No logo please, I'm on a diet

I was out doing a lil' shopping last night when I cam across a gaggle of young boys, all in white overcoats walking into a non descript building on Electra. I was extremely curious. There was at least a baker's dozen if not more (you can't tell with small humans) and they were caring brown bags that sounded like they were full of bottles. My desire to learn more convinced me to investigate.

I watched as the doors of the elevator they entered closed and ran into the lobby to see what floor it would stop on. 13th. Ominous.

After a short elevator ride I found myself on a floor not quite unlike the one below me I considered. I could hear more bottles clinging and clanging from down the hall. Flat 1307.

I stood outside the door and could make out the mumblings of several young boys interspersed with laughing. Except it wasn't the normal laughter of a bunch of boys who'd secured allot of booze and cigarettes and had their parents flat to themselves. Oh no, this laughter tinged with something altogether more sinister.

I then heard the squawking of birds and the cuckles of some chicken. Deciding that what was happening inside might not be pleasant, I decided to call by brush with the unnatural over and scuppered down the flight of stairs as quickly as possible, unwilling to risk being discovered waiting for the elevator.

then I read this in gulf news today:


'Economists must be drafted in to help if bird flu strikes'


Abu Dhabi: Suitable schools should be selected to act as centers to receive patients in the wake of a major bird flu virus outbreak in the UAE, the National Committee for Emergency Response to Bird Flu has said.

Those kids! They were trying to develop the dreaded bird flu strain that would turn their schools into health centers! That's the only possible explanation!

Tonight I will free the chickens (fingers crossed)


Disclaimer: just in case some government type is reading this or anyone with only half a brain cell, I'm messing about. There were no kids. It's all fiction. But apparently, I'd be held responsible for anyone getting hysterical or spreading a rumor about little boys trying to concoct bird flu in their bedrooms with starter chemistry sets. Or so the following would have me believe:

Violent events fuel debate on policing of chatrooms

Dubai: The internet can be a priceless tool for finding out information on almost every subject under the sun just ask any harassed journalist who has a deadline looming.
However, as we all know, it can be misused in all sorts of ways and recent events have raised new questions about whether further regulation or censorship is needed.

For example, unfounded fears that an earthquake was imminent in the UAE have been spread through online chatrooms.

There were clashes in Birmingham in England between black and Asian youths after malicious internet rumors said that a 14-year-old girl had been sexually assaulted.

In Los Angeles, 19-year-old William Freund posted violent rantings on the internet shortly before going on a rampage, shooting dead two neighbors and killing himself.



For god's sake! Are people across earth just getting dumber? Or is everyone just waiting for something to have an excuse to take out their 21st century anxiety and frustration on their environment?

Ever heard of Adbusters or Reclaim The Streets ? When I first read that they were concerned that the annihilation of public space through the use of advertising and the insistence on function I though they were loonies. What harm could some billboards do, I though? But increasingly I'm coming to the conclusion that big cities make big idiots. We are all just on the edge of our seats, our trigger fingers itchy and our battle cries on the tip of our tongues.

And it looks like it's getting worse.