It is hard to believe how stupid our politicians and civil servants can sometimes be. The Department of Health funded some climate change research, which was published in The Lancet. It suggested that getting rid of 30% of Britain’s cows and sheep would mean less methane produced and, with less meat eaten, our intake of [...]
As broadband becomes a utility almost as essential as electricity and water, we are turning into a two-tier society. Never mind the question of whether you can get the speeds of “up to” 8MB promised by the ads. If you don’t live in a built-up area, the question is more likely to be whether you [...]
There’s a super review of the book in The Sunday Times which we’ve just spotted online. Complete and Utter Zebu is “a book at which you will laugh in disbelief (and possibly through gritted teeth).” “Complete and Utter Zebu by Simon Rose and Steve Caplin (Old Street £8.99) is a book at which you will [...]
You may have seen news reports today about official population figures for 2008, which show that the country appears to be headed for a population of 70 million by 2029. Much as we admire the ONS for taking the government to task for spinning statistics, you have to wonder about how accurate these figures are, [...]
A couple of weeks back, we mentioned how The Daily Telegraph’s review of the stage version of The Shawshank Redemption had been misquoted outside Wyndham’s Theatre to make it seem that reviewer Charles Spencer had liked the show. In fact, his words “superbly gripping, genuinely uplifting prison drama” referred not to the stage version but [...]
Animal rights group PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has demanded that the Georgia Bulldogs American Football team replace its recently-deceased mascot, Uga and Seventh, with a robot, saying that: “By choosing a humane alternative to the use of live animals as school mascots, UGA can show that compassion always wins”. After Uga [...]
If you haven’t already seen this, take a peek at the intriguing difference you get googling “Tiananmen Square Protest” for images in the UK and in China. Click on the image to see it more clearly.
Farming Today’s series on the problems of misleading food labelling continued today with a look at cheese, and in particular cheddar. It seems that more cheddar now comes into the UK from Latvia than is produced in the Cheddar Gorge itself. Other so-called cheddar comes from Ireland, New Zealand, Canada and Australia, as well as [...]
2009 is set to be the fifth hottest “since records began”, according to the Met Office. Even though there are still five weeks to go, that sounds pretty scary. Surprising, even, given the ridicule directed at the Met Office for forecasting in April that we were set for “a barbecue summer”. We certainly didn’t get [...]
Radio 4′s Farming Today is this week looking at misleading food labelling. Not being natural early risers, we admit we only caught this later on iplayer. However, this is an area rife with Zebu and the outrageous and deceitful way in which food can be presented to the public deserves highlighting. Unlike The Today programme, [...]
Those people who maintain that Elvis Presley might not have died in 1977 after all would appear to be vindicated. This ad for “Elvis Presley in Concert” claims that he is to play six provincial British cities next February and March. The ad (click to enlarge it) doesn’t say it’s an impersonator. It says it’s [...]
One of our bugbears is the consultation exercise. They are a bastardisation of democracy, giving the impression of listening to the public while usually ignoring anything inconvenient that is said. We quote several examples in the book, one of which is the consultation arranged by Royal Mail in 2008-9 when they rushed through a programme [...]
Anybody forced to use the London Underground will know that its glory days are long gone. It will on most occasions get you from one place to another, but there is little pleasure to be had from the experience. Its service, frequently marred by inexplicable delays, is also usually excessively crowded. This makes the latest [...]
Finally, we have confirmation that the new-style CFL lightbulbs are not as bright as the incandescent bulbs we must replace them with. Despite the fact that we could hardly help notice that they are significantly dimmer, give out a muddier light and take ages to warm up, Environment Minister Dan Norris and umpteen government websites [...]
How can you tell the time if you rely on the radio these days? It’s one of the less earth-shattering examples of Zebu in the book. For while the pips that mark the hour are accurate if you listen on an analogue radio, it isn’t the case if you use a digital radio. Listen online [...]
“Everything I did was within the rules.” Bleat, bleat, bleat. “It’s not me, it’s the system.” Zebu, Zebu, Zebu. MP after MP has uttered a variant of these pathetic excuses, whining that their own expense claims did not infringe the 36-page Green Book, which sets out what MPs can claim for. But have all our [...]
We’ve given several examples in the book of misleading theatre and film reviews. We’ve also mentioned how Sony conjured up a wholly fictitious film reviewer to give glowing blurbs for their movies. But, thanks to the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, which became law throughout the EU last year, we are supposed to have seen an [...]
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