thursday, March 09, 2006

Quentin Tarentino's The Office

Let's go to work ... at our paper merchants in Slough ...

I think there cannot be a more disappointing genre than “the film based on the (much loved) TV series”. The sad fact is they often ruin the original premise – yes occasionally you get an Addams Family or Brady Bunch, but for every one of these there are countless Starsky and Hutches, Beverley Hillbillies or Lost in Space.

For this reason I’m trying to build up support for Quentin Tarantino to direct and write The Office movie. He recently showed me an early draft of one of the scenes he’s trying to get Ricky Gervais on board for, and I think it’s a corker, enjoy …

Scene 21

The Setting: a paper merchants in a thriving Slough buisness park ...

Scene One: Office of David Brent (John Travolta), Manager is having a morning conference with Gareth (Quinten Tarentino).


Gareth: ... and hence why the song is called LIKE A VIRGIN!

David snickers, there is a knock at the door, Tim (Samuel L Jackson) enters ...

David: Just in time Tim ...

Tim: I know I'm late, I've been rushed all morning, and goddamit if I didn't miss the sandwich trolley ... [looks to desk]what have we got?

David: Erm ... we've got donuts!

Tim: Ah donuts, the cornerstone of any nutricious breakfast. Mind if I have one ... [takes a mouth full of donut] ... Mmm, hmmm, that is a TASTY DONUT! Ordinarily I wouldn't bother, but you see my girlfriend is kind of always on a diet, which means I'm always kind of on a diet ...

David: Anyway what ...

Tim: Mind if I have some of your coffee to wash down your tasty donut? [Pours himself a coffee from Davids personal filter coffee machine] ... Goddam thats some good shit, much better than the stuff we get in the tea room am I right?

Gareth: Uh huh ...

Tim: I mean and you've got cream as well, I was expecting powdered stuff ...

David: You know what, you don't have to tell me how good my coffee is. I get Tescos "Taste the difference", because the stuff the company gets tastes like shit. But right now, do you know what's on my mind, and its not the coffee?

Gareth: What?

David: When the two of your came to my office, did any of your notice the room over there? [He points to the cupboard, but gets blank looks]

I dunno help me out here, maybe I need to get glasses or something, but did anyone see a sign saying "Ted Bridger's storeroom"???

Tim: Erm no ...

David: And any idea why that is?

Tim: No ...

David: Because its not there for Ted Bridger's personal use ...

There is another knock at the door, this time it is Ted Bridger (Steve Buscemi) looking slightly worried.

David: Take a seat Ted ... I'm a bit worried about the situation with the stationary cupboard

Ted. We've seemed to have been missing a lot of printer cartidges of late - in fact we've been using them up at two a month!

Ted: Well we have been doing a lot more printing since we changed to the new timesheet authorisation form.

Gareth: Yeah we have ...

David: Well I'm no Hercule Poirot, but I looked on ebay, and saw some Xerox cartidges for sale ... they're the ones we have arent they?

[Ted starts to sweat a bit]

Ted: What?

David: So anyway I put an order with "Ted Bridger's Storeroom" as the company was called, and I got a reply, from ted.bridger@hotmail. com

Ted: What?

David: And the email asked me to send a cheque made payable to "Ted Bridger".

Ted: What?

David: Now I had to send this cheque to a PO Box Number. But low and behold, when I get my printer cartidge through the post, the return address is your home address!

Ted: What?

David: Say "what" one more time time I dare you!

Ted: What?

David: Ted I know there was that time at the Christmas do, when we got a bit drunk, and I started to sing "It's raining men" ... but did I ever make you think I was gay?

Ted: What ... er, I mean NO!

David: Then why are you trying to fuck me in the ass then!!! [Hands Ted his P45] ...


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Killing your co-workers #4 : Poisoning the well


Its said that the Roman Empire when they encountered rebellious villages would poison the well to make the area inhospitable, and break up the population.

Of course in the modern millennium, the well of the office world is the water cooler, so this is the ideal place to “let loose the toxins”. But which one to choose?

A cyanide or arsenic based poison really takes action too quick – I mean who’s going to drink from the water when the last two people suddenly keeled over dead? I did consider cholera for a while, but it’s really too Victorian.

Then I came across several entries on “mercury poisoning” …

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning
http://www.algonet.se/~leif/yfTAN93a.html

Absolutely fascinating – “Mercury attacks the central nervous system … exposure over long periods of time will result in brain damage and ultimately death. (The term "Mad as a hatter" is thought to relate to occupational insanity caused by exposure to mercury compounds in the manufacture of felt hats in the 19th century)”.

So what you have here is a slow acting poison which a lot of people will ingest. So far so good. And now check out the symptoms,

  • Short-time memory deteriorates.
  • You will find it difficult to concentrate on tasks which require attention and thinking.
  • It is easier to execute tasks that are well known rather than to learn something new.
  • You avoid social contacts which demand that you get out of your introvert behaviour.
  • You loose your temper easily and switch between different moods for no particular reason.

All these “symptoms” of course mirror the kind of eccentric behaviour found in any office environment, especially if the office contains any form of engineers, making the poisoning impossible to trace.

[Disclaimer: Once again I should mention this entry is here for “comedy”, and if you are thinking of really wiping out your co-workers (a) seek professional help (and I don't mean the mob funded kind), and (b) get your own ideas. You need to differentiate between fantasy/comedy and real life.

If you are a budding mystery novelist who is going to steal this idea, be warned I will pursue you with every legal resource DIAL-4-A-LAWYER will lend me]


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Nuclear bacon roll revisited ...


In the comments I've been asked how you'd go about constructing a nuclear bacon roll - nothing could be simpler for one such as myself trained in the dual arts of cookery and nuclear physics.

First off, you need to no surprise, cook the bacon. Personally I prefer using about 3 very thing slices, and quite lightly grill them, as grilling is the healthier option. I know many who prefer to use a frying pan and fry them in a little lard to give them a greasier complexion. I tend to leave the bacon cooking until it's still quite pink, with a bit of the grease coming out - again there are many who postulate it's better to leave the bacon until it's crispy, and that I'm quite continental in my cooking outlook.

With the bacon cooked, you need to select a roll - I think the best kind are about palm sized with a light flouring on them. You need to slice open with a knife and butter lightly. If you used the frying pan option, you might want to dip the inside instead into the bacon juices.

Add bacon and a light dressing of brown sauce and then wrap in the nuclear fissionable foil of your choice. There you go, a tasty morsel of a WMD!

Its interesting to note that as a bacon roll consists mainly of carbohydrates, the carbon within should act in the same way as a graphite control rod in a nuclear reaction, absorbing any free neutrons and acting as a nuclear inhibitor. Thus the combined action of removing the roll and scrunching the fissionable foil will cause a decrease in the nuclear inhibitor and increase in the fissionable mass density.

Now if I can only figure out how to wrap a single bacon roll in 5kg of fissionable material ...


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Killing your co-workers #3 : The Stepford Solution

This solution involves replacing that troublesome co-worker (usually a manager) with a duplicate, much like in the film The Stepford Wives. The idea is no-one will notice that absence of the real version, with the duplicate making similarly as bad a job as the original.

There are three strategies here which can be considered,
  • replace with a robot
  • replace with a clone
  • replace with an actor

Replace with a robot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robot

Well the problem is, we’re getting there but we’re not quite “there” yet on the robot front. Currently if you want a robot that can walk around, the most advanced walking robot is Asimo – problem is he’s a miniature version, and weighs quite a bit. You are going to have no end of trouble passing this off as Burt from accounts …


If you’re thinking of replacing someone who almost always is found at their desk, it’s somewhat brighter, with the Repliee Q1Expo. Looks great but there are several drawbacks – it cannot really move from it’s desk, it uses a rather noisy air compressor (which will be difficult to disguise) and lastly it only currently comes in an “Asian babe” package, which rather limits the choice of people you can use it to replace.


Replace with a clone

The Boys From Brazil time!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_cloning

Problem is once again I’ve been lied to by the Science Fiction I’ve read. Again like the robot version, we’re almost there but not quite (depending on which scientist is currently faking their data). However the real core problem is cloning produces a baby clone 9 months after you’ve ordered. Your co-workers can be quite gullable, but they’re going to have problems believing this is your 60 year old overweight, wrinkly and bald boss. Now wait a minute – this might just work after all …

Replace with an actor


On first glance this seems the best solution – but if you’re thinking this then you’ve obviously never met an actor. The problem with using any actor are as follows,
  • they work odd hours – not the usual office ones
  • they are slightly egotistical, and will demand some form of credit for their resume
  • should you get one who is into “the Method”, you might actually end up with someone worse than the guy you’re replacing!
Avoid!


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Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Killing your co-workers #2 : Killing with kindness




Okay - so killing my co-workers with a bacon roll wrapped in fissionable material wasn't a viable method - 10/10 for imagination, 0/10 for practicality.

A quick Google search for "common causes of death" later, and I hit upon this website,

http://danger.mongabay.com/causes_of_death.htm

It seems the most common causes of death are attributable to either heart disease or cancer. All very well - but can I make it work for me?

Forearmed with such knowledge, I went into work this morning with several bags of doughnuts and 40 Marlborough in an attempt to cause heart disease and cancer amongst the office - I call this plan "killing with kindness". The doughnuts were easily taken care of with a fake “it’s my birthday, cakes for all, take 2 if you want” email.

However by 11a.m. my co-workers were showing no signs of expiring. So in desperation I stood outside the building trying to persuade folks it was no smoking day (see below), and as such I was giving up – so could I persuade them to take one of mine.

Really – people are so suspicious these days – looks like everyone will look a gift fag in the mouth. People are unquestioning if you put a doughnut under their nose – but try to force even the most seasoned smoker to take one of yours, and you are on a losing streak.

End of the day, no-one had expired as a result of my plans. What’s worse it seems those I most want to get rid of are too suspicious of my doughnuts and cigarettes to come anywhere near them.

I might get results if I continue in this fashion for the next 10 years, but even I have trouble with such patience …


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Killing your co-workers #1 : The nuclear bacon roll


At my place of work we always get the sandwich trolley arriving at about 10-11 a.m. It has a nice array of bacon rolls, which each come wrapped in tin foil. People buy these en mass, and at the end always scrunch the foil up to a nice ball.

With my background in physics this got me thinking. If I were to substitute the tin foil one morning for some kind of foil made from a high yield nuclear material like plutonium - apart from keeping the roll nice and warm, upon finishing their roll and scrunching up the pluntium based foil - what would happen? Would I be able to cause a nuclear reaction by the foil achieving a critical nuclear density to set off a mini-Hiroshima event which only those hidden behind reams of ISO 9000 compliance documents would be able to survive?

Well sadly, having researched this I have discovered it won't work. My good friends at Wikipedia have the following entry for critical mass ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_mass

And it seems even with the oddly named Californium, I'd need 5kg of the tin foil to achieve the chain reaction I wanted - somewhat more than it takes to wrap the average bacon roll at any rate ...


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So I killed my boss ...

Whilst in no way condoning or encouraging people to murder their co-workers, I think there is a certain healthy state of mind to be gained by elaborately planning their deaths.

The difference between planning and executing that plan is the same reason we never strapped Agatha Christie to an electric chair.

So over the next few days I will reveal my grand plan of humourous and inventive ways to kill off your office excess.

As the Smiths themselves would have sung ...

So I killed my boss,
I took a fireaxe,
And as I slammed it in his head,
I said, "Please die and go to hell"


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It's no smoking day ...


Today is no smoking day ...

http://www.nosmokingday.org.uk/

Good luck to everyone trying to do without.

My friend says a form of accupunture works well for them. Whenever they crave a ciggie, someone comes along and sticks them with a fucking big needle - in time you learn to lose the cravings I'm told!



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