I have spent Christmas alone in 2009 deliberately albeit not in the way I intended it to be. I have done it before back in 2006 and but then it was unintended. So in 65 years, just 2 Christmases on my own; not a bad record I suspect
2009? Yeah well, I was gonna be busy packing for West Africa on Dec 29th and anyway the kids were gonna be elsewhere. The bloody rash on my body has got in the way. 2006 was going to be an African Safari but I tripped on the stairs and broke a rib. But that led to happiness for I then did the big safari in 2008. Might never have bothered if 2006 had gone well.
In reality, I simply don’t live alone at Christmas for I am lucky. I get a spate of phone calls; I chat to my children and my family. I get text messages and Facebook messages from around this planet. I simply don’t feel alone and for that I guess I am lucky. When I went to Malaysia for Christmas some years ago, I managed to rack up 1,500 quid in phone calls, outgoing and incoming.
The Times reports today that half a million people spent Christmas Day alone but how do they define it? Yes I was the only person in this house but note the communications above for I never felt alone. Then we get the observation that half the over-65’s say that television is their main company. Well that’s really bloody sad for our 5 terrestrial channels are consummate shite. If they were all I had to depend upon then it would be suicide tomorrow.
I am quite happy with my own company and you are free to put your own interpretation on that. I talk to myself quite a lot; it’s my way of mulling things over, getting things clear etc. My lovely secretary of 11 years, Linda, never got quite used to it. I’d be at my desk muttering and she’d pop her head round the door and ask if I wanted something. I’d just say I was talking to myself and she’d say, ‘OK.’
Right now, I don’t know what it must feel like to be alone. I just hope that I never shall.
Thursday 31 December 2009
Kitchen knives
Essential culinary tools here. Bought a new set of 5 yesterday, well discounted. Well I have a set of 6 kitchen knives already + a superb cook’s knife which I have owned for 20 years or so.
So why buy more? If you cook, you would know why. Firstly the ones that I have, the set that is, are a bit on the light side. They all have serrated edges and are two riveted which means the tang only goes half way down the handle. Quite honestly, I was never happy with them. When I bought them, it was said they never needed sharpening. Rubbish. When I bought an electric knife sharpener their performance improved overnight.
The new ones are fine. Full length tang and 3 rivets. Plus a proper bolster which leads me to believe they are one piece forged steel. The grain marks on the blades add to that conclusion. They have good weight and balance too so I’ll see how we get along.
Elsewhere in this house, I have a boning knife which I bought several years ago. This too is a full length knife with a three rivet handle. It says the cutting edge is formed of tungsten carbide and will never need sharpening. So far it hasn’t.
Finally I have a Chinese cleaver and this is the only kitchen ‘knife’ I own that has a metal handle. Looks to be a single piece of steel and does its job well.
So why buy more? If you cook, you would know why. Firstly the ones that I have, the set that is, are a bit on the light side. They all have serrated edges and are two riveted which means the tang only goes half way down the handle. Quite honestly, I was never happy with them. When I bought them, it was said they never needed sharpening. Rubbish. When I bought an electric knife sharpener their performance improved overnight.
The new ones are fine. Full length tang and 3 rivets. Plus a proper bolster which leads me to believe they are one piece forged steel. The grain marks on the blades add to that conclusion. They have good weight and balance too so I’ll see how we get along.
Elsewhere in this house, I have a boning knife which I bought several years ago. This too is a full length knife with a three rivet handle. It says the cutting edge is formed of tungsten carbide and will never need sharpening. So far it hasn’t.
Finally I have a Chinese cleaver and this is the only kitchen ‘knife’ I own that has a metal handle. Looks to be a single piece of steel and does its job well.
Foreign secretaries
All governments have someone who is responsible for relationships with foreign countries. Ours is called the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs; today it is a bloke of the name Ed Miliband – pleasant but looks dreadfully inexperienced. The USA simply calls the job ‘Secretary of State’ and the current holder of that title is the redoubtable Hillary Clinton. There has been comment that Hillary and Ed get along very well even hints that there might be a sexual chemistry between them. Cannot say that I am surprised. Ed’s a pretty boy and so was Bill Clinton so she’d fancy him.
The European Union picked a woman, Baroness Catherine Ashton, to be its first ‘High Representative for Foreign Affairs’ back in November. None of us knew her and when you read up on her you understand that she has bugger all experience of most other countries. Oh yes, she may have been to conferences in 5 star hotels in Rio or Vladivostok but what is her sense of history? As I said about impotent chiefs earlier, just another time waster elected on the basis of ‘won’t cause trouble.’
We had a Labour guy, David Owen in this job in the late 70’s, doctor of medicine. And he went to Iran to meet the Shah. All I recall is that after he left, the Shah asked those around him, ‘Is he any good as a doctor?’ Says it all doesn’t it.
And then you have two towering figures in this job – Molotov and Kissinger. Molotov is a distant figure to me but he survived under Stalin and brokered many deals. Kissinger? Dunno how history would judge him but he always seemed to have some common sense. Like so many others he really didn’t achieve much in Vietnam. He fought tirelessly for peace in the Middle East but then he would do for he is of Jewish origins. Not sure of his interaction with Anwar Sadat but I imagine that it was positive.
I dare say that I have visited more countries than most of these buggers and I would say that I have a fair knowledge of history. Does that qualify me for the post of Foreign Secretary? ‘Yes and No,’ is my conclusion. You can draw your own. ‘Yes,’ I guess because I have knowledge of these places and their history. ‘No,’ because I cannot help feeling involved in them and that would discount me on the grounds of being subjective. On balance, it is a ‘No.’
But we do need clear and firm people in this job and in Britain at least, we have certainly failed to choose such people. Who the hell remembers Francis Pym? I have talked much on appeasement before and our lot seem hell bent on it. Let’s face it, if anyone had suggested the conquest of India to the Foreign Office, they would have said, ‘Oh dear, no.’ But no one asked the East India Company that question and they just went ahead with it.
I suppose if you are not the head of state or prime minister, then the most coveted post is to be the head of foreign affairs. You don’t have to worry about the home economy, home affairs, business, trade or pretty much anything that affects the everyday lives of the people who elected you and your government. No, all you have to do is travel to conferences much warmer than the UK in winter, call in the odd ambassador and bollock him for locking up some Brit who had 5kg of cocaine in his bowels, make the odd statement like ‘condemn’ or ‘deplore,’ or ‘deeply shocked,’ and so on and so on. And of course, if anything unexpected happens as it did for Peter Carrington in the Falklands invasion, you can put it all down to ‘poor intelligence.’ You’ll look good though straddling the world stage.
But Mr Miliband, on my next trip, to West Africa, your lot say I should not go to Timbuktu cus I might get killed. What are you or Hillary or any other bugger doing about that? And what about the starving people in this world? Not your problem, I suspect. That will be down to some department of International Development or whatever. I guess giving support to wogs is someone else’s business.
The European Union picked a woman, Baroness Catherine Ashton, to be its first ‘High Representative for Foreign Affairs’ back in November. None of us knew her and when you read up on her you understand that she has bugger all experience of most other countries. Oh yes, she may have been to conferences in 5 star hotels in Rio or Vladivostok but what is her sense of history? As I said about impotent chiefs earlier, just another time waster elected on the basis of ‘won’t cause trouble.’
We had a Labour guy, David Owen in this job in the late 70’s, doctor of medicine. And he went to Iran to meet the Shah. All I recall is that after he left, the Shah asked those around him, ‘Is he any good as a doctor?’ Says it all doesn’t it.
And then you have two towering figures in this job – Molotov and Kissinger. Molotov is a distant figure to me but he survived under Stalin and brokered many deals. Kissinger? Dunno how history would judge him but he always seemed to have some common sense. Like so many others he really didn’t achieve much in Vietnam. He fought tirelessly for peace in the Middle East but then he would do for he is of Jewish origins. Not sure of his interaction with Anwar Sadat but I imagine that it was positive.
I dare say that I have visited more countries than most of these buggers and I would say that I have a fair knowledge of history. Does that qualify me for the post of Foreign Secretary? ‘Yes and No,’ is my conclusion. You can draw your own. ‘Yes,’ I guess because I have knowledge of these places and their history. ‘No,’ because I cannot help feeling involved in them and that would discount me on the grounds of being subjective. On balance, it is a ‘No.’
But we do need clear and firm people in this job and in Britain at least, we have certainly failed to choose such people. Who the hell remembers Francis Pym? I have talked much on appeasement before and our lot seem hell bent on it. Let’s face it, if anyone had suggested the conquest of India to the Foreign Office, they would have said, ‘Oh dear, no.’ But no one asked the East India Company that question and they just went ahead with it.
I suppose if you are not the head of state or prime minister, then the most coveted post is to be the head of foreign affairs. You don’t have to worry about the home economy, home affairs, business, trade or pretty much anything that affects the everyday lives of the people who elected you and your government. No, all you have to do is travel to conferences much warmer than the UK in winter, call in the odd ambassador and bollock him for locking up some Brit who had 5kg of cocaine in his bowels, make the odd statement like ‘condemn’ or ‘deplore,’ or ‘deeply shocked,’ and so on and so on. And of course, if anything unexpected happens as it did for Peter Carrington in the Falklands invasion, you can put it all down to ‘poor intelligence.’ You’ll look good though straddling the world stage.
But Mr Miliband, on my next trip, to West Africa, your lot say I should not go to Timbuktu cus I might get killed. What are you or Hillary or any other bugger doing about that? And what about the starving people in this world? Not your problem, I suspect. That will be down to some department of International Development or whatever. I guess giving support to wogs is someone else’s business.
Tuesday 29 December 2009
British top brass today
The Times reports today that the British Army has 65 generals. Well if you add in the 190 Brigadiers (one star generals in the USA), that comes up to 255 of them in an army of around 100,000 troops. That's one for every 392 troops. Then we get 31 admirals for around 73 ships (ignoring the Mickey Mouse motor boats) and 36 various air marshals for 1,109 aircraft and 44,300 people. To say this lot was top heavy would be an understatement although the RAF looks leaner than the others.
Many years ago, an aunt of my wife, working in the Admiralty, said that back in WWI we had more ships at sea than people working in the Admiralty but even then (70's I think) the situation had reversed.
I know that not all these people are leading combat forces. Indeed I suspect few of them are. Most likely they are on NATO committees and US liaison comittees or the like. The only certain thing is that they earn lots of money. Well, it's tighten your belt time. So let's have a massive cull and spend the money on decent weapons.
Many years ago, an aunt of my wife, working in the Admiralty, said that back in WWI we had more ships at sea than people working in the Admiralty but even then (70's I think) the situation had reversed.
I know that not all these people are leading combat forces. Indeed I suspect few of them are. Most likely they are on NATO committees and US liaison comittees or the like. The only certain thing is that they earn lots of money. Well, it's tighten your belt time. So let's have a massive cull and spend the money on decent weapons.
Charities and giving to them
Got another plastic thingy through the door this morning. This time, a plastic sack with a begging note from Marie Curie Cancer Care. I chucked it in the waste paper basket. I seem to get this from them once a month. Same goes for other major charities. They simply bombard you with packages, literature and sometimes quite shitty ball point pens requesting you fill out some direct debit form. I don't need to list the names. You know them quite well because you get the same.
Don't get me wrong; I am in favour of charities even though I would have thought that any decent government could make them redundant. But that's naive and simplistic. No, what pisses me off is that so many of the bigger charities seem to spend so much money on so called fund raising that you wonder just how much money actually gets to the people they say they are helping.
I used to give £50 a month to Save the Children before I retired. Did that stop the garbage coming through my letter box? No! If anything, it only made things worse. They would phone me up once a month begging for more. In this day and age of computer databases, you'd think they could put some tags on me like, 'already donates', 'unwilling to pay more,' 'do not mail,' and so on and stop wasting their bloody time.
So I have scrapped them and, guess what? I don't get the mail shots nor the phone calls. They never even inquired as to my reasons for cancelling my direct debit. Just goes to show how bloody useless their monitoring system is.
So now I have a monthly direct debit payment to WaterAid and at Christmas, I send no cards but bung PumpAid 50 quid. Neither pesters me with letters or other crap so I suspect they use most of my money on doing what they intended to do which is providing clean water and sanitation to the poorer people of our world. And I am not sentimental here. Give them clean water and sanitation and maybe they will have fewer diseases - and then we won't have to send them expensive drugs to treat them.
Not only that but if you give them accessible water, then they might grow a few crops to feed themselves.
My Chinese general manager once told me, paraphrasing some old Chinese proverb, 'Many people who visit me bring me fish, but only you show me how to fish.' I was simultaneously flattered and humbled.
Don't get me wrong; I am in favour of charities even though I would have thought that any decent government could make them redundant. But that's naive and simplistic. No, what pisses me off is that so many of the bigger charities seem to spend so much money on so called fund raising that you wonder just how much money actually gets to the people they say they are helping.
I used to give £50 a month to Save the Children before I retired. Did that stop the garbage coming through my letter box? No! If anything, it only made things worse. They would phone me up once a month begging for more. In this day and age of computer databases, you'd think they could put some tags on me like, 'already donates', 'unwilling to pay more,' 'do not mail,' and so on and stop wasting their bloody time.
So I have scrapped them and, guess what? I don't get the mail shots nor the phone calls. They never even inquired as to my reasons for cancelling my direct debit. Just goes to show how bloody useless their monitoring system is.
So now I have a monthly direct debit payment to WaterAid and at Christmas, I send no cards but bung PumpAid 50 quid. Neither pesters me with letters or other crap so I suspect they use most of my money on doing what they intended to do which is providing clean water and sanitation to the poorer people of our world. And I am not sentimental here. Give them clean water and sanitation and maybe they will have fewer diseases - and then we won't have to send them expensive drugs to treat them.
Not only that but if you give them accessible water, then they might grow a few crops to feed themselves.
My Chinese general manager once told me, paraphrasing some old Chinese proverb, 'Many people who visit me bring me fish, but only you show me how to fish.' I was simultaneously flattered and humbled.
Sunday 27 December 2009
The power of 3
My mom always believed that events happened in threes. She did not believe that all events happened in packets of three but when there were two related events, and then she believed a third would follow. They tended to be on the gloomy side, like air crashes and earthquakes but also lighter things like lucky happenings, pregnancies within the family and the like. I used to joke with her when a 4th likewise event occurred in a row; she just said it’s the start of the second sequence of three.
So then you think about speeches and you see the power of the triplet. So many people’s speeches use them. At it’s simplest, it is something like, ‘We shall fight, fight and fight again!’ Then look at the structure of a good speech or presentation. I don’t know who first said it but it has stuck in my mind ever since. First, you tell them what you are going to say (that is, outline the structure.) Second, tell them (for that is the body of your message). Thirdly, tell them what you have said (this is the summary aimed to implant the key points in the mind of the listener.)
Of course like all rules, they can be even better when broken imaginatively and no example is better than Churchill’s ‘we shall fight on the beaches speech.’
And on that note, let’s go the Rule of thirds for pictures and photography. Read somewhere that the Greeks came up with this when looking at the Golden Section which you can research for yourself. Basically, the argument goes that you should split your pic up into thirds by dropping lines down at 1/3rd and 2/3rds. Then you do the same horizontally and if you place the subject at any of the intersections, you’ll get an aesthetically pleasing picture. Well you do but when you ignore this rule you get two outcomes: shite or drama. (The camera makers know all about this which is why many cameras give you the option of overlaying the grid on your viewing screen.)
The triangle is quite pleasing for it has given us the pyramids.
Then you have the Holy Trinity. Never got to grips with this 3 in 1 business.
Moving on to mathematics or geometry to be specific. Plenty of rules regarding the bisection of angles but few on trisection. Think you can do 90 degrees and 72 degrees but the rest have defied mathematicians for centuries.
So let’s go on to divisibility.
Now divisibility by 2 is pretty obvious – if it’s even then you can do it. With 5, all you need is to end the number with a 5 or a zero. So what about 3’s? It’s actually very simple – if the sum of the digits of a number is divisible by 3 then so is the whole number. Try it with things like 171. Easy innit? 1+7+1 is 9 which is divisible by 3 but then so is 171 – result 37.
So then you think about speeches and you see the power of the triplet. So many people’s speeches use them. At it’s simplest, it is something like, ‘We shall fight, fight and fight again!’ Then look at the structure of a good speech or presentation. I don’t know who first said it but it has stuck in my mind ever since. First, you tell them what you are going to say (that is, outline the structure.) Second, tell them (for that is the body of your message). Thirdly, tell them what you have said (this is the summary aimed to implant the key points in the mind of the listener.)
Of course like all rules, they can be even better when broken imaginatively and no example is better than Churchill’s ‘we shall fight on the beaches speech.’
And on that note, let’s go the Rule of thirds for pictures and photography. Read somewhere that the Greeks came up with this when looking at the Golden Section which you can research for yourself. Basically, the argument goes that you should split your pic up into thirds by dropping lines down at 1/3rd and 2/3rds. Then you do the same horizontally and if you place the subject at any of the intersections, you’ll get an aesthetically pleasing picture. Well you do but when you ignore this rule you get two outcomes: shite or drama. (The camera makers know all about this which is why many cameras give you the option of overlaying the grid on your viewing screen.)
The triangle is quite pleasing for it has given us the pyramids.
Then you have the Holy Trinity. Never got to grips with this 3 in 1 business.
Moving on to mathematics or geometry to be specific. Plenty of rules regarding the bisection of angles but few on trisection. Think you can do 90 degrees and 72 degrees but the rest have defied mathematicians for centuries.
So let’s go on to divisibility.
Now divisibility by 2 is pretty obvious – if it’s even then you can do it. With 5, all you need is to end the number with a 5 or a zero. So what about 3’s? It’s actually very simple – if the sum of the digits of a number is divisible by 3 then so is the whole number. Try it with things like 171. Easy innit? 1+7+1 is 9 which is divisible by 3 but then so is 171 – result 37.
Magic moments in no particular order
- the birth of my daughter Caroline. Skin like a peach – perfection
- the launch of Apollo 11, live on TV
- the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon, again live
- the birth of a Peacock butterfly in the palm of my hand
- the sight of Smith Island, my first sight of Antarctica
- my first visit to New York; it snowed and it was Fairyland
- landing at Kai Tak, Hong Kong. No landing is ever so exciting
- the scream of those Rolls Royce Conways at take-off
- holding my grandsons
- watching a space shuttle launch
- tasting Chateau Rieussec
- first sex with some women who I shall not name
- my very first serious kiss
- glacier walking
- dawn in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
- Beatles in the Cavern
- casting off in a ship
- and docking in a ship
- first sight of La Pieta
- the final change of my peal of 5111 Grandsire Caters + the middle roll up
- George’s half muffled peal
- any and all 747 take offs
- the total eclipse of the sun in Turkey 2006
- sitting with mountain gorillas
- patting a wild lion’s butt and a cheetah’s head
- watching a star grazing the moon so close that it twinkled as the light passed behind the mountains and down the valleys
- taking my mom up Scafell Pike
- Peter’s bridge
- dawn in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
- ERB at the baggage belt
- getting a certificate, my first, at about 6 yo for an essay on Road Safety
- retirement
- the Lord’s Rake on Scafell in snow with my kids
- winning our first overseas order with Saab
- owning my first calculator
- first time on a PC. It was wondrous.
- seeing Comet Hale-Bopp
- visiting the Kremlin
- Iguacu Falls – every minute
- aborted landings – scary yes but the frisson of excitement is something else
- being made Managing Director
- watching Pluto New Horizons take my name to the stars – came home early to see the launch
- the tears of some ladies at my retirement – it was humbling
- blowing up the fume cupboard at school
- sitting with Sally, my cat and hugging her in the morning
- the smell of a steam engine
- farting in the bath with bubbles tickling
- sunset in the Sahara
- the look on the kids faces in Swakopmund township when we gave them notebooks and pens. And then there was the little boy in Norok, Kenya who said ‘God, bless you, sir’ when I gave him a pen.
- first sight of the rings of Saturn through a telescope
- Gilbert Kaplan conducting Mahler’s 2nd Symphony
There are plenty more and perhaps, just perhaps, I shall extend this list someday. Certainly the arrival of Pluto New Horizons at Pluto in 2015 will be amongst them.
- the launch of Apollo 11, live on TV
- the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon, again live
- the birth of a Peacock butterfly in the palm of my hand
- the sight of Smith Island, my first sight of Antarctica
- my first visit to New York; it snowed and it was Fairyland
- landing at Kai Tak, Hong Kong. No landing is ever so exciting
- the scream of those Rolls Royce Conways at take-off
- holding my grandsons
- watching a space shuttle launch
- tasting Chateau Rieussec
- first sex with some women who I shall not name
- my very first serious kiss
- glacier walking
- dawn in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
- Beatles in the Cavern
- casting off in a ship
- and docking in a ship
- first sight of La Pieta
- the final change of my peal of 5111 Grandsire Caters + the middle roll up
- George’s half muffled peal
- any and all 747 take offs
- the total eclipse of the sun in Turkey 2006
- sitting with mountain gorillas
- patting a wild lion’s butt and a cheetah’s head
- watching a star grazing the moon so close that it twinkled as the light passed behind the mountains and down the valleys
- taking my mom up Scafell Pike
- Peter’s bridge
- dawn in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
- ERB at the baggage belt
- getting a certificate, my first, at about 6 yo for an essay on Road Safety
- retirement
- the Lord’s Rake on Scafell in snow with my kids
- winning our first overseas order with Saab
- owning my first calculator
- first time on a PC. It was wondrous.
- seeing Comet Hale-Bopp
- visiting the Kremlin
- Iguacu Falls – every minute
- aborted landings – scary yes but the frisson of excitement is something else
- being made Managing Director
- watching Pluto New Horizons take my name to the stars – came home early to see the launch
- the tears of some ladies at my retirement – it was humbling
- blowing up the fume cupboard at school
- sitting with Sally, my cat and hugging her in the morning
- the smell of a steam engine
- farting in the bath with bubbles tickling
- sunset in the Sahara
- the look on the kids faces in Swakopmund township when we gave them notebooks and pens. And then there was the little boy in Norok, Kenya who said ‘God, bless you, sir’ when I gave him a pen.
- first sight of the rings of Saturn through a telescope
- Gilbert Kaplan conducting Mahler’s 2nd Symphony
There are plenty more and perhaps, just perhaps, I shall extend this list someday. Certainly the arrival of Pluto New Horizons at Pluto in 2015 will be amongst them.
IBM and the holocaust
In 2005, I went to the Czech Republic, mainly in and around Prague. I went out of town too and amongst my wanderings I went to the village of Terezin. It wasn’t an extermination camp although plenty died there. Rather it was a sort of gathering place where the Jews could be rounded up before being transported and killed.
Go back if you will to my blog of 14/11/2008 when I wrote about Terezin.
I wrote the following in my dairy at the time:
‘A chilling thought crossed my mind here. They managed all this with typewriters and telexes and still slaughtered 5m out of Europe’s 11m (their figure) Jews. What on Earth could they have done with PC’s and the Internet?’
Didn’t give it anymore thought until a few months ago when I stumbled upon something on the Internet. Apparently a German guy called Hollerith (of whom I had heard) invented the punch card and via a series of mergers and acquisitions led to the company we know of today as IBM. In 1933, the Nazis conducted a census of Germany and used punched cards to record the details of people including race.
Interesting. So that’s how they traced the Jews so quickly. See my musings are not so daft after all.
Footnote: Internet writings say that IBM were complicit in the holocaust but I see no real evidence. Yes their technology may have helped but it doesn’t mean that they collaborated in the gassings nor even that they were aware of them. I shall wait and see.
Go back if you will to my blog of 14/11/2008 when I wrote about Terezin.
I wrote the following in my dairy at the time:
‘A chilling thought crossed my mind here. They managed all this with typewriters and telexes and still slaughtered 5m out of Europe’s 11m (their figure) Jews. What on Earth could they have done with PC’s and the Internet?’
Didn’t give it anymore thought until a few months ago when I stumbled upon something on the Internet. Apparently a German guy called Hollerith (of whom I had heard) invented the punch card and via a series of mergers and acquisitions led to the company we know of today as IBM. In 1933, the Nazis conducted a census of Germany and used punched cards to record the details of people including race.
Interesting. So that’s how they traced the Jews so quickly. See my musings are not so daft after all.
Footnote: Internet writings say that IBM were complicit in the holocaust but I see no real evidence. Yes their technology may have helped but it doesn’t mean that they collaborated in the gassings nor even that they were aware of them. I shall wait and see.
Climate change and things
Yeah I believe the world is getting warmer and that mankind’s emissions of CO2 are a major factor. Then you have all these animals farting and we know that CH4 is a far worse greenhouse gas than CO2. Indeed, if you read up on the Permian extinction (the greatest ever loss of life on Earth), about 250 million years ago, the CO2 warmed up the Earth but not too much. However, it got to a point when the methyl clathrates burst and the overwhelming release of CH4 did the trick. Mind you it took a few 100’s of thousands of years so maybe it isn’t a threat to us right now.
A bigger worry for me is not the rising sea levels for they say if all the ice caps melted then sea levels would rise by 64m. Nasty but not the end of the world and it would take them a long time to do so. More plausible was the scenario in the movie, ‘The Day after Tomorrow.’ I had read about this well before the move – if just enough cold fresh water from the Greenland ice cap hit and stopped the Gulf Stream, it could happen with days or weeks and the Northern Hemisphere could be plunged into a new Ice Age. The outstanding question for me is, ‘How did ever warm up again?’ Maybe it’s the Earth axis wobble.
My biggest concern for you all is that we are fiddling around the edges and not tackling the big issue. Think that awful word ‘holistic’ entered our vocabulary about 30 years ago but it’s the approach we need right now.
Let me digress:
Breast cancer is the biggest cancer in the UK and we screen for that but know little about the underlying causes. Prostate comes in at no 3 and colorectal at no 4. Don’t see either being tackled. Ah but Lung Cancer is no 2 so let’s bash the smokers. Non-smokers don’t like them so they are a simple easy target.
Cars? Well we’ll hit them with emissions related taxes. We’ll encourage electric cars even though the leccy is primarily generated from fossil fuels. Maybe we go to fuel cells using methanol (mostly produced from oil) and oxygen which still pumps CO2 into the atmosphere. Hydrogen? Er that’s a bit difficult so we are going to have to wait.
Flights? Well, whack up the taxes. But where does the money go? Doubt if it does much for emissions.
Incandescent light bulbs? An easy one too but this ignores the fact that the output of fluorescent ones degrades in time and that when you consider the economics of manufacture and disposal, they save far less energy than the simplistic figures advertised. And they add mercury to their disposal dumps.
We are just picking at bits and the ‘easy bits’ at that. We have ignored the bigger things and have focussed much more on emissions that CO2 absorption.
Green movements have opposed fission based nuclear reactors for years. Yes there have been accidents and deaths but nothing like those of the coal industry. And here I am only talking about direct casualties. Fusion reactors have been forecast since I was about 12 and are still said to be 50 years away.
Deforestation is killing the lungs of the planet. What is being done about that? Neither Kyoto nor Copenhagen paid much attention to that. We really must stop this.
There is talk about freezing CO2 and burying it but is that not like bandaging a septic cut? And anyway, where is the pressure to accelerate this?
Charcoal for cooking in Africa is laying waste to the woodland and no doubt generating loads of CO2. SolarAid, a charity, is trying to provide solar panels to give people light. I suggested they might also offer those cheap mirrored reflectors used in Asia with the cooking pot at the focus. Their answer was that it isn’t always sunny. True, it isn’t always but in the tropics, it very often is so that might reduce charcoal consumption by 2/3rds a year when it is.
And what if we do switch to fusion and/or hydrogen, what will be the outcome of all that extra water? Anyone thought that one through? The Met Office has already said that high altitude contrails over Britain affect our climate.
And I haven’t even started on ocean acidification.
Copenhagen? Load of hot air (no pun intended). Achieved bugger all and no other conference will until we enter them with a spirit of ‘let’s see what we can do together.’
And then there is the cold snap in the reign of Edward II which wiped out half of the British population through famine – that, is more than the Black Death. Why did that happen?
And finally, there is population, sheer numbers. China has limited offspring to one except in special circumstances. Are any of the rest of us willing to do the same? It is the sheer numbers and their aspirations (albeit individually justified) that is the biggest threat of all. Anyone measured the CO2 increase attributable to breathing humans?
Now we all know that mercury, cadmium, cyanides etc. are real and clear nasties. But then the composition of our air and water and their interactions are far more complex. Do we really understand them? Dear God, we are hard pushed to forecast the weather a week away with anymore accuracy than you predicting the time you will serve your next Sunday dinner.
I don’t know the answers in all this but I’m damn sure that we have got nowhere near it so far.
A bigger worry for me is not the rising sea levels for they say if all the ice caps melted then sea levels would rise by 64m. Nasty but not the end of the world and it would take them a long time to do so. More plausible was the scenario in the movie, ‘The Day after Tomorrow.’ I had read about this well before the move – if just enough cold fresh water from the Greenland ice cap hit and stopped the Gulf Stream, it could happen with days or weeks and the Northern Hemisphere could be plunged into a new Ice Age. The outstanding question for me is, ‘How did ever warm up again?’ Maybe it’s the Earth axis wobble.
My biggest concern for you all is that we are fiddling around the edges and not tackling the big issue. Think that awful word ‘holistic’ entered our vocabulary about 30 years ago but it’s the approach we need right now.
Let me digress:
Breast cancer is the biggest cancer in the UK and we screen for that but know little about the underlying causes. Prostate comes in at no 3 and colorectal at no 4. Don’t see either being tackled. Ah but Lung Cancer is no 2 so let’s bash the smokers. Non-smokers don’t like them so they are a simple easy target.
Cars? Well we’ll hit them with emissions related taxes. We’ll encourage electric cars even though the leccy is primarily generated from fossil fuels. Maybe we go to fuel cells using methanol (mostly produced from oil) and oxygen which still pumps CO2 into the atmosphere. Hydrogen? Er that’s a bit difficult so we are going to have to wait.
Flights? Well, whack up the taxes. But where does the money go? Doubt if it does much for emissions.
Incandescent light bulbs? An easy one too but this ignores the fact that the output of fluorescent ones degrades in time and that when you consider the economics of manufacture and disposal, they save far less energy than the simplistic figures advertised. And they add mercury to their disposal dumps.
We are just picking at bits and the ‘easy bits’ at that. We have ignored the bigger things and have focussed much more on emissions that CO2 absorption.
Green movements have opposed fission based nuclear reactors for years. Yes there have been accidents and deaths but nothing like those of the coal industry. And here I am only talking about direct casualties. Fusion reactors have been forecast since I was about 12 and are still said to be 50 years away.
Deforestation is killing the lungs of the planet. What is being done about that? Neither Kyoto nor Copenhagen paid much attention to that. We really must stop this.
There is talk about freezing CO2 and burying it but is that not like bandaging a septic cut? And anyway, where is the pressure to accelerate this?
Charcoal for cooking in Africa is laying waste to the woodland and no doubt generating loads of CO2. SolarAid, a charity, is trying to provide solar panels to give people light. I suggested they might also offer those cheap mirrored reflectors used in Asia with the cooking pot at the focus. Their answer was that it isn’t always sunny. True, it isn’t always but in the tropics, it very often is so that might reduce charcoal consumption by 2/3rds a year when it is.
And what if we do switch to fusion and/or hydrogen, what will be the outcome of all that extra water? Anyone thought that one through? The Met Office has already said that high altitude contrails over Britain affect our climate.
And I haven’t even started on ocean acidification.
Copenhagen? Load of hot air (no pun intended). Achieved bugger all and no other conference will until we enter them with a spirit of ‘let’s see what we can do together.’
And then there is the cold snap in the reign of Edward II which wiped out half of the British population through famine – that, is more than the Black Death. Why did that happen?
And finally, there is population, sheer numbers. China has limited offspring to one except in special circumstances. Are any of the rest of us willing to do the same? It is the sheer numbers and their aspirations (albeit individually justified) that is the biggest threat of all. Anyone measured the CO2 increase attributable to breathing humans?
Now we all know that mercury, cadmium, cyanides etc. are real and clear nasties. But then the composition of our air and water and their interactions are far more complex. Do we really understand them? Dear God, we are hard pushed to forecast the weather a week away with anymore accuracy than you predicting the time you will serve your next Sunday dinner.
I don’t know the answers in all this but I’m damn sure that we have got nowhere near it so far.
Night trains
I have done 7 of these and each has been the triumph of hope over experience.
Hanoi – Hue
Moscow – Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg – Irkutsk
Beijing – Xi’an
Xi’an – Lanzhou
Lanzhou – Jiaguyuan
Dunhuang – Turpan
I find the whole idea of a night train romantic and exhilarating. Maybe, it’s down to the movies that I saw in my youth but they were on flashy trains like the Orient Express. Certainly, going for the night train is exciting. Bit like the bus stations about which I wrote ages ago.
Loads of people and baggage, full of purpose like yourself. The darkness just adds to the drama. A bit of a panic at check-in and after that you sometimes wait for ages or are quickly out on the platform looking for your coach which is marked up in a foreign language. And then there are the carriage attendants, usually female and as helpful as a brick. Pretty much the same as flying really, although as ever charm will get you everywhere. No sign here of the graceful waiters with the candle lit tables that you saw in the movies.
Then to your cabin. If you are lucky, you get a lower bunk. If not you get an upper one which requires the skills of a gymnast to get into and to get down from. Beds are not especially comfortable but the ones I have been on have been reasonably clean. Then you move off and since you are leaving a city, there is a huge clatter as you move over zillions of points and this lasts for ages. So maybe you get a few hours sleep but you won’t get much.
Since all the ones I have been on were in ex-Communist countries, there is always a supply of boiling water is each coach. Buy your coffee, sugar and milk powder from the carriage lady and you are all set.The Trans Siberian even served some half decent meals.
Then there is arrival, sometimes at some ungodly hour. Whatever, for me it is always a panic to get my things together.
But, they are still magical and I would do one again tomorrow.
Hanoi – Hue
Moscow – Yekaterinburg
Yekaterinburg – Irkutsk
Beijing – Xi’an
Xi’an – Lanzhou
Lanzhou – Jiaguyuan
Dunhuang – Turpan
I find the whole idea of a night train romantic and exhilarating. Maybe, it’s down to the movies that I saw in my youth but they were on flashy trains like the Orient Express. Certainly, going for the night train is exciting. Bit like the bus stations about which I wrote ages ago.
Loads of people and baggage, full of purpose like yourself. The darkness just adds to the drama. A bit of a panic at check-in and after that you sometimes wait for ages or are quickly out on the platform looking for your coach which is marked up in a foreign language. And then there are the carriage attendants, usually female and as helpful as a brick. Pretty much the same as flying really, although as ever charm will get you everywhere. No sign here of the graceful waiters with the candle lit tables that you saw in the movies.
Then to your cabin. If you are lucky, you get a lower bunk. If not you get an upper one which requires the skills of a gymnast to get into and to get down from. Beds are not especially comfortable but the ones I have been on have been reasonably clean. Then you move off and since you are leaving a city, there is a huge clatter as you move over zillions of points and this lasts for ages. So maybe you get a few hours sleep but you won’t get much.
Since all the ones I have been on were in ex-Communist countries, there is always a supply of boiling water is each coach. Buy your coffee, sugar and milk powder from the carriage lady and you are all set.The Trans Siberian even served some half decent meals.
Then there is arrival, sometimes at some ungodly hour. Whatever, for me it is always a panic to get my things together.
But, they are still magical and I would do one again tomorrow.
Wednesday 23 December 2009
Anglican church is doomed
Oh, it surely is. I have talked about appeasement before and the way it never succeeds. The Anglican Chrurch seems to yield to every shift in public opinion in the vain hope of hanging onto its congregation and perhaps gaining a few more. Yet it has done neither. Hasn't been all appeasment though; there has been welcome opposition to homosexuals being elevated to high office and you can read your Bible to see what God thinks of that. Same with masturbation and contraception - just look up Onan.
The latest piece of shit is an Anglican priest who says if you've got nothing then it's fine to shoplift from national chain stores but not the little people. He qualifies his remarks by saying only take what you need and no more. He says that shoplifting is better than burglary, drugs and prostitution and there I would agree with him. But would it not have been better if he had said that it's all wrong.
Like:
It's all desperate but don't resort to crime! Come round, have a cup of tea and let's see if we can find a new way?
I doubt he thought of this - 'too difficult' folder.
What next I wonder? Robbing banks is OK cus they all have fat bonuses. Abuse a BA cabin crew member cus they are overpaid. No nearby public toilets? Fine then shit in the gutter.You don't like morning service: OK we'll make it Heavy Metal. It is a downhill road and they have been on it for years. Dear God this Church is insane.
The Roman Catholic church is authoritarian as was Margaret Thatcher. The Anglican church just flows with the breeze. And if you follow the breeze, you end up where the wind dumps you.
The latest piece of shit is an Anglican priest who says if you've got nothing then it's fine to shoplift from national chain stores but not the little people. He qualifies his remarks by saying only take what you need and no more. He says that shoplifting is better than burglary, drugs and prostitution and there I would agree with him. But would it not have been better if he had said that it's all wrong.
Like:
It's all desperate but don't resort to crime! Come round, have a cup of tea and let's see if we can find a new way?
I doubt he thought of this - 'too difficult' folder.
What next I wonder? Robbing banks is OK cus they all have fat bonuses. Abuse a BA cabin crew member cus they are overpaid. No nearby public toilets? Fine then shit in the gutter.You don't like morning service: OK we'll make it Heavy Metal. It is a downhill road and they have been on it for years. Dear God this Church is insane.
The Roman Catholic church is authoritarian as was Margaret Thatcher. The Anglican church just flows with the breeze. And if you follow the breeze, you end up where the wind dumps you.
Monday 21 December 2009
Soldiers and beauty
Not two subjects you'd expect to be juxtaposed. You could argue all night and day about soldiers and for that matter, war itself. In themselves, neither are beautiful but I shall tell you what is.
The homecoming! It does not matter where they have been, what they have done or who they are. When they come home after battle and rush off the ship, the helicopter or whatever and hug their wife, girlfriend,child or all, it is a moment of beauty.
It makes me cry.
The homecoming! It does not matter where they have been, what they have done or who they are. When they come home after battle and rush off the ship, the helicopter or whatever and hug their wife, girlfriend,child or all, it is a moment of beauty.
It makes me cry.
Bad words
There are a lot of so called ‘bad words’ in this world, bad in the sense that they are looked upon as unacceptable in polite company. Farting, pissing, shitting and fucking are good examples yet each is as normal a human activity as eating and drinking and nobody minds about the latter. My headmaster at grammar school (didn’t like him) told us that in general conversation or in writing that the Anglo-Saxon was preferable to the Latin i.e. it is better to say start than commence. His argument was that the Anglo-Saxon was generally shorter. I agree with him but I doubt if he would have approved of me using the word ‘shit’ in any essay.
So why is this? Is it that their very brevity makes them sort of shout whereas a word with a few more vowels would make them softer? Then we have to think of usage. These words are frequently used in other contexts like ‘Oh shit,’ or ‘Piss off.’ Somehow ‘Oh defecate,’ of ‘go away and urinate,’ would not contain the same degree of emotion or venom. It is their very simplicity that makes them powerful.
As Billy Connolly once said, regarding the Falklands War, ‘I hear that Margaret Thatcher has told General Galtieri to ‘Fuck off’. I agree with the woman, there are times when ‘go away’ is simply not good enough.’ Pity is that she didn’t use the expression. Maybe if she did, we would not have had a war.
And that’s the point really. I have sworn all my life and the use of swear words convey a meaning quite unmatched by perfect English Grammar.
Same goes for ‘No.’ If you just say it and do not explain, it saves hours of discussion.
So why is this? Is it that their very brevity makes them sort of shout whereas a word with a few more vowels would make them softer? Then we have to think of usage. These words are frequently used in other contexts like ‘Oh shit,’ or ‘Piss off.’ Somehow ‘Oh defecate,’ of ‘go away and urinate,’ would not contain the same degree of emotion or venom. It is their very simplicity that makes them powerful.
As Billy Connolly once said, regarding the Falklands War, ‘I hear that Margaret Thatcher has told General Galtieri to ‘Fuck off’. I agree with the woman, there are times when ‘go away’ is simply not good enough.’ Pity is that she didn’t use the expression. Maybe if she did, we would not have had a war.
And that’s the point really. I have sworn all my life and the use of swear words convey a meaning quite unmatched by perfect English Grammar.
Same goes for ‘No.’ If you just say it and do not explain, it saves hours of discussion.
Airports and testicles
Now your average bloke would consider that having testicles is a sign of manhood. It’s no different for cities or towns either; they seem to need an airport to prove they are manly or important or whatever. And what is more, these airports need international destinations just to show that they are really important and big boys.
The really important airports of the world just have prosaic names like Amsterdam Schiphol or London Heathrow. It’s the Mickey Mouse ones that have to insert the word ‘International’ into their names – you know Newcastle International Airport or Cardiff-Wales International Airport. You see the word ‘International’ just raises the testosterone level. Yet you know that the former are truly international airports with flights travelling the globe every 5 or 10 minutes. Meanwhile the latter are dining out on charter flights and the occasional scheduled flight to a foreign country. I suspect that half of British airports would lose the ‘International’ appellation if KLM Cityhopper collapsed. But then maybe not, for a weekly charter flight to Alicante would give them just reason to keep the title.
Bristol airport isn’t bad; in fact I quite like it. Apart from all the usual domestic/charter flights, it has a regular flight to Newark in New Jersey, by Continental – I’ve used it much. But Newark is not good enough for Bristol Airport cus let’s face it, many have never heard of Newark. No, it is promoted as a flight to New York for that sounds far more important and gives the airport real balls. The fact that it is across the Hudson River and in New Jersey is ignored.
A sign of the way that Bristol feels about this flight comes at check in. They ask you so many questions; they look at every page of your passport. I guess it’s a special event for them; for me it’s just tedious. None of their frigging business if I have been to Uzbekistan.
Newark Liberty is a fine airport with better connections to Manhattan than JFK or La Guardia. Why not promote it as the gateway to New York? Tell them about the Olympia bus service or the Amtrak to Penn Central. Or indeed a gateway to the whole of the USA with a decent monorail connection between terminals? So none of that walking/taking the bus crap we get at Heathrow.
These regional airports need to grow up. The ones I have used, even Exeter, have no need to say ‘International.’
The really important airports of the world just have prosaic names like Amsterdam Schiphol or London Heathrow. It’s the Mickey Mouse ones that have to insert the word ‘International’ into their names – you know Newcastle International Airport or Cardiff-Wales International Airport. You see the word ‘International’ just raises the testosterone level. Yet you know that the former are truly international airports with flights travelling the globe every 5 or 10 minutes. Meanwhile the latter are dining out on charter flights and the occasional scheduled flight to a foreign country. I suspect that half of British airports would lose the ‘International’ appellation if KLM Cityhopper collapsed. But then maybe not, for a weekly charter flight to Alicante would give them just reason to keep the title.
Bristol airport isn’t bad; in fact I quite like it. Apart from all the usual domestic/charter flights, it has a regular flight to Newark in New Jersey, by Continental – I’ve used it much. But Newark is not good enough for Bristol Airport cus let’s face it, many have never heard of Newark. No, it is promoted as a flight to New York for that sounds far more important and gives the airport real balls. The fact that it is across the Hudson River and in New Jersey is ignored.
A sign of the way that Bristol feels about this flight comes at check in. They ask you so many questions; they look at every page of your passport. I guess it’s a special event for them; for me it’s just tedious. None of their frigging business if I have been to Uzbekistan.
Newark Liberty is a fine airport with better connections to Manhattan than JFK or La Guardia. Why not promote it as the gateway to New York? Tell them about the Olympia bus service or the Amtrak to Penn Central. Or indeed a gateway to the whole of the USA with a decent monorail connection between terminals? So none of that walking/taking the bus crap we get at Heathrow.
These regional airports need to grow up. The ones I have used, even Exeter, have no need to say ‘International.’
Saturday 19 December 2009
John Paul II
I read that Pope Benedict XVI is progressing his predecessor John Paul II towards making him a saint. I got no problem with that and since I don't believe in any God, they can do what they bloody well like. It makes no difference to what they did on Earth.
BUT and it is a big but, JP2 always seemed to be a saintly man with a warmth for people sadly lacking in most popes. I remember that night in Rome as he passed by on his Popemobile just a few feet away from me.You could feel the love that the crowd bore for him. It was overwhelming.
Benedict is said to be looking to canonize Pius XII as well. The Jews ain't happy saying that he was a Nazi collaborator - well, who wasn't in Italy in WWII? No, my objection is that he was cold and austere and lacked empathy. Same goes for Paul VI.
Although I do not believe, I expect Popes to capture hearts. JP2 did. If that makes him a saint, then I should be one as well.
BUT and it is a big but, JP2 always seemed to be a saintly man with a warmth for people sadly lacking in most popes. I remember that night in Rome as he passed by on his Popemobile just a few feet away from me.You could feel the love that the crowd bore for him. It was overwhelming.
Benedict is said to be looking to canonize Pius XII as well. The Jews ain't happy saying that he was a Nazi collaborator - well, who wasn't in Italy in WWII? No, my objection is that he was cold and austere and lacked empathy. Same goes for Paul VI.
Although I do not believe, I expect Popes to capture hearts. JP2 did. If that makes him a saint, then I should be one as well.
Friday 18 December 2009
Changing People
I seem to change many that I meet. I have no reason why: it just happens. I don’t set out to do this and a few are resentful.
I’d like to think that I inadvertently expose people to the reality of their abilities and show them a path by which they can fulfil them. I am not always nice about it. I use words like ‘grow up’, ‘piss off’ and the rest. However, it is important that people understand what they can achieve and be told so, for many are far better than they think they are.
Why oh why do they underestimate themselves? What is it in their upbringing that leads them to this? I have been seriously trying to think of a single instance when either of my parents told me something was impossible. Haven’t come up with one. And equally, I have no need of others to spell out my limitations. I am very much aware of them but I don’t mind you telling me if you have spotted another.
Nonetheless, most people that I have met have changed me; sometimes a little, sometimes a lot and almost always for the better. They have shaped me and I am glad of that.
My dad did sit me down one day when I was 11 and had won a place at grammar school. He cautioned me. He said something like that while I had been very successful at primary school, I must not necessarily expect to do the same at grammar school because all the kids there have been successful. He did it gently. The rest is history.
I’d like to think that I inadvertently expose people to the reality of their abilities and show them a path by which they can fulfil them. I am not always nice about it. I use words like ‘grow up’, ‘piss off’ and the rest. However, it is important that people understand what they can achieve and be told so, for many are far better than they think they are.
Why oh why do they underestimate themselves? What is it in their upbringing that leads them to this? I have been seriously trying to think of a single instance when either of my parents told me something was impossible. Haven’t come up with one. And equally, I have no need of others to spell out my limitations. I am very much aware of them but I don’t mind you telling me if you have spotted another.
Nonetheless, most people that I have met have changed me; sometimes a little, sometimes a lot and almost always for the better. They have shaped me and I am glad of that.
My dad did sit me down one day when I was 11 and had won a place at grammar school. He cautioned me. He said something like that while I had been very successful at primary school, I must not necessarily expect to do the same at grammar school because all the kids there have been successful. He did it gently. The rest is history.
Revenge movies
In my experience, the French make the best revenge movies for the simple reason that someone eventually gets revenge and better still gets away with it. The best I ever saw (and I wish I could remember the name of it) related to a drunk (or maybe he was fondling his girlfriend) driver who killed a man’s son. The start was full of tension. Child fishing on the beach at dawn. Car driving fast in the countryside. Kid leaves the beach and goes back through the streets. Car comes racing through the streets. They meet at a fork and the child is killed.
Can’t remember how the father tracks down the driver but he does. He befriends him and then on the killer’s yacht, the father kills him. Moralise as you will but I see that as justice.
‘Revenge is a dish best served cold,’ someone said once and that is the way the French do it. There is another one at the back of my mind about an unfaithful wife but my memory is hazy.
In contrast, Hollywood once eschewed revenge movies and brought the culprit to trial. You know all that anti-lynching stuff and telling the Indians that the culprit must suffer ‘white man’s justice.’ It changed but it was never cold which revenge ought to be. Instead we got spectacles like Maximus v. Commodus in Gladiator, Kill Bill (which is entertaining but is insufficiently cold and lacks calculation) and Ben-Hur (another spectacle).
I don’t feel revengeful in any way but if I was, I’d do it quietly. I’d make sure my victim was fully aware of what I was doing and I’d make him/her suffer.
Does that make me bad? I guess so but you have to be highly motivated to want to take revenge anyway and so far, I have never been so motivated.
Can’t remember how the father tracks down the driver but he does. He befriends him and then on the killer’s yacht, the father kills him. Moralise as you will but I see that as justice.
‘Revenge is a dish best served cold,’ someone said once and that is the way the French do it. There is another one at the back of my mind about an unfaithful wife but my memory is hazy.
In contrast, Hollywood once eschewed revenge movies and brought the culprit to trial. You know all that anti-lynching stuff and telling the Indians that the culprit must suffer ‘white man’s justice.’ It changed but it was never cold which revenge ought to be. Instead we got spectacles like Maximus v. Commodus in Gladiator, Kill Bill (which is entertaining but is insufficiently cold and lacks calculation) and Ben-Hur (another spectacle).
I don’t feel revengeful in any way but if I was, I’d do it quietly. I’d make sure my victim was fully aware of what I was doing and I’d make him/her suffer.
Does that make me bad? I guess so but you have to be highly motivated to want to take revenge anyway and so far, I have never been so motivated.
One day strikes
Wars are not won by skirmishes; they are won by prolonged campaigns. People do not always get it right. Napoleon didn’t and neither did Hitler but both of them recognised the value of strategy. I have studied Hannibal a lot; he won several battles but I never figured out what his overall objective was. It may have been the conquest of Rome but if that’s the case, why bugger off after Cannae?
So what’s the point of a one-day strike? Yes, they grab the headlines but what else? If it’s a private company, there is a day’s loss of output and the public at large don’t give a toss. If it’s a public service organisation, then you will usually piss off the majority of customers (consumers). The consumers have lives too and they are not always happy with them so why should they have any sympathy with these arseholes who have just, albeit temporarily, made their lives worse.
Wednesday 9 December 2009
Human rights
We hear a lot of talk about rights, most frequently from people who don't think they are getting what they want from life. Sometimes, they are correct but often they are not. Let's go back to basics.
Fundamentally, we have no rights and neither do whales nor amoeba. Go back to the Olduvai Gorge, the cradle of mankind. Did the Australopithecines of 4 million years ago have rights to clean water or Homo Habilis of 2 million years ago have rights to courts of justice? Plainly no. Mankind has evolved much since then and has established, in many countries at least, basic rights for its citizens. And much of that is for the good - free speech, democracy, police protection from crime, ownership of property - the list is endless. All this is fine.
BUT and this is important to remember, the rights we enjoy are by the grace of the society in which we live: they are not innate nor fundamental and we must all constantly strive to preserve them and improve them.
Fundamentally, we have no rights and neither do whales nor amoeba. Go back to the Olduvai Gorge, the cradle of mankind. Did the Australopithecines of 4 million years ago have rights to clean water or Homo Habilis of 2 million years ago have rights to courts of justice? Plainly no. Mankind has evolved much since then and has established, in many countries at least, basic rights for its citizens. And much of that is for the good - free speech, democracy, police protection from crime, ownership of property - the list is endless. All this is fine.
BUT and this is important to remember, the rights we enjoy are by the grace of the society in which we live: they are not innate nor fundamental and we must all constantly strive to preserve them and improve them.
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