Uh??

A legal curiosity - indeed a double curiosity.  A man has appeared before a Scottish Sheriff Court on a charge of hamesucken.  This is an ancient offence for which the punishment at one time was death. It is defined as "pursuing someone into their home to assault them".  So all very archaic and oldy-worldy, but why the double curiosity?  Because on the facts as reported the offence was not committed.  What distinguishes hamesucken from simple breaking and entering is the word "pursuing". And yet it appears that this was a case of a 93-year-old woman who was awoken at 2 a.m. by the presence of a man in her bedroom who then went on to attack and rob her.   So robbery, assault, GBH and all that - yes, but not as far as I can see, hamesucken.  Be interesting to see where this goes.

Awkward...

Liked this one I saw on the Net - "I've missed a special delivery and need ID to go and collect it. Problem is the delivery is my passport, and I have no driving licence"

Kemo sabe

Did Indians really say "how" as a greeting?  Well, some of them sort of.  The idea that there was one "Indian" language is of course laughable.  There were a great many languages, but in a lot of the "plains" languages (middle America) the word for "hello" or "greeting" was "ho" "hao" or something such. And that where it comes from.

A rose by any other name...

Shrewsbury - how is it pronounced?  As spelled, or Shrosebury?  I worked there for a time, and was always told that those who lived there pronounced it as Shrewsbury, and only outsiders pronounced it as Shrosebury.  But then, you can look at old maps going back to the 18th century where it is spelled Shrozebury so who's right?  And does it matter?  Can't we just accept it for the lovely historic market town it is?  A lot of fuss about nothing?

No cookies, no friends

I'm sure you've heard about the response of Siri (Apple's "chat-bot") when asked what is 0 divided by 0. But can you divide by zero?  Isn't the problem that zero is not really a number, and if you treat it as though it is, you will get silly or weird results. So what is zero?  It's the numerical equivalent of nothing - it represents a lack of something.  In mathematics, a lack of quantity, a lack of value, a lack of number. And given that the division sum a/b asks the question "how many lots of b are there in a" this clearly only makes sense if b has a value.  If b is zero, then the question makes no sense.  Which is what Siri says, albeit in a humourous way.

D'oh!!!

There are stupid ideas, and then there are really, really, really stupid ideas. Someone has developed a case for an iPhone which looks like a hand-gun, complete with pistol grip and trigger.  Taking any bets on how long it will be before somebody using such a case is shot by someone (probably a policeman) who mistakes it for the real thing? Moves afoot to prohibit its sale here in the UK, but of course you can't control the internet.  Ranks about 110 on the stupidity scale I think

Best say nowt?

A lorry driver working for a local firm who was on his way back from a trip to France was alerted by noises coming from the back of his vehicle.  He stopped and notified the police.  They turned up and when the back of his lorry was opened up 13 illegal immigrants were found hiding there.  You would think the driver behaved correctly and should be applauded - yes?  Well, no apparently.  The firm has been fined some £18,000 for "failing to carry out the necessary checks".  There's got to be something wrong here, surely?  As was pointed out, had the driver simply opened up his lorry and let them go no-one would have been any the wiser.  So this is one of those areas where you are punished for doing the right thing?  Crazy!

Greece

Anybody else think that the worst outcome of Sunday's referendum in Greece for the rest of us would be a "yes" vote?  If it's "no" then the position is pretty clear cut - Greece more or less immediately booted out of the eurozone, and maybe the EU as well.  But "yes"?  The Greek government would almost certainly have to resign and call a general election, and that takes time.  And what would be the position in the interim?  The EU would have to provide some sort of financial aid for the Greek banks and probably write off or defer some of its debt, just so that it could continue to function in the short term.  In other words just what Greece has been asking for over the last few weeks!  And so the situation would continue to stagger on.  It's a funny old world...

River deep, mountain high.

So is it Mont Blanc or Monte Bianco?  Is it in France or Italy?  The border between the two countries certainly runs along the mountain range, but there are several points at which its actual course is a matter of dispute - the mountain being one of them.  The matter has come to the fore again following the construction and official opening of a new cable-car by the Italians - an event which seems to have been deliberately snubbed by the French.  There have been suggestions that the summit of the mountain should be declared joint French/Italian territory - but this of course is far too sensible an approach to have any chance of success.  So the dispute rolls on...

I resign...

So when is a resignation not a resignation?  First it was Nigel Farage who, having failed to win the seat of South Thanet at the last general election, resigned as leader of UKIP.  But then it seems his resignation was not accepted by the party and so he remains leader even though he's resigned.  And now we have Sepp Blatter who a few weeks back stated he had decided to "lay down [his] mandate" as head of FIFA and said he would "not be a candidate" for re-election.  But now he is saying that that did not amount to a resignation and that he remains head of FIFA until such time as there is a re-election contest - which, as head of the organisation he will organise and control the timing of. Clever, no??