Browsing the Web at Work is Risky Business in Wales

Browsing the web at work can cost you your job, at least in Wales where 3 people have lost their jobs for spending up to 2 hours a day on eBay. They were employed by the local council and a council spokesman said:

"We have a policy of allowing employees to use the internet in their own time.
"But we clearly don't want them to use it in council time - at the end of the day they are employed to do a job of work not be shopping online."

The Unions then hit back by saying it was the council's fault for putting temptation in their way (by allowing them internet acess in the first place! ???).

The council servers already block certain sites like porn sites but not eBay.

The British Trade Union accociation has already come out and said its workers have a right to view sites like facebook on company computers.

This does show that there is a backlash now against unrestricted browsing during office hours. I can see a time when even news sites will be blocked as companies crack down more an more.

Nepal Airlines sacrifices goat to fix airplane

When a Nepal airlines plane sufferred repeated technical problems one solution was to sacrifice a pair of goats to the Hindu god of the sky protection, Akash Bhairab, in front of the plane, a Boeing 757.

I once flew Nepal airlines between Kathmandu and Pokhara and although the plane landed ok, whilst taxing back to the terminal building the hydraulic brakes failed and the plane just bounced along the side of the runway until it finally stopped by hitting another stationary plane.

I can therfore understand why some prayer might be in order to keep the planes airworthy!!

Still my worry is that Ryanair might considered that sacrificing goats to the gods is much cheaper than paying ground crews to service the planes. Maybe we'll see a 'goat charge' being introduced sometime soon....

More Cat Recipes

The Australians are being encouraged to eat cat stew to control the wild population. I couldn't actually find a recipe for cat stew on the net, but I did find one for Cat Teriyaki

1/2 cup soy saucejuice of one orangejuice of
1/2 lime
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/3 cup beer1 T. sesame oil
1 t. red chili flakes
4 garlic cloves, halved
1-inch piece of fresh ginger - smashed and cut into small pieces
1 fresh cat

Prepare the sauce by combining all ingredients except the cat in a heavy saucepan. Bring to a slow boil and cook, stirring, until thickened. About 20 minutes. Set aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.Cut cat into 1 inch slices, season with salt and pepper. Place cat in a single layer on a sheet pan. Line your sheet pan with an Exopat mat and you'll save yourself a lot of clean-up later. Bake cat for 8 minutes.Strain sauce into a bowl. Using tongs, dip each piece of cat into the sauce and put back onto baking sheet. Return to the oven and bake for another 8 minutes.Serve with sticky rice!

Cat Stew: A new Australian delicacy

Wild cats are a real problem in Australia, where they eat almost anything and destroy populations of indigenous species. One new solution to the problem is to encourage people to hunt the cats and eat them. Cats apparently are considered by some to be ‘good eating’ and taste like a cross between rabbit and (like everything else) chicken. One woman even entered a cat casserole into a cooking contest in Alice Springs.

I guess one persons cuddly pet is another’s tasty lunch. In Peru I was offered Guinea Pig (Marsvin), In China and Korea they eat dog and even in Britain people are happy eating rabbit, whereas in Sweden rabbits are considered more of a pet as there is not a big wild rabbit population here.

If this catches on in Sweden I would like to start with the two cats who think my garden is a litter box. I’d stew them up and have them with favor beans and a nice Chianti.

British Unions Say Yes to Facebook at Work

The Trade Unions Congress (TUC) has announced that workers should have the right to view social networking sites such as facebook and bebo whilst at work. Whereas it is ok for employers to insist that these sites are not viewed during working hours, there was no reason why people should not be allowed to view these sites during lunch breaks. They argue that the workers have the right to a social life outside of work and so should be able to use modern social networking technology.

This was done in response to the growing number of companies who have banned access to facebook from company computers.

Not everyone was so convinced though and Peter Mooney, of Employment Law Advisory Services, said the TUC's call was "nonsense".
"Why should employers pay for the privilege of allowing their employees to access Facebook, MySpace or Bebo from work computers whether in an employee's lunch-time or not?”

So who’s right and who’s wrong? You can’t block all non-work related sites as this would have to include all news sites and (God forbid) bloggs!

I think you just need to trust employees not to overdo things. Our working days can be very stressful and intensive and the time it takes to couple off and take a short break form work is a good thing to help you get through the day, so long as doesn’t replace work !

The old ideas of two fika breaks per day plus lunch does not always work for me as quite often I miss fika due to meetings or just because I have too much to do.

It's interesting though that the same debate is raging in both Sweden and Britain.

Ryanair: Stop complaining, It's still the cheapest

Ryanair want to start charging a fee for checking in at the airport terminal. At the same time they will make it free for people to check in on-line.

Every time Ryanair start charging for something new everyone gets so upset, like 'how dare they charge us for this'. But the bottom line is Ryanair is WAY cheaper than any other national airline. The new charges are nothing more than a carrot and stick approach to get people to check in on-line and together with the baggage charges they introduced earlier will make it even cheaper to fly if you only have hand luggage.

People need to stop complaining and realise that whatever the extra costs are you still can't find a cheaper carrier. If you want customer service though you can always look elsewhere and pay the extra.

It won't end here though....there are plenty more charges to made.

High Cost of War hits US Bullet Sales

SvD has an article today about how all the wars the US is fighting is driving up the cost of bullets. I wonder how expensive it needs to get before war becomes unacceptable on economic grounds.

Wouldn't it be ironic, for example, if the NRA (National Rifle Association) started lobbying for the troops in Iraq to be pulled out because the cost of bullets for it's members was getting too high!

In general people are selfish in that they worry most about the things that directly affect them. For the average person in the US, the war does not change their daily lives so much unless they have some personal link to the people serving there. It's not until there is some direct effect which impacts on their daily lives that they start really making a fuss which the politicians need to take account of.

A great day for Texas?

The US state of Texas has just executed its 400th. prisoner, since the death penalty was re-introduced in 1976, according to SvD. How can a country which prides itself on being free just and democratic still cling to the barbaric practice of executing criminals?

Its not a deterrent, it does nothing to protect society and although the families of those hurt by crime might feel some sense of justice, it is a cruel way to treat the families of those being killed who are themselves innocent of the crimes. It's very hypocritical to condemn others for violating human rights and at the same time continuing to violate the right to live. Sure these people are convicted killers themselves, but that is not the point. I don't hold with this 'eye for an eye' mentality.

I wonder why the Christian Right does not stand up and demand an end to the killings? They seam to have such influence in so many other areas of American life, they must have an opinion. I guess the problem is that the bible has as many passages which can be interpreted as being in favour of capital punishment as it has ones which appear to appose it.

Russia Fakes North Pole Flag Mission

It's been a busy time for the Russian propoganda machine, only last week they planted a flag under the North Pole with all the symbolism of the US Moon Landings, and today it was reported in SvD that the picture might actually be a fake, digitally manipulated from footage of the Titanic wreck!


If you're going to make a fake image, don't take the picture from a Hollywood film! This is just like the bollocks of the bad old days under Communism. I wonder what really happened. The Russian's had really built up the mission before the sub left port, so maybe, when it turned out they weren't actually going to be able to do what they had claimed, they decided to fake things rather than admitting defeat.


It would be quite funny if not for the fact that Russia is a sabre-rattling with the West again and clearly willing to go to whatever lengths necessarry to score political points with the rest of the world.