Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
Switzerland has been issuing free heroin to addicts. The results have been surprising to many but not to me. First it has cut drug related crime by 42% for the blindingly obvious reason that they no longer have the need to steal. Second, it has increased the number of addicts wishing to give up or at least move on to methadone. A good example of once you stop condemning people, they might just listen to you. (In my own case, smoking would only be half the fun if people quit trying to make me stop.)
I like this; in a way it's all like the Ashford road experiment (Blog - 16/11/08) which is to say, that we should recognise and deal with people as they are and not as we would wish them to be.
I suspect that addicts would rather not be addicts deep down but crapping on them won't help by the very nature of addiction. Maybe this initiative will.
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Stocking the cigarette shelves
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
If you are not a smoker, then you won't give a damn.
We can buy cigarettes in many places - the corner shop, the newsagents and there you get served one by one if there is a queue for the counter. Our supermarkets are different for they have dedicated booths or kiosk for the sale of cigarettes and tobacco and often as not some candy.
You'd think a dedicated booth would be great but so often, it is piss poor. There is usally one lass serving the customers who can form a considerable queue. Behind her there is often another girl for whom customer service is something she expects to receive but not to give. She is busily replenishing the stock on the shelves and is oblivious to the queue. She has loftier objectives than you.
There may be 4 full columns of Lambert & Butler ciggies there already and no sign of a rush on that brand. But the 5th column is not quite full so she busies herself with filling it to bursting. Same goes for each and every other brand. As far as she is concerned, customers can fart or recite the Koran and it won't make a blind bit of difference.
Stood at one such booth yesterday - no queue, just on my own not that it made any bloody difference. The stacker carried on regardless, the server was attending to some scraps of paper - another Government leak perhaps or an encoded email from MI5 warning that Al Qaeda were coming to nick the cigarettes?
'Am I invisible?' I asked loudly. The server girl looked up and said, 'No, I am just doing this,' without explaining. The replenisher must have been stone deaf for all she noticed.
Well, I did get served eventually and I asked what the other girl was doing. 'Stocking the shelves,' was the unsurpising answer. 'Could she not have stopped and served me?' I asked. I might just have asked the question in Armenian for I got no response.
You may well blame the tosser who trained them but they are not all like that. At my nearby Tesco's ciggie booth, there is a big lad who is about as effeminate as any man can be without actually being a woman and having breasts. He is fast and attentive and always pleasant. Maybe, he should be a trainer.
If you are not a smoker, then you won't give a damn.
We can buy cigarettes in many places - the corner shop, the newsagents and there you get served one by one if there is a queue for the counter. Our supermarkets are different for they have dedicated booths or kiosk for the sale of cigarettes and tobacco and often as not some candy.
You'd think a dedicated booth would be great but so often, it is piss poor. There is usally one lass serving the customers who can form a considerable queue. Behind her there is often another girl for whom customer service is something she expects to receive but not to give. She is busily replenishing the stock on the shelves and is oblivious to the queue. She has loftier objectives than you.
There may be 4 full columns of Lambert & Butler ciggies there already and no sign of a rush on that brand. But the 5th column is not quite full so she busies herself with filling it to bursting. Same goes for each and every other brand. As far as she is concerned, customers can fart or recite the Koran and it won't make a blind bit of difference.
Stood at one such booth yesterday - no queue, just on my own not that it made any bloody difference. The stacker carried on regardless, the server was attending to some scraps of paper - another Government leak perhaps or an encoded email from MI5 warning that Al Qaeda were coming to nick the cigarettes?
'Am I invisible?' I asked loudly. The server girl looked up and said, 'No, I am just doing this,' without explaining. The replenisher must have been stone deaf for all she noticed.
Well, I did get served eventually and I asked what the other girl was doing. 'Stocking the shelves,' was the unsurpising answer. 'Could she not have stopped and served me?' I asked. I might just have asked the question in Armenian for I got no response.
You may well blame the tosser who trained them but they are not all like that. At my nearby Tesco's ciggie booth, there is a big lad who is about as effeminate as any man can be without actually being a woman and having breasts. He is fast and attentive and always pleasant. Maybe, he should be a trainer.
Middle aged women
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
I like middle aged women, well most, and it seems they like me. I get along with them fine. It obviously isn't down to the flattery of a younger man given that I am 64. Maybe it's my boyishness and their desire to mother but I think it is deeper than that.
I never forget first and foremost that they are women and wish to be treated as such, not as sex objects . Gently but not behaving like a wuss. Like all of us, they appreciate attention, warmth and respect and maybe a gentle flirtation. Some of them can be very sexy but that's another matter.
By middle age, a lot of them have been mums and their children are grown up> Maybe , their husband has lost interest. I don't know but I love them.
This is the 'provodnitsa' on the Trans Siberian I took from Yekaterinburg to Irkutsk in Siberia. She is your guardian of the carriage and the guide books say 'Woe betide, you,' if you cross her. She sold snacks and coffee/tea and kept the place clean and tidy but she expected you to do your bit.
Loved her.
I like middle aged women, well most, and it seems they like me. I get along with them fine. It obviously isn't down to the flattery of a younger man given that I am 64. Maybe it's my boyishness and their desire to mother but I think it is deeper than that.
I never forget first and foremost that they are women and wish to be treated as such, not as sex objects . Gently but not behaving like a wuss. Like all of us, they appreciate attention, warmth and respect and maybe a gentle flirtation. Some of them can be very sexy but that's another matter.
By middle age, a lot of them have been mums and their children are grown up> Maybe , their husband has lost interest. I don't know but I love them.
This is the 'provodnitsa' on the Trans Siberian I took from Yekaterinburg to Irkutsk in Siberia. She is your guardian of the carriage and the guide books say 'Woe betide, you,' if you cross her. She sold snacks and coffee/tea and kept the place clean and tidy but she expected you to do your bit. Loved her.
Monday, 1 December 2008
Why are all impact craters circular?
Monday, December 1st, 2008
Another question that has been on my mind for years. It didn't seem to matter where they were in the solar system and whether or not, the body in question had an atmosphere or not. Many years ago, a friend of mine conducted an experiment by firing air rifle pellets into a tray of wet sand. At low angles the pit marks were elliptical as you'd expect. So I repeat the question.
I researched it today and while it is true that almost all craters are circular, there are a few elliptical ones about. Best answer so far as I can see is that a meteorite explodes on contact and then the shock waves are sent out in a circular fashion in much the same way that the ripples are circular when you chuck a house brick into a pool of water. Now that makes sense.
Such few elliptical craters that exist are caused by a very shallow grazing incidence whereby the meteorite skips forward before breaking up. The air gun pellet does not break up which is why you get a decent ellipse.
Good, I'm happy now.
Another question that has been on my mind for years. It didn't seem to matter where they were in the solar system and whether or not, the body in question had an atmosphere or not. Many years ago, a friend of mine conducted an experiment by firing air rifle pellets into a tray of wet sand. At low angles the pit marks were elliptical as you'd expect. So I repeat the question.
I researched it today and while it is true that almost all craters are circular, there are a few elliptical ones about. Best answer so far as I can see is that a meteorite explodes on contact and then the shock waves are sent out in a circular fashion in much the same way that the ripples are circular when you chuck a house brick into a pool of water. Now that makes sense.
Such few elliptical craters that exist are caused by a very shallow grazing incidence whereby the meteorite skips forward before breaking up. The air gun pellet does not break up which is why you get a decent ellipse.
Good, I'm happy now.
Why did I stop growing when I did?
Monday, December 1st, 2008
This is a very serious question and one which has puzzled me since I was quite young?
Humans come in all shapes and sizes but severe deformities apart they all have a certain basic and common shape. You don't seem to get people with normal bodies and arms/hands extending down to their knees, the outer finger on most hands, the 'little' finger is usally the smallest and no one has legs starting one third down the body, well, not that I know of. You may well say that the genes and/or nutrition control height and build but that isn't answering my question. What I want to know is how and by what mechanism the body decided to stop.
Yes I know the bits don't stop all at once, some are earlier, some are later. But why and by what means did the body decide, 'that's enough for fingers,' when a millimetre or two more or less would have gone unnoticed? Same with noses or most other parts you can think of. And why are we mostly symmetrical? It sure wouldn't be easy if one leg was 6 inches shorter than the other but that only begs the question.
Pituitary growth hormone? I can see that coming in somewhere but its secretions carry on after growth has stopped because it is needed for cell regeneration and the like.
You could cite me all sorts of agents that may have a hand in this but I am back where I started. How did the body know, 'that's it,' and turn off the taps to your bits?
This is a very serious question and one which has puzzled me since I was quite young?
Humans come in all shapes and sizes but severe deformities apart they all have a certain basic and common shape. You don't seem to get people with normal bodies and arms/hands extending down to their knees, the outer finger on most hands, the 'little' finger is usally the smallest and no one has legs starting one third down the body, well, not that I know of. You may well say that the genes and/or nutrition control height and build but that isn't answering my question. What I want to know is how and by what mechanism the body decided to stop.
Yes I know the bits don't stop all at once, some are earlier, some are later. But why and by what means did the body decide, 'that's enough for fingers,' when a millimetre or two more or less would have gone unnoticed? Same with noses or most other parts you can think of. And why are we mostly symmetrical? It sure wouldn't be easy if one leg was 6 inches shorter than the other but that only begs the question.
Pituitary growth hormone? I can see that coming in somewhere but its secretions carry on after growth has stopped because it is needed for cell regeneration and the like.
You could cite me all sorts of agents that may have a hand in this but I am back where I started. How did the body know, 'that's it,' and turn off the taps to your bits?
Sunday, 30 November 2008
Mumbai massacre
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
Well, I don't need to repeat all the stuff you have read about on this, awful though it is. There but for the grace of God, I thought since only the day before, I had been looking at an Indian holiday next year.
No, I wish to talk about blame. Now it's all over, I see the blame factory going into overtime and especially on the operation itself. The Home Minister and the head of Internal Security have resigned and there are already comments that the rescue was bungled.
Was it? Think about it. It was nothing like 9/11, nor the various city bombings we have seen in the West nor the isolated single venue bombings we have seen elsewhere nor even Entebbe. This was a multiple, well informed and apparently well-coordinated simultaneous attack on several very large buildings with miles of corridors, hundreds of rooms and untold civilians.
Israel has moaned that it offered help was was refused. Maybe other countries' special forces were offered as well. It seems to me it would have been a nightmare to have the League of Nations in there trying to work together. Think of the language issues for a start. Damned if I understand their call centres let alone the average excited English speaking Indian person.
I am sure that the Indian 'Black Cats' made mistakes but I do ask myself if the SAS or Delta Force could have done better.
We are all too quick to find a scapegoat in this world. Oscar Wilde wasn't it? 'Success has many fathers but failure is always an orphan.'
Well, I don't need to repeat all the stuff you have read about on this, awful though it is. There but for the grace of God, I thought since only the day before, I had been looking at an Indian holiday next year.
No, I wish to talk about blame. Now it's all over, I see the blame factory going into overtime and especially on the operation itself. The Home Minister and the head of Internal Security have resigned and there are already comments that the rescue was bungled.
Was it? Think about it. It was nothing like 9/11, nor the various city bombings we have seen in the West nor the isolated single venue bombings we have seen elsewhere nor even Entebbe. This was a multiple, well informed and apparently well-coordinated simultaneous attack on several very large buildings with miles of corridors, hundreds of rooms and untold civilians.
Israel has moaned that it offered help was was refused. Maybe other countries' special forces were offered as well. It seems to me it would have been a nightmare to have the League of Nations in there trying to work together. Think of the language issues for a start. Damned if I understand their call centres let alone the average excited English speaking Indian person.
I am sure that the Indian 'Black Cats' made mistakes but I do ask myself if the SAS or Delta Force could have done better.
We are all too quick to find a scapegoat in this world. Oscar Wilde wasn't it? 'Success has many fathers but failure is always an orphan.'
British Postage Stamps
Sunday, November 30th, 2008
I am talking here from a stamp collecting point of view. Firstly, I should explain that our stamps come in two types - definitives and commemoratives. The former are your plain everyday stamps and each bears a bust of the Queen's head, a simple, classical and enduring design which we have used for ages. The latter as the name suggests were issued on special occasions to commemorate some significant event past or present. Until the 1970's, there were about 4 or 5 issues per year. They were pleasant designs and they were collectable although in most cases, you never get rich on them.
After that, the Post Office decided to cash in on philately and, like many of the world's smaller nations had been doing for years, the commemorative issues came thick and fast. So instead of the likes of the 1000th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, you got the Prime Minister's dog's 7th birthday, etc. It could be funny if we had a series like 'What Scotsmen wear under their kilts,' but they don't seem to go in for humour. The designs are in many cases arty farty and garish and no better than some biscuit labels. They don't hold their value. Indeed, stamp dealers are now using this trash on mail shots to get rid of the stock. I get them all the while.
The next wheeze was to bugger around with the definitives by printing values which were only useful for sending postcards to Zanzibar on Wednesdays and the like. And just to make sure that you didn't just spend the 73p or whatever on the stamp, they put them inside stamp booklets costing upwards of £5 or more - no other way of getting one.
So the market has collapsed. Good!
And did you know that the UK is the only country in the world which is still permitted to issue stamps without the name of the country on them. Guess that's a legacy from inventing them, a legacy we have squandered on garbage.
I am talking here from a stamp collecting point of view. Firstly, I should explain that our stamps come in two types - definitives and commemoratives. The former are your plain everyday stamps and each bears a bust of the Queen's head, a simple, classical and enduring design which we have used for ages. The latter as the name suggests were issued on special occasions to commemorate some significant event past or present. Until the 1970's, there were about 4 or 5 issues per year. They were pleasant designs and they were collectable although in most cases, you never get rich on them.
After that, the Post Office decided to cash in on philately and, like many of the world's smaller nations had been doing for years, the commemorative issues came thick and fast. So instead of the likes of the 1000th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings, you got the Prime Minister's dog's 7th birthday, etc. It could be funny if we had a series like 'What Scotsmen wear under their kilts,' but they don't seem to go in for humour. The designs are in many cases arty farty and garish and no better than some biscuit labels. They don't hold their value. Indeed, stamp dealers are now using this trash on mail shots to get rid of the stock. I get them all the while.
The next wheeze was to bugger around with the definitives by printing values which were only useful for sending postcards to Zanzibar on Wednesdays and the like. And just to make sure that you didn't just spend the 73p or whatever on the stamp, they put them inside stamp booklets costing upwards of £5 or more - no other way of getting one.
So the market has collapsed. Good!
And did you know that the UK is the only country in the world which is still permitted to issue stamps without the name of the country on them. Guess that's a legacy from inventing them, a legacy we have squandered on garbage.
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