The Three Degrees ... gone

A pompous man with an inferior Doctorate degree chaired a meeting at which he announced to several non doctors that there would soon be three doctors and then " ... The project will really fly ... "

Since then,

That doctor has run away
The second doctor has resigned on the basis of a disagreement with project management
The third doctor became mentally unstable and has been forced to leave the country

All non doctoral degree holders remain and the project is doing well.

This is not a rant against doctors in general, please note.

DW
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Not a Royalist but …

Who is the clown who let Charles Battenburg and his wife Camilla Porkbag Bowels drive right into the middle of a riot?

You have probably seen the story: the students were protesting over the tripling of student fees that had just been agreed in Parliament. The protests had, not surprisingly, turned violent and they were taking place in and around Regent Street.

Last night was the night of the Royal Variety Performance which is held at the London Palladium. If you know your London, you will know that Argyll Street houses the Palladium and to get to Argyll Street you can drive along … Regent Street. More importantly, you don’t HAVE to drive along Regent Street to get to Argyll Street.

So, they knew there was a riot going on and yet they sanctioned the car to carry on along Regent Street. Then some rioters saw Charles and his ball and chain in their car and they attacked it. Completely unforgiveable. Equally disturbing, given how high profile these people are, there was a window in their Rolls Royce that was smashed: didn’t look bullet or even brick and fist proof to me.

We had the same sort of thing when John Prescott was physically attacked in the street whilst campaigning in 2001 I think it was … he was Deputy Prime Minister and yet someone was able to get close enough to be able to throw a missile at the old man!

We are generally a tolerant society but these lapses are symptomatic of PC Plod’s approach to situations that someone higher in intellectual power than Plod should be dealing with.

The job of the Police is to maintain law and order. When protesters start to act in a violent manner then people are going to get hurt. Sorry, but they will. If the protesters don’t like the fact that violence usually needs to be met with violence then stay at home or do not act violently!

Finally, I do not agree with student fees at all since the economics of student loans and tuition fees seems fundamentally flawed to me and I don’t believe it is solving any of the problems laid at their doors.

DW

Good or Scary News?

I just read this on the Harvard Business Review web site, from the November 2010 edition of the HBR:

“In a study by Brent McFerran of the University of British Columbia and colleagues, dieters in a restaurant-like setting were offered menu suggestions by a thin waitress. She also donned a “fat suit” and made recommendations to a different group of dieters. More diners acted on the overweight server’s advice. That’s because the dieting patrons identified more with the heavier server, say the authors. This suggests that restaurants may benefit from having greater weight diversity among service providers.”

http://hbr.org/2010/11/stat-watch-do-you-want-fries-with-that/ar/1

What do you make of that? Birds of a feather?

DW

Rock Bottom Standards

I really am coming to the conclusion that television broadcasting should stop in Britain and be banned for five years. Such an action will allow the 12 year olds, as per Ed Reardon, who run our television stations to be considerably retrained and made to behave along the lines that I alone should set.

Blue Peter is a children’s television programme that is aimed firmly at children from the age of 8 until 12 years. In my opinion, such children do not need to be subjected to swearing and violence when they tune into such a programme let alone in real life.

A book, with an unsuitable Americanism as its title to start with, was chosen to be included in a list of books to be chosen as the Blue Peter book of the year. That book was then dropped from the list because, A statement from Blue Peter said the book should not have been shortlisted in the first place "because it contains scenes of violence and swearing that are not suitable for the younger end of our audience." http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/07/blue-peter-awards-drop-finalist-unsuitable

Here’s the sick part: "It does have menace, all good thrillers have menace, and the Daleks are very menacing," he said. "I feel that this is a very inspiring, exciting book, with a moral framework and that their audience at the older end of 9-12 is being denied something they absolutely should be reading. "http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/07/blue-peter-awards-drop-finalist-unsuitable

That comment came from David Frickling, the book’s publisher. Let me translate his true meaning: I hate those pompous, self seeking people at Blue Peter. Who do they think they are? With that book on their list we were sure to sell thousands of copies and rake in stacks of filthy lucre. So we infect a few kids with Americanisms, some violence a bit of swearing. So f****ing what? Crack their skulls if you ask me.

At least the twelve year olds got this one right.

DW

Be my friend … PLEASE be my friend

Whilst I do not support the WikiLeaks web site and initiative at all and will report on nothing substantial here in any way, I couldn’t help being amused by this one.

That’s the one in which William Gaygue begged and pleaded with the USA during the general election and beyond: by my friend, can I be your friend, if you’re my friend I’ll give you my biggest lollipop!!

Speaking of large lollipops and Gaygue, that reminds me of another story … already reported, however!

DW

Don’t Forget the 17 cents

Whilst the USA is content to throw massive largesse around the world, we must question where all of that money is coming from. I don’t mean to lecture anyone on international trade, the US national debt or anything like that. Just be aware that the USA is a resource hog and when it offers this largesse there is a chance that it is YOUR largesse.

Following on from this long held opinion of mine, I have just been to look at a couple of sites that you should find interesting:

• http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
• http://www.usdebtclock.org/

the brillig.com debt clock is a static counter whereas the usdebtclock.org clocks are all being updated constantly.

One aspect of the brillig clock is that it shows essentially the same information as the usdebtclock but it contains one fascinatingly ridiculous feature … cents.

At the moment the brillig clock is showing the US National Debt as $13,797,894,101,794.17 … as if such a massive number could really ever be accurate to within 17 cents!

In terms of the US Federal Deficit as a percentage of GDP, that has risen dramatically of late, as you can see here: http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/federal_deficit_chart.html The current percentage is around 10.6% whereas five years ago it was reported to be just 2.5%. Omitting the second world war blip, it is now at its highest ever.

As a matter of interest, do you know where the word brillig comes from … in English, anyway? Answers on a postcard to the usual address.

DW

The Bounder v The Chap

I have just been introduced to The Chap: a quintessentially English institution to be found on the internet at http://thechap.net/index.html It’s funny, witty and affected. I enjoyed reading it.

Well, in the car going to work the other day, the person who sent me the link to the site turned out to be a cad and I turned out to be a Chap. Here’s why.

The cad was under the weather and said to the lady in the car, Lyn, could I ask that tomorrow you use a little less of that perfume. I’m sorry: it’s probably because I am feeling a bit sick but it’s very strong for me.

I said, wait a minute: let’s try that a different way and it turned out to be the Chap’s way.

• Lyn, what’s the name of the perfume you’re wearing? Lyn responded …
• It’s got rather a strong fragrance hasn’t it?

The Chap then knows that a lady will receive the appropriate message and put one less splash on the following morning!

DW

It’s Official: Britain’s on the slide

Now that there has been a certain announcement, I can reveal that Britain is now on the slide.

What possible announcement can presage such a conclusion? The answer is that there is to be a Royal wedding in 2011. Why does this presage Britain being on the slide? Well, take a look at recent history and you will see that Royal weddings often, not always, go hand in hand with economic crises or problems.

There is no doubt that Britain is currently in the middle of a rather weak economic period at the moment.

A Royal wedding will concentrate the mind of all of those weak people who believe that the Royals love them and spend their days and nights looking after their interests. They believe that Prince(ss) X is a really nice person if and when they meet them or see them in the flesh: he was just an ordinary chap, they are wont to say! Thppptz to that!

Newspapers and “celebrity” magazines will cringe and fawn their way to this massive non event now and I for one am right royally glad I will be nowhere near it.

Join me here in the middle of nowhere as wedding fever grips the nation!

DW

Fat is NOT a Feminist Issue

There is a very good article in the October edition of the McKinsey Quarterly entitled

• Why governments must lead the fight against obesity
• Locally led social movements are required to reverse the obesity pandemic. Governments are in a uniquely powerful position to catalyze these movements.
• https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Health_Care/Strategy_Analysis/Why_governments_must_lead_the_fight_against_obesity_2687

Everyone should read this article as it contains a lot of shocking information. They show quite clearly, for example, the correlation between age, obesity and health care costs: the older and fatter you are the more you will pay for your health care. And before anyone from the UK or Canada or France says, I don’t pay for my health care, let me tell you that you do. It’s called opportunity cost and includes loss of earnings, loss of opportunities, loss of life. These costs also include the costs of suffering from a poorer quality of life: those obese people who struggle to climb stairs, the obese people who need to be wheeled round because they can no longer walk. In values, the articles reveals that in the UK we spent £4 billion in 2007 on obesity related medical costs and that all obesity related costs in the US amounted to $450 billion a year.

The article includes this:

The obesity pandemic also appears to have made it psychologically easier for people to accept their own increasing weight. Studies have shown that a person’s chances of becoming obese increase by 57% if he or she has a friend who has recently become obese.

I am sure you have seen those balloons walking down the street and realised that there are more and more of them. Clothing shops now sell clothes for the larger body because it is more acceptable for them to exist. It’s not that long ago that obesity was rare so ordinary clothes shops didn’t stock anything for them.

I was unaware of the connection between fat friends; but now that I’ve read it, I can see the truth in that. Look around and see not just one but two, three many obese people socialising.

In some countries, Japan is cited in the article, obesity is very rare. I am currently living and working in Central Asia and now that I have thought about it I cannot remember seeing very many local obese peoples. Whilst 46% of Americans over 16 years of age have a body mass index of 30 or more, only 2% of Japanese people are so afflicted.

The article allows readers to leave a comment on it and here is what I just submitted:

I disagree that government has anything other than a supportive role to play here. We are fat because we eat far too much and we are eating more and more of the wrong foods. That very young children are obese is a crime and everyone who says parenting skills are vital in this debate has my support.

However, let me address something that has only indirectly been addressed. As we have become wealthier over the last 3 or 4 decades, the desire to eat out has increased. We have been allowed to convince ourselves that we are too busy to cook good food.

Since the advent of television "celebrity" chefs, restaurant food, aka fine dining, has become a death trap. Just watch any television chef, with the exception of Oriental chefs; and you will see mountains of butter, gallons of high fat cream and kilogrammes of salt used as main or significant ingredients.

As we watch these chefs we learn to emulate them and start to prepare their dreadful food and feel proud when the salt and fat generate praise for the tasty food we have now created.

It is patently obvious to anyone who sees an obese person sweating and breathing heavily as a result of even the simplest activity that something is wrong with them. Obese people die younger and have more health problems: this article shows that age and obesity line the pockets of those working in the health sector rather than anyone else.

Where did it all go wrong, then? Remember the book Fat is a Feminist Issue? Remember Germaine Greer? There you have two good reasons why obesity has increased, particularly among women. The 70s saw the fight by women who did not look like models to say, "I don't need to look like a model: I am who I am." They justified their obesity on feminist grounds. They were and they are wrong to think like that.

Finally, allowing a child to eat so much that it is 10 kg or 20 kg or even 30 kg or more overweight is condemning that child to a life of ridicule and ill health. The pension crisis is bad enough without adding the burdens of obesity.

Stay thin people!

Duncan

You Can't Choose your Relatives!

OK, not exactly relatives but people with whom one is associated in some way! I know my haplogroup because I had my Y Chromosome DNA tested via the Genographic project and I found out that many thousands of years ago my family was Greek. How about that? Today I went back online to see if there had been any updates in terms of additions to the database and so on. Well, there hadn't but I found that I am from haplogroup E1b1b1 (M35) and that there are some famous people in the same group. Here they are:

• Sewall Wright
• George Stephanopoulos
• Michelangelo
• David Attenborough
• William Harvey
• Lyndon B Johnson
• Zinedine Zedane
• Adolf Hitler ... ta daaa!
• Wolfgang Schniederman
• Walter Schniederhan
• Hugh Judson Kilpatrick
• John C Calhoun

POSSIBLE members:

• Albert Einstein
• William Henry Lancaster
• Ilya Efron
• Mussolini

The proportions of racial/ethnic groups within this haplogroup:

• East Africans 70%
• Southern Europeans 25%
• Moroccan 90%
• Balkans 50%
• Jews 35%

There you go and I know, there are some I've never heard of either! DW

Fly by NIght ... well, twilight!

I normally post these straight to Facebook rather than here but, what the heck, here goes. If you don't like flies, maybe this will turn your stomach.

I am using a macro lens with my camera to take photos of insects on flowers and shrubs and things. I then crop the photos to bring out the features ...

and here's a colony of greenflies with other insects on a rose bud

Also on a rose bud

There you are: I love this macro lens ... it's 1:3.5 and would love a 1:1 lens but worry about their price. Also, I haven't seen one yet!

If you know the proper names of these insects, why not let me know? Just post a comment here.

DW

Bill Gates I want to meet you

I saw that smug and self seeking BG on the television the other day and he was extolling the virtues of some software that allows someone to talk to their television and for the television to recognise them in some way.

I thought, so fricking what, Gates? You can’t even get your basic software to work properly let alone something to do with a television.

My Acer computer is going through a midlife crisis at the moment: it’s two years old now! On Saturday Excel 2010 failed to respond SO many times and I thought I had lost a lot of my latest work as it died and then Windows said it couldn’t start and would repair itself. It went through this many times.

In the end I am STILL worried that things will collapse in a gates induced heap but it is starting by itself now, albeit slowly.

Every year I have a major gates induced problem and I hope this doesn’t get any worse and is this year’s problem.

These things waste hours and hours.

Then there’s my other laptop, an HP TouchSmart, that can’t find the HP printer it’s connected to. More wasted time.

DW

Back in the Gym

Hard work and no play … ended again. Working many hours a day every day keeps the mind active and alive.There are limits though to the sedentary lifestyle so I am back in the gym again.

Nothing excessive, though: I walk on the treadmill for around 25 minutes: starting slowly and then getting fairly energetic including spells on a 12% incline. Enough to require some breathing and sweating!

In the gym I am using at the moment I am using a stepping machine too: 100 steps this evening. I will build up from that fairly low base.

I have never been that good at upper body exercise for some reason so I just tinker with small weights for that.

I’m doing my bit.

DW

Children say these things

Back in harness now but while I was at home I was doing some sorting out and read one of our family holiday journals from a LONG time ago and here are two classics.

Andrew told us the story of a lesson at primary school when his teacher Mrs Crozier was talking about people wearing funny clothes. After the teacher's introduction, she asked the children, "Does anyone know anyone who wears funny clothes?" and Andrew volunteered, "Yes Miss, my Uncle George" That was true, he was a bit eccentric in that department at times.

Daniel: I went to the toilet for a pee and was wearing some light coloured trousers. As sometimes happens, things get held in reserve and then embarrassingly release themselves, showing the world how careless one has been. I wrote in the journal that I dashed back to the room before joining the family and got the iron out and ironed the offending water mark in situ. I did what I thought was enough and then joined the family. As soon as I walked through the door Daniel asked, "Have you wet yourself?" Doh!

Kids!!

Forgot to make a note of when that was but if Andrew remembers how old he was when he was taught by Mrs C, we can work it out from there!

DW

Windows Feature: a wonder to behold

Vista Home Premium

Click Start to put Windows to sleep ... Not to switch off!

Let it sleep.

Now, unplug a USB device.

Boing! It wakes up again!

More time to waste, Gates, getting it back to sleep again.

DW

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

So Clever!

It's true, someone said that to me this evening!

So, I was chatting to Carrie about many things when she told me she had woken her boss in Texas at 2 am one day. She needed him to scan a document for her ... relating to a $6 million order/project.

The boss said, oh no, but my scanner's broken. He went to a nearby hotel and scanned then emailed the document.

I said, why didn't he take photos of the document with his phone camera or camera?

Carried stopped for two seconds or even three then said, that's so clever.

I said, I do it all the time.

She said again, that's so clever!

Made my day, that!!

DW

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

The Stig

There is a breed of people who like to know things. Some things they have a right to know and if no one knows those things, these people are wont to research them. Good!

Some things are meant not to be known. So those people who like to know things should simply accept that these are the unknowables of life.

What am I talking about? The Stig of course: you know, some say he eats three Shredded Wheat for breakfast, some say he can bend iron girders with his teeth, all we know is, he's called The Stig ...

The Stig is the ANONYMOUS car driver who works for Top Gear* on the BBC. Part of the charm of The Stig is that no one is supposed to know who he is. It's good that way and I think we all like it too.

Then there are those smarty pants people who like to say, I know who The Stig is, I know who The Stig is! And they do because some spoil sport has unearthed his name and then written a book that includes his identity la la la.

They did all of this a couple of weeks ago and whilst I read the name of The Stig, it meant nothing to me. Still, ruined the illusion.

* Note: Top Gear is a BBC television programme that used to be a forum in which cars were discussed and demonstrated. Now it feeds Jeremy Clarkson's ego (after all, how can one be from Yorkshire and called Jeremy?), it does not feed James May's hairdresser since he has the most unruly late 1970s hair style and it feeds Richard Hammond's family as he is the least funny, witty and informative presenter on the team (and in fact on the whole BBC); and it might help if he were quite bit taller than he is!

DW

Hogging the Limelight was never this easy

So there's a narrow minded little man in Florida who claims to be a man of God. He runs a church or something with the word dove in its name. We all know that Doves are symbols of peace and love.

In a blatant self seeking marketing campaign this little man says on 9th September 2010 he will burn one or more copies of the Holy Koran.

Now he's got just 30 - 50 followers and yet for a week he generated publicity across the world, as far as I can tell, that would have cost him many millions of Pounds were he to pay for it.

How and why the major news channels, papers and web sites covered this story in such a way is a complete mystery. This little man might otherwise have burned the Holy Koran but who would have noticed?

I do not advocate the burning of anything like this: effigies, bibles, Korans, books, flags, people ... nothing.

It wouldn't be so bad if this were a genuine protest against something but it's clearly not and yet this little man had prime ministers, presidents and kings talking to him via the news media.

Astonishing and utterly irresponsible journalism in my opinion.

Then again, go to this little man's church or whatever it is on Sunday and see the size of his collection box. No doubt he'll now find himself on chat shows, panel games, being asked for his opinion on this and that. Typical small town little man who hit on a big idea.

DW

The Lone Fork Top tip

When that fork that you borrowed from the canteen is the ONLY means of eating your pot noodle without pouring it all over yourself, don't, repeat DO NOT, drop that fork behind a radiator where it is impossible to retrieve it.

Yet another top tip from yours truly.

DW

Billy the Beer

He's back, baseball cap and all!

Billy the beer, that erstwhile former leader of the Tory party has been caught with his pants ... OK, let's say half down!

As journalists and others dig into stories like this one, is he gay?, all sorts of things come tumbling out. Not only is the "other man" very young at half Billy's age but he's a quantity surveyor who graduated only five years ago yet he had become a special adviser to the UK's Foreign Secretary. How? On what basis? How and when did he apply and who conducted the interview? Was there an open competition for the job? Give me that job although the salary isn't that much I have to say!

Another aspect of the story is that as a former leader of the Party, Billy can apparently set his own agenda and do what he likes. They are saying the same about Iain Smith, the other former Tory leader in the Cabinet. The fact that these two are FAILED leaders seems to have got lost and in my world they behave or not and they are demoted or not.

Meanwhile, it seems that whatever the truth of this story, MPs and more especially senior MPs and Cabinet Ministers can get away with what they like.

One thing that comes across strongly for me, though, is the way Billy operates, on the basis that I have no time for the man. He boasted the other week how he and his Foreign Secretary equivalents from around the world text each other all the time. He also seems to tweet a lot. More than that, take a look at the photos in the press of Billy and then take a close look at his right hand: I think you will see a BlackBerry welded to it.

That BlackBerry welding says a lot more about Billy than many other things. Blair was hardly a technophile: as I understand he had/has never sent an email let alone used a PC (I stand to be corrected/updated). The fact that Billy is almost 50 years old and welded to a mobile phone tells me more than I need to know!

DW