Slow Seperatists

According to a study by the University of Edinburgh and the UK Medical Research Council Plaid voters were thicker than their Lib Dem, Labour and Tory counterparts at the age of 10.

Some good news (at last) for the Liberal Democrats is that their voters were the brainiest kids from the main parties (only the Greens had brighter kids growing into voters). The Tories pipped Labour to third place with Plaid voters strolling in 5th, marginally ahead of their Scottish counterparts. UKIP and non-voters were low IQ children while, unsurprisingly, BNP voters were the least intelligent as children!

The "research" tested 6,000 UK kids aged 10 and then, 24 years later, asked them who they voted for in 2001.

Of course, if you believe such research has any bearing on reality then you're not even smarter than a ten year old kid who'll grow up to be a BNP voter!

Ya Halfwits

The Scymraeg sign that came into existence due to an automated reply e-mail has now been taken down. Showing us poor blogs how it's done the mainsream media in the guise of the BBC and Western Mail finally got the story today. Yahoo even made it their main news on their UK homepage. Only problem is, someone in Yahoo can't seem to read English, let alone Welsh. The picture they've used for their story is not the sign in question, it's the sign at Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantyseiliogogogoch Railway Station - a sign that has so little to do with the main story it's not even a bilingual sign (there being no English name for the long named village!)

The Dangers of Auto-Reply

A quick post to keep you entertained while I'm on my break, the Flickr group Scymraeg has had this truly beautiful sign uploaded recently.
The English is clear enough, and the Welsh is grammatically perfect. I assume that whoever was in charge of creating the sign e-mailed their usual translator asking him what "No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential sites only" was in Welsh. He must have received a very swift response and immediately ordered the sign and had it put up.

Unfortunately the reply he received wasn't quite what he expected. The Welsh part of the sign says:

I am currently out of the office. Send any work to be translated.

Oops!

Clueless Promoters

Vaughan Roderick comments today on the mess that is the Visit Wales website. Vaughan notes that in the history of Wales page it goes straight from Norman Conquest of 1066 "They are reluctant to venture into Wales itself." to Owain Glyndwr in 1400, somehow forgetting to include the fact that Wales was conquered in between!

Visit Wales is, of course, a government body and Vaughan asks whether not government employees are the best placed to label Owain Glyndwr "tyrannical". I've got a far bigger worry though, because later on in the same page is this entry:

2000 – First Welsh Assembly is formed.

Um...don't you mean 1999?

One Man, One Voice

It's a very sad day, Don LaFontaine has died from pneuothermax aged 68.

Don't know who Don was? Of course you do, he was the voice of Hollywood. The guy who's deep voice and cheesy lines we all try to copy when drunk - "One Man" and "In a world without hope" and all that.

Thursday nights at the Cinema will never be the same!

Party Poopers

The Western Mail is reporting today that Cardiff has become the first Council in Wales to employ officers who's job is to stamp out late night house parties. The two officers will have power to hand out on the spot fines to those who blare music into the night. Apparently the officers will be patrolling the capital's streets from 7pm to 3pm Wednesday to Sunday.

Here's the Hen Ferchetan's Top Tip - have your party on Monday night!

Choir Charisma

Oh and good luck to both Ysgol Glanaethwy and Only Men Aloud! in the Last Choir Standing final tonight. They are competing against London based Revelations. It starts at 6pm and one choir will be voted off at the end of that programme with the winner chosen in a later programme tonight. Hopefully both Welsh choirs will survive to be the final two (with Glanaethwy pipping the boys to the title!).

The State of Wales

A number of different stories in different papers today try and paint a picture of Wales.

Firs up is the revelation that Powys is the happiest district in the UK, beating Manchester and West Lothian to the top spot. Down the other end of the scale Cynon Valley & Rhondda takes the second least cheerful spot, with Swansea down in 5th. Apparently the only place less happy than Ann Clwyd and Leighton Andrews' stomping ground is Edinburgh. A load of codswallop of course. Who pays for this kind of research? How do they decide how happy I am? I'm great today but was a bit miffed yesterday, should they change the result?

Next in line is the revelation that we Welsh are the fattest around, yes even more so than the battered mars bar munching Scots. Only two areas in Wales are outside the High and Highest fatty range, and we've got none in the Low or Lowest range. The fattest in Wales, that would be the citizens of Welsh Secretary Paul Murphy's Torfaen where 13.9% are obese. Cardiff pips Swansea to the title of healthiest county with "just" 7.4% obese.

Finally the listeners of Classic FM have voted Katherine Jenkins the best classical female singer and Bryn Terfel the second best male classical singer behind Last Choir Standing judge Russel Watson. (That's Peter Hain and Alun Ffred Jones to continue the meaningless politician link!).

So Wales is the happiest, most depressed, fattest, least confident, best singing country in the UK. Now that's quite a CV for a day's news!

Live Choirs

A quick note following on from my post about Last Choir Standing it seems that there will be a chance to see both Welsh Choirs singing live next week.

If either or both choirs survive Saturday's vote (It would help if you voted!) I understand that they will sing at the London welcome home party for the Olympic Team. Whatever happens on Saturday Only Men Aloud! have been invited by the Assembly to sing at the Welsh reception to the Welsh athletes down the Bay while there's talk of Ysgol Glanaethwy being invited to sing on the Monday night of Bryn Terfel's festival at the Faenol in Bangor.

If you get the chance to go to any of those events, go for it. If you can't make it then make sure you watch Last Choir Standing on Saturday (and VOTE - preferably for the kids of Ysgol Glanaethwy!)

Living up to the Stereotype

Two Welsh choirs have made it to the last 4 of BBC1's Saturday night programme Last Choir Standing.

Ysgol Glanaethwy from Bangor in North Wales and Only Men Aloud! (their ! not mine!) from all over South Wales but based in Cardiff have both won the right to compete in the series' semi-final next Saturday thanks to winning the public vote on two consecutive weeks.

I watched the programme for the first time last Saturday and my God are they good. I found the programme's website which has a video of every song sung by each choir and I'll say again, my God are they good.

Head over to the Last Choir Standing website or just use You Tube. I'd recommend Ysgol Glanaethwy's O Fortuna and Adiemus and Only Men Aloud!'s Goldfinger.

For the first time ever I actually telephoned a vote in such a programme on Saturday. My vote went to Ysgol Glanaethwy, the fact that high school kids can produce such sound is insane, and if you have the time to look at some of their other songs you can see that they have versatility too. It's only 15p a vote, go on, you know you want to!

Tale of Two Cities

Birmingham City Council recently sent out a leaflet to 720,000 citizens thanking them for their good work in helping the Council reach their recycling targets.


Pity that the picture under the heading "THANK YOU BIRMINGHAM" is of the skyline of Birmingham, Alabama, USA!

What's Up Doc?

First of all, a massive congratulations to the Doctor Who team in Cardiff. While debate rages on over whether David Tennant really has made his last Doctor Who appearance or not you have to be amazed at the fact that BBC Wales have managed to keep all this quiet.

When someone dies in Corrie, Eastenders or even Pobol y Cwm - everyone knows about it. Pictures of the crash/murder/fire (no-one dies of cancer in these places do they?!) will have been plastered over Hello and OK (or at least Golwg!) and the only question left for those watching the programme will be whodunnit?

If David Tennant's reign really is over then the amount of work the production team have gone to in announcing his new contract, having him on set while filming the Christmas special etc is astonishing. It would be a work of genius to be honest - catching everyone off guard in a major TV series is hard enough, doing so when people have been talking about Tennant leaving for at least a year is incredible.

On the other hand, if there is another twist to the tale in the final episode and Tennat is here to stay (and unlike Ordovicius and Peter Black I suspect there is such a twist, there must be a reason we keep seeing that old hand of the Doctor in the TARDIS) BBC Wales and Russel T Davies still have to be applauded for keeping everyone guessing.

The only DJ in the village?

The BBC website has a listing for BBC Radio Cymru's programmes, one of which is on Saturday afternoon hosted by long-time DJ Dafydd Du. Here's the bilingual listing for that programme...

21 Jun 2008 12:30 -15:00
BBC Radio Cymru
21/06/2008
Cerddoriaeth a sgwrs gyda Dafydd Du.
Music and chat with Daffyd Du.

I guess the Little Britain influence is strong at the BBC. Seriously though, which BBC idiot translated the correct Dafydd to the dodgy Daffyd!

An area the size of...

Here's an interesting teaching programme showing the effect a meteor would have if it impacted on Earth. You have to choose the speed, angle, density and material of the meteor and then it shows how large the impact site would be.

I have to say i had a bit of a shock when I reached the end and saw where the programme makers decided the meteor should hit!

Installation Irony

Catalan electricians and sign installers have been working hard in the Place de George Orwell (George Orwell's Square) in Barcelona...

Oh the irony!

Gwyneblyfr

As of last night Facebook is now available in the Welsh language. I got one hell of a surprise to log into Facebook this morning and find everything written in Welsh! Apparently it is not finished yet, there are 17,000 phrases still to be translated (down from 20,000 last night).

Facebook has a very clever way of translating itself. Instead of paying huge sums to a translator and then suffering the wrath of users who don't like the translations used Facebook lets the users do the hard work themselves. Facebook chooses what languages it wants itself translated into (Welsh is one of about 35, many of which are different Chinese languages) and then lists all words and phrases used in the system. Normal users then offer translations, while other users vote on which translations they prefer.

As far as I can find out, the process for translating into Welsh only started a week or two ago (when only the basic words were up fro translation). Phrases only started to be translated last night, and already enough has been done to fill my News Feed with Welsh.

Congratulations to those who have been translating - anyone else with any time to spare (be it 5 mins or an hour) go vote on translations!

Note: If your Facebook is still in English, all you need to do to get it translated is to add the "Translations" application (just use search) and choose Cymraeg. It will switch automatically. Enter this application then to help with the translating.

Question Time Cardiff

Question Time tonight (11pm BB1 Wales, 10.35pm BB1EverywhereElse) is from the Armadillo down the Bay. Helen Mary Jones is the token Welsh politician, flanked by London Health Secretary Alan Johnson, Tory shadow minister for business (and sometimes Have I Got News For You wannabe comedian) Alan Duncan, Cherie Blair's sister and one of the ex-Dragons Den millionaires Simon Woodroffe.

If you're sad enough to be getting drunk while watching a politicial talk programme, here's a drinking game for you...

- 2 fingers every time the Tory mentions 10p tax
- 2 fingers every time Helen Mary brags about the Plaid-LD deal in Cardiff
- 2 fingers every time Alan Johnson discusses London's health policy even though it has no impact on Cardiff
- 2 fingers every time Lauren Booth tries to explain how different she is from her sister
- 2 fingers each time rich boy Woodroffe mentions his time on Dragons Den or Yo! Sushi

- And finally - Down your whole drink on the obligatory question on whether or not the panel will be supporting cardiff City on Saturday.

Update: The Tory mentioned the tax often enough to get you very drunk, Woodroffe managed to fit in Yo! Sushi into his first answer and you would have had to down the drink as the Cardiff City question came along (what a surprise!)

Apparently, according to Dimbelby, Question Time cannot spend a single second discussing Welsh Assembly matters in their Cardiff programme because people outside Wales won't understand it but it can devote a whole question to over-testing of young kids. We had to depend on the audience to point out that there are much less tests in Wales (no Primary school sats)

I also love how poor the Lib Dem stooge who asked the Welsh Assembly question was at hiding the fact that he was a stooge!

Uncyclopedia on Wales

Browsing around the internet I found this site - Uncyclopedia.

It's a satirical take on wikipedia - and some of the pages on Wales are very well done.

Take a look at the Welsh Language page, the Cardiff page and Aberystwyth page

Top marks goes to the Wales page. Who ever said the Welsh couldn't laugh at themselves!

Let's Go Kill Again!

Dave of the Tories has announced that under a Conservative Government there would be a free vote on Hunting. Apparently he thinks that having a law so often breached is "idiotic". I wonder where David Cameron was when Prif Copyn Richard Brunstrom was advocating the legalisation of drugs - now that's an often breached law if I ever saw one!

I also like the fact that the Countryside Alliance has (obviously) reacted with joy at Dave's announcement. Weren't they the ones complaining that debating the Hunting ban in 2005 was such a waste of parliamentary time? Surely if it was a waste of time to spend hours debating it's banning, isn't it a waste of time to spend hours debating it's legalisation?

Hunting is banned. Get over it.

5 Dwarves

In a he said she said they said post Tom Livingstone quotes Adam Price as saying that his Labour friends find the candidates to replace Rhodri as uninspiring. Apparently they are:

the too pro-Plaid one, the too anti-Plaid one, the too posh one, the too clever-by-half one and the too boring one.

Number 1 and 2 are pretty easy to guess (both mentioned in my Labour Love In post), I wonder who the others are? Any guesses?

(oops, just noticed that i referred to Adam Price as a she - ah well!)