I was watching the 2005 Johnny Depp remake of Charlie and the Chocolate factory.

Conversation with girlfriend went along the lines of “I bet in some dark corner of teh interwebs, some sad lonely fucker has blogged about  Augustus Gloop’s portrayal being fattist/racist/somethingist”.

So I had a look the next morning, and I didn’t find that, I found even better!

http://www.typebrighter.com/2005/11/charlie-and-chocolate-factory-fraught.html

The blog author has written a fantastic piss-take, along the lines of Maddox’ “Unfastened Coins” video. And the commenters have taken the bait!

For example:

Early on in the film a story is told about how Willy Wonka goes to India to build a palace made completely out of Chocolate for an Indian Prince. Well it gets really hot and the palace starts to melt and the first drop of melted chocolate lands directly on the Indians forehead. I think the stereotype implications are clear. By all indications the so called “Oompa Loompa’s” are in fact African Pygmies. Additionally it is clear that Wonka doesn’t even regard them as real people. After he is done explaining that the “Oompa Loompas” do all the work in the factory he catches the fat kid eating out of the river of chocolate and says “Hey little boy my chocolate must be untouched by human hands”. Well we know that the factory workers must handle the chocolate. He’s basically saying they aren’t human.

Genius! And so a commenter has written

This movies racial overtones were so obvious that one has to be blind or stupid to miss it. To say that this is just a movie, enjoy it, just a childrens story, blah, blah, blah…. misses the entire point. it teaches kids that “black” people are; stupid, cheap labor, simple, not really human, primitive and less than “white” people. It also supports and justifies European colonial history and teaches kids that it was okay.

It makes a hilarious read, but at the same time, a little sad. Throw a bone at an idiot and he’ll come barking…

Categories: political_correctness
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In one week - part one:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/27/cc_charge_tsunami/

A Kent tradesman who ill-advisedly decided to pay the London congestion charge online was buried by a 3,000-receipt tsunami for his trouble, the BBC reports.

TfL explaimed in a statement: “This is clearly an unacceptable error. Our service provider, Capita, have identified the fault and put in additional controls to ensure it does not happen in future.”

Part two:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7319293.stm

Documents containing payroll information relating to 182 NHS staff members have been have been found dumped in a street.

They contained information, including addresses, bank account and National Insurance details, from five trusts in Leicestershire and Northamptonshire.

Police were informed and collected the documents after they had been found in a street in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.

The documents had been in the care of company Capita when they were lost.

Capita handles many major contracts for local government and public bodies. Does that make you feel all warm and fuzzy?!

Tags: labour,outsourcing,stupidity
Categories: Politics
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Released on Liveleak - 6 million views so far (new version released, so counter reset). Make your own mind up. (See mirror below)

digg it
Download via bittorrent
To quote Liveleak:

A person has a simple, clear choice about whether to view this film. No one is being forced to view it and nor is it being broadcasted on every channel on their television set. If you click on media simply to be annoyed, it is pointless to blame others for your choice.

If liveleak goes down, you can watch it below…

Update: Pat Condell’s take on the situation:

Tags: islam
Categories: islam
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Today’s comedy moment is brought to you compliments of the baaa website:

Terminal 5 opens for business (and pleasure) at 04:00 on 27.03.08. Designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour & Partners around people, not just planes, it’s going to make flying in and out of London as easy and enjoyable as it should be. New technology and direct transport links will make your journey simpler and faster. We’ve created shopping and eating that’s inviting, not intrusive. And with construction finished a new era for world travel can begin. Queuing, walking and waiting have made room for light, space and time - to relax, take in the views and rediscover the joy of flying.

You couldn’t make that shit up! And now, back to reality…

Flights from Heathrow’s new £4.3bn Terminal 5 are departing with hand baggage only after luggage check-in was suspended due to a processing backlog.

British Airways, which has sole use of T5, announced check-in of all hold luggage was suspended until Friday.

The airline has already cancelled 34 flights because of baggage problems and passengers have had to wait up to four hours to reclaim their luggage.

I feel sorry for the passengers involved, but this really sums up everything about the UK these days. What a worldwide embarrassment.

Categories: Uncategorized
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I should probably make everyone aware that WPG2 3.02 and the latest Wordpress (2.5 now in RC2) DO NOT WORK TOGETHER! I nearly found out the hard way - as most people using the theme that my blog runs (vslider 3 - see link at bottom of this blog) will be using WPG2, I urge everyone to follow this thread to check when WPG2 3.05 is ready. Until then, hold off.

Tags: themes,vslider,wordpress,wpg2
Categories: tech stuff
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