Intermission.

I'm working on a comparison of film and digital cameras which is turning into more of a book chapter than a blog post. I'll have to seriously abridge it for use here, so it'll be a while yet.

In the interests of procrastination, I looked through some online videos (no, not that kind) and found that the world is a more depressingly stupid place than even I had imagined.

This woman has a remarkably poor grasp of oratory skills, considering she is a teacher. She also has an artificial smile that is responsible for much teeth-grinding. Her appearance on the internet is a dentist's dream.

However, she makes some valid points once you get past her insistence that religion is the cure for all the world's ills. History tells us it's the cause of most of them but in a Freudian slip she admits that history should be deleted. Anyway, what she says about education is true. The current political oafs who run this country are so incompetent and corrupt that our once excellent education system is now in tatters.

I don't lecture to University students these days but when I did, I was appalled at how many of them were incapable of spelling simple words or of adding up a few numbers without a calculator. I taught as a lecturer for thirteen years. Those studying for HND at the start of those years had a better grasp of grammar, spelling and simple mathematics than those studying for postgraduate qualifications in the latter years. It's been three years since I last taught. I wonder if they still use words, or are they answering exam questions with cave paintings now?

This woman, this teacher, tells us why. Just don't look at her for too long or you'll hit the screen with something.

My favourite was the part where she describes attempting to teach children computing. The thing about computers is that they are absolutely literal.

If you can't spell it, the computer can't find it. In fifty years the Internet will be utterly useless because nobody will be able to spell any of the keywords stored on it.

Reminds me of an advert for a Beavis and Butthead game - 'a game starring two guys who can't even spell CD'.

There are far more than two now.