A University of Leicester space scientist has worked out that sending texts via mobile phones works out to be far more expensive than downloading data from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Dr Nigel Bannister’s calculations were used for the Channel 4 Dispatches programme “The Mobile Phone Rip-Off”.

He worked out the cost of obtaining a megabyte of data from Hubble – and compared that with the 5p cost of sending a text.

He said: “The bottom line is texting is at least 4 times more expensive than transmitting data from Hubble, and is likely to be substantially more than that.

Mind you, 5p is conservative, I think. I pay 3 to 4 times that price. It seems like the telcos are sucking us dry. I’m shocked! Shocked, I tell you!

JUNCTION CITY, Kan. — Like hundreds of young men joining the Army in recent years, Jeremy Hall professes a desire to serve his country while it fights terrorism.

But the short and soft-spoken specialist is at the center of a legal controversy. He has filed a lawsuit alleging he’s been harassed and his constitutional rights have been violated because he doesn’t believe in God. The suit names Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

“I’m not in it for cash,” Hall said. “I want no one else to go what I went through.”

Known as “the atheist guy,” Hall has been called immoral, a devil worshipper and _ just as severe to some soldiers_ gay, none of which, he says, is true. Hall even drove fellow soldiers to church in Iraq and paused while they prayed before meals.

Of course, you can only be a “good soldier” when you’re a relifag… This poor chum was harassed by his brothers in arms, and eventually his superiors told him they couldn’t protect him (from the harassment), and sent him back to the US. The problems don’t seem to end there, though:

He believes his promotion to sergeant has been blocked because of his lawsuit, but he is a team leader responsible for two junior enlisted soldiers.

[...]

Hall said he enjoys being a team leader but has been told that having faith would make him a better leader.

Uncle Sam wants YOU. Unless you’re a filthy, gay, terrorist atheist.

This story was in the Telegraph today. The headline caught my eye right away and made me laugh so hard I busted not just a nut but a whole palm tree as well.

Today’s Idiots are Polygamists. There’s one in particular who qualifies because of the severity of his disabling stupidity.

The headline reads: ‘11 wives and I’m not happy’.

I will quote:

An Ethiopian man who has 77 children by 11 wives has urged others not to get married and has taken to dispensing advice on family planning to his neighbours.

Ayattu Nure, 56, says he used to be a wealthy man and married out of a desire to share his money around but claims he is now penniless because of the competing demands of his brood.

…

“I want my children to be farmers but I have no land, I want them to go to school but I have no money,” he says.

I can’t go on. I’m laughing so hard it hurts.

Good thing he doesn’t live in England though. Not only would he be allowed to keep his 11 wives, but we’d have to pay welfare for all his 77 children (which used to be 100, but 23 died). I’m sure a lot of single slag mothers out there should learn the same lesson Mr. Nure’s had to. Your vagina is not a clown car and your husband should be shot if he proposes to another girl.

So in short: polygamists are the complete and utter retarded idiots of the day.

We have a new idiot! Today’s idiot (and rightfully so) is the Tory party of Great Britain.

Faced with increasing support for European legislation at home the reactionaries of the UK’s big right wing political mob has grasped onto the newest European initiative to support trade and development in the hope of increasing their support from mad old Euro-skeptics.

The EU has proposed dividing Europe up into a few regions which will get tax payers money to boost local government in the areas of tourism and cross-border employment. A spokesman for the Department of Communities and Local Government said:

It is about support for business, helping boost employment and turning around deprived areas… helping firms in Kent do business with people in Northern France or promoting joint tourism initiatives between different countries.

A noble cause you’d say? Not according to the Tories. The newspapers The Daily Mail, The Sun and the Daily Express (which are strongholds of Tory support and Euro-skeptics) each have damning articles making it look like the EU is trying to split up the UK and destroy the fair land which the mincing Brits call home. Again.

The Tory shadow community spokesperson Eric Pickles (also known as Dracula’s henchman) said:

Now the Labour Government has been caught red-handed conspiring with European bureaucrats to create a European superstate via the back door. [ ... ] Gordon Brown literally wants to wipe England off the map.

Therefore I nominate as today’s idiot the Tory party for fear mongering Euro-skeptic antics we’ve all gotten damn tired of hearing about.

A Popular Science correspondent tried living a untracable life for a week. While she — probably — did well, it did take all kinds of precautions and work-arounds. And even then, she’ll never know how successful she really was:

Here’s the thing, though—We don’t know what information is being collected about us, whom it’s being shared with, what it’s being used for, or where it’s being held.

Interesting article, if only to re-affirm the nagging feeling that Big Brother is, in fact watching you.

As Sun CEO Scott McNealy noted almost a decade ago: “You have no privacy. Get over it.“

Here’s a 33 year old bloggers answer to the Fitna movie.

The maker, a lad from Saudi Arabia, has put together a list of Bible passages which equate to murder and overlayed it onto images of Christians and ‘Christian countries’ (namely the USA) being assholes and using the Bible as their justification for murder, beatings and generally being dickheads to those that don’t believe what they believe in.

The author states:

It is easy to take parts of any Holy Book that are out of context and make it sound like the most inhuman book ever written. This is what Geert Wilders did to gather support [for] his hateful ideology. To create Schism.

It proves a few of my points:

1. All dogmatic religion is senseless
2. All holy books are sorely outdated
3. All of those holy books can be misinterpreted quite easily and be taken advantage of by people who will in turn vent their ignorant frustration and fear of unknown or misunderstood cultures on others who do not believe what they believe in.

Here’s Schism…

It makes me sad to see that people still fall into the trap that is dogma.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown hasn’t had it easy. He’s been in the shadow of the even bigger idiot Blair for a long time. It seems to have rubbed off on him though.

While the economy of the U.K. is in free fall and with his policies on things like the Olympics and Iraq being questioned, Mr. Brown decided it was high time for action.. by appearing as special guest on American Idol.

Unfortunately we can’t embed the BBC IPlayer video, but you can click here to watch the cringe-worthy performance.

Meanwhile, just to show you the mixed messages coming from the Labour government you can watch this video:

Well done, Brownie. People are much more likely to take you seriously now. You idiot.

Update: added some links for reference.

I’ve stumbled upon a nice site on teh internets. I was looking to see if the Great Firewall of China™ has picked up 3nglish.co.uk.

This site here is one which reports if your website is blocked by the Great Firewall of China™. Funnily enough we haven’t been blocked at all. Even after this and this.

Here’s the results:

Tested From: Shanghai, China
Tested At: 2008-04-08
11:28:10 (GMT -04:00)
URL Tested: http://www.3nglish.co.uk
Resolved As: 81.173.19.112
Status: OK

Baaad bad move, commies! Your government sucks so much it could work in a sewage plant!

Paste your anti-Chinese propaganda in the comments below!

Religion, as we know it today in our modern society is not only a bad pun. It is an absolute danger to society, ostracizing large swathes of society while offering hope where there is none to victims of mental and physical ailments. Richard Dawkins explores the types of evil which have infected our society in one of his documentaries and asks how (ir)rational they really are.

Wikipedia notes:

Is it rational that the dead can communicate with the living and give sound advice on how they should live their lives? What about sticking pins into your body to free the flow of Chi energy and cure your illness? Or the bending of spoons using your mind alone? Is that rational? Richard Dawkins doesn’t think so, and feels it is his duty to expose those areas of belief that exist without scientific proof, yet manage to hold the nation under their spell. He will take on the world’s leading proponents in their field of expertise, meet the victims who have used them and expose the history of the movements – from the charlatans who have milked these practices to the experiments and testing that have failed to produce conclusive results.

Without further ado, here’s our Dick Dawkins:

Most U.S. Presidents have had schools, libraries and even aircraft carriers named after them. It is no more than fitting that a religious bigot and notorious warmonger gets a memorial like this:

Looking to honor the forty-third President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, the recently formed Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is looking to change the name of the Oceanside Wastewater Treatment Facility. It seems the group would like to rename the SF Zoo adjacent facility to the “George W Bush Sewage Plant.”

Read the whole proposal here.

:tex: