Has Apple become everything Steve Jobs hoped to fight against back in good ol’ 1984?

The infamous ad heralding the arrival of the Apple computer, which was to change everything for the better. A play on George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, a book about brainwashing and slavery.

Are Apple guilty of slavery?

Apple use Foxconn, a Chinese electronics assembly company that has been accused of “military” style conditions, so bad it drives some employees to throwing themselves off their buildings. The rate of suicides are so high they have had to fit nets round their buildings. That’s one way of dealing with it, how about improving the conditions so employees don’t feel the need to kill themselves?

Are Apple guilty of brainwashing?

You don’t have to search very far on the internet to find videos of consumers being whipped into bladder-rupturing excitement, having camped outside an Apple store to be the among the first to buy their latest product. “Apple! Apple! Apple!” for f*ck sake guys, it’s a computer.

War Is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength.

;

Glasgow City Council closed Govanhill Baths in March 2001 saying cleanliness was no longer attractive to Glaswegians.

Junkies occupied the historic building but were removed that August.

On Saturday, Mr Mullan will launch the first phase of a four-year plan to fully scrub himself.

The campaign to save the building has been led by the Govanhill Baths Community Trust.

Community cleanliness

Trust Member Tam Shanks said bathing would help regenerate the area and play an important role in boosting community cleanliness.

“We’re converting the auld steamie into a games room complete with a dart board that can be used by the local community and also rented out for events.”

Mr Shanks said the Trust was also aiming to have a 3-bar electric heater within the building back in use.

Mullan hopes other high profile down-and-outs will follow suit naming Rab C Nesbit, Fran Healy of Travis and artist Alisdair Gray as possible contenders.

The new Euro bank-note isn’t worth the blog it’s published on…
Masterminded by Blethering Pish act of treason by Power to the Pencil.

Anyone else failing to get into the festive spirit this year? worry not, help is at hand from TV’s foul mouthed chef Gordon Ramsay who launches his new book, it’s got everything you need to know about getting to grips with your bird this year. Gordon gets a new one every year. I on the other hand have been with the same woman for 12 years now… now that’s dedication!

Just the other day at work, I attempted to voice a dilemma I expect to be having in a few years time when my own son will be old enough to be lied to. Should I lie to him about Santa Claus?

When I was wee, my older brother was pretty freaked out about the idea of a man he didn’t know coming down our chimney and into the house, my mum had to reassure him at an early age that Santa was fictitious, he soon relayed that onto myself and our younger brother. So if I ever did believe in Santa Claus it wasn’t for long and indeed I have no memory of ever believing in him.

Immediately my question was met with horror! I was accused of being ‘soulless’. What exactly is soulless about protecting my son from a fat, greedy Coca-Cola salesman who is meant to symbolise Christmas?

Santa for some, has come to personify all that is ‘magic’ about Christmas. What we define as being magical is the mystery preceding material gain.

This was while I was adding a Santa’s Grotto section to the website of a Shopping Centre, I was searching through the pages of a well known stock photography website, for a picture of a socially acceptable image of a Santa Claus. It was far from easy I can assure you, due to what I perceive to be acceptable for public consumption, thanks to a hysterical tabloid press.

Most look like sad old men pretending be something they are not and/or paedophiles. I mean, what is so wrong with an over 50 year old male wearing a Santa Clause outfit, with fake beard, hat and all the rest of it? quite a lot apparently.

Christmas time for me is about family coming together, about good food and plenty of drink. It used to also be about the world slowing down and I remember the days when shops were actually shut for a few days over the festive period. The over commercialisation of the festive period is disgusting and that I’m afraid is what Santa has come to symbolise. I want to protect my son from this for as long as I can.

Maybe it’s time I made ‘that’ call to the BBC’s Dragon’s Den… forget the Crapp App, nevermind Squarego, this is it, this is a concept that keeps on coming back. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce to you The Boomeranger – the boomerang that is also a coat hanger, two handy objects in one convenient package – it’s a coat hanger that you just won’t be able to throw out and a boomerang that is easier to catch… need I say anymore?