Bah, it's a sunny warm day, which appears to be thawing my normal sour disposition.
Hopefully a few hours reading on nationmaster.com, or the eventual screaming, shouting and goings on that generally afflict the immediate vicinity - when temperatures cool by the arrival of dusk - will soon consign all that nonsense to the momentary bad memory pile.
Oh winter, where art though?
Saturday 30 July 2011
Thursday 21 July 2011
Space Shuttle
With the last space shuttle touching down, a another milestone is reached; to all intents and purposes russia is now the only country able to launch and re-enter, no doubt explaining the huge increase in their charges.
Like any good supply and demand system.
But a salute to all who flew and the endless inspiration provided.
Space Shuttle
Like any good supply and demand system.
But a salute to all who flew and the endless inspiration provided.
 |
| image: At 5:57 a.m. EDT on July 21, 2011, space shuttle atlantis lands for the final time at nasa's kennedy space center |
Space Shuttle
Tfl and inability to manage
If tfl were truly serious in tackling pollution, rather than just coveting photo ops and nice sounding press releases, residents living in the vicinity of stands would not be up in arms over drivers failing to switch off their stationary vehicle’s engine – which they allow to tick-over anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes, 20+ hours a day, everyday apart from christmas.
When (in this area alone) there are over 800 bus terminations per day, that’s not only a serious health issue tfl seem happy ignoring (despite it being brought to their attention), but means the area is swamped in a blanket of air pollution from buses with their engines running.
Tfl could make a start by implementing their own regulations in regard to this and save a whopping great amount on their fuel costs, whilst not attempting to kill their ‘neighbours’ by showing their wonderful neighbourliness.
When (in this area alone) there are over 800 bus terminations per day, that’s not only a serious health issue tfl seem happy ignoring (despite it being brought to their attention), but means the area is swamped in a blanket of air pollution from buses with their engines running.
Tfl could make a start by implementing their own regulations in regard to this and save a whopping great amount on their fuel costs, whilst not attempting to kill their ‘neighbours’ by showing their wonderful neighbourliness.
Failing that, they could employ drivers who are environmentally friendly and capable of finding the off switch; and perhaps this maybe facilitated by newly introduced stock, which when combined with improved driver performance, might actually make a dent in tfl's bus fleet emissions!
Yes, and i believe in santa claws.
Wednesday 20 July 2011
Scatterguns
What to bumble on about, when there are so many choices?
- A murdocking - when an empire believes its own invincibility hype.
- The continuing implosion of the euro, which is odd considering population, size, plenty of world-class companies out there. It's not even that bad a basket case as the states when it comes to many factors, yet entities seem intent on pushing it in a direction enabling the division of the public silver.
- Glaciers melting faster than predicted.
- Worst (already) year, since records began for disasters.
- More volcanoes popping off.
- The "we're all in this together," austerity wheezes...
oh where to start...
Tuesday 19 July 2011
Sunday 17 July 2011
George Carlin on religion
"... Religion has convinced people that there’s an invisible man…living in the sky, who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn’t want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer and burn and scream until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you and he needs money."
George Carlin 1956-2008
Friday 15 July 2011
Team activities
Once you navigate past the psychotic, the neurotic, the clueless, the power mad, the control freak, the thumb sucker, the plotter, the planner, the 'want to be friends with everyone', the loner, the loser, the jack ass, the groper, the 'befriender', the tall-story teller, the great whopping fibber, the one who's late, the one who tuts, the one who's done it all before yet never seems to progress, the insecure one, the bling merchant, and the obligatory brown noser; team activities can be sooo much fun.
Update 09:10hrs after another 'shooting from the hip' failure.
Update 09:10hrs after another 'shooting from the hip' failure.
Wednesday 13 July 2011
Soggy rates
A momentary upward glance from a fascinating growth on the left hand side of my navel, had me catch a quickly scrolling item about the surprising fall in the uk's inflation rate, which dropped by a whopping 0.3% to 4.2%.
Wonderful.
With interest rates at a record low (so savers are stuffed), banks not lending except to those wonderful few who are managing to obtain mortgages, by been eminently sensible and so capable of affording the 25-99% deposits now required, or if they're a business and want a midge more plumping of the cashflow pillow, passing over the business and the promise of their next born, as security. Don't take me verbatim on that last point, there is an outside possibility i could be wrong.
However, the next time you wonder why you're paying so much, for food, or energy, or one of the many myriad of things the none uber-wealthy don't really need but want as they assist in day to day living, and you happen to catch the pious rubbish spouting from the lips of the never-lying, just remember that it really doesn't have to be this way; it's just that greedy so-and-so's (or groups of) have decided that's the current direction we're all heading towards come poverty or high water.
Otherwise known as supply and demand, the market, or the jungle. No scrub the jungle, that's heartily unfair on the anima- must dash, i'm sure something just waved.
Wonderful.
With interest rates at a record low (so savers are stuffed), banks not lending except to those wonderful few who are managing to obtain mortgages, by been eminently sensible and so capable of affording the 25-99% deposits now required, or if they're a business and want a midge more plumping of the cashflow pillow, passing over the business and the promise of their next born, as security. Don't take me verbatim on that last point, there is an outside possibility i could be wrong.
However, the next time you wonder why you're paying so much, for food, or energy, or one of the many myriad of things the none uber-wealthy don't really need but want as they assist in day to day living, and you happen to catch the pious rubbish spouting from the lips of the never-lying, just remember that it really doesn't have to be this way; it's just that greedy so-and-so's (or groups of) have decided that's the current direction we're all heading towards come poverty or high water.
Otherwise known as supply and demand, the market, or the jungle. No scrub the jungle, that's heartily unfair on the anima- must dash, i'm sure something just waved.
Tuesday 12 July 2011
Hybrids to improve the air
“So remember if you wish to be a mass murderer there really is no need to carry around knives, guns, a dirty bomb, or even stooping as low as acid; simply become an authorised london bus driver and you can poison as many people as you can get away with for as many years as you're employed by the subs. Just imagine 40 years of killing thousands of people and all legal to boot. Apart from the arms, weapons or being in the military where else can you - without fear of comeback - pop off a few thousand civilians without a hitch?”
The training facility, late 2012.
Sunday 10 July 2011
Saturday 9 July 2011
Why Unemployment Matters - The Atlantic
"That is what these numbers mean: millions of people, staring into the abyss of an empty future. We don't know how to re-employ them. The last time this happened, in the Great Depression, World War II eventually came along and soaked up everyone in the labor force who could breathe and carry a toolbag. I hope to God we're not going to do that again, so what are we going to do with all these people?" Megan mcardle, the atlantic, 8 jul 2011.Why Unemployment Matters - The Atlantic
Noisy hello holes
How noisy is your hell hole; sorry, naturally i mean local environment?
Can you open your windows on a nice summer day, or are you forced to steam shut your windows due to vibration & air pollution from public transport, noise from screaming kids - whose parents apparently forget that if they run wild and free those teenage years are going to be a killer?
Do your upstairs neighbours appear to be practising the highland stomp, whilst dragging a boulder across the floor?
Are you bounced out of your bed by low flying planes, pinned in by a military base, or is peace and enjoyment the order of your day?
What's your happy noise-free, or noisy story?
Can you open your windows on a nice summer day, or are you forced to steam shut your windows due to vibration & air pollution from public transport, noise from screaming kids - whose parents apparently forget that if they run wild and free those teenage years are going to be a killer?
Do your upstairs neighbours appear to be practising the highland stomp, whilst dragging a boulder across the floor?
Are you bounced out of your bed by low flying planes, pinned in by a military base, or is peace and enjoyment the order of your day?
What's your happy noise-free, or noisy story?
Friday 8 July 2011
Breathe in: 1, 2- cough.
UK deaths from air pollution as high as reported during the 1952 'great smog'.
http://www.environmental-protection.org.uk/news/detail/?id=2820
Wednesday 6 July 2011
Bus driver monitoring?
On the 1st July 2011, tfl awarded a new contract to aa drivetech, a leading fleet consultancy and driver training provider in the uk & overseas.
That's nice.
Perhaps instead of monitoring their driving performance, they could teach some of the drivers how to switch off their engines when stationary at a bus stand. Which i presume would help tfl's fuel costs, cut down on the pollution residents unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity of said stands are forced (might as well be at gun point) to breath in, whilst also cutting down on the noise and vibrations caused by the inconsiderate behaviour of their sub-operators.
One can but wish.
That's nice.
Perhaps instead of monitoring their driving performance, they could teach some of the drivers how to switch off their engines when stationary at a bus stand. Which i presume would help tfl's fuel costs, cut down on the pollution residents unfortunate enough to be in the vicinity of said stands are forced (might as well be at gun point) to breath in, whilst also cutting down on the noise and vibrations caused by the inconsiderate behaviour of their sub-operators.
One can but wish.
Tuesday 5 July 2011
philip davies and the walker of nastiness?
I knew there was something i'd forgotten which had slipped past my 'dar; namely the conservative mp philip davies, who opined that disabled people should offer themselves for work at below the uks minimum wage - no doubt thinking they should be grateful anyone would ever wish to employ them, let alone look at them, as they go about their business and "don't forget to doff your forelocks" as you're scuttling into work of a morning before your much better offs.
Would using the term horridly odious be classed as to extreme in this case? Strange that the horrid part feels like a mirror. However, perhaps by that extension he should also suggest that they work for longer, and be grateful for the bowl of gruel at the end of the day without ever expecting a pension!
I'm not sure if it's just my perception but there seems to be a growing band [of dunderheads?] who appear to have lost the ability to either empathise or even remotely wish to understand the lives of others before opening their mouths. Subject after subject trots by where it seems the "i'm okay, tough tits to you" brigade are not just okay with hanging out their fellow citizens for the grinder, but sadistically happy to throw them in the machine.
Remember, that it's more than only hard work that makes wonderful cushy positions cushy. Just think of all those other bodies that have had to be walked over (knowingly or not) to get there. It could be you, it could be me. In a few years time, millions of graduates from all across the world will be looking for an ever diminishing (relatively) number of jobs. Technology will increase to a level where quantum computing will be literally around the corner. Memory 100 times better than the current crop of flash memory will be in everyday use, even devices with fully functional ai's - however rudimentary.
When our mobile devices reach the stage of having the intelligence of a dog, and the new moulding graphene based technologies become embed into everything, how long before the most advanced of our wonderful cushies are easily surpassed by a rarely weary ai?
Not that i'm one of those railing against such an event, it should be a good thing, bar the usual scenarios of mad ai overlord taking control and ridding the planet of the human pest. Which might be a tragedy, on some level, but perhaps not if the majority are going to have happily aired ideas like philip davies, who of course has a right to say so. How else can the ebb and flow of discussions and growth continue if we all had the same ideas. Unless, of course, philip davies has obviously discovered that the perfect way to nirvana, is to have a huge impoverished sub-class, with the remaining 1-2% living the life, health and wealth of emperors - naturally those who lived to a ripe old age; and not the ones poisoned, stabbed in the back, or hurled off rocks to their deaths below.
Would using the term horridly odious be classed as to extreme in this case? Strange that the horrid part feels like a mirror. However, perhaps by that extension he should also suggest that they work for longer, and be grateful for the bowl of gruel at the end of the day without ever expecting a pension!
I'm not sure if it's just my perception but there seems to be a growing band [of dunderheads?] who appear to have lost the ability to either empathise or even remotely wish to understand the lives of others before opening their mouths. Subject after subject trots by where it seems the "i'm okay, tough tits to you" brigade are not just okay with hanging out their fellow citizens for the grinder, but sadistically happy to throw them in the machine.
Remember, that it's more than only hard work that makes wonderful cushy positions cushy. Just think of all those other bodies that have had to be walked over (knowingly or not) to get there. It could be you, it could be me. In a few years time, millions of graduates from all across the world will be looking for an ever diminishing (relatively) number of jobs. Technology will increase to a level where quantum computing will be literally around the corner. Memory 100 times better than the current crop of flash memory will be in everyday use, even devices with fully functional ai's - however rudimentary.
When our mobile devices reach the stage of having the intelligence of a dog, and the new moulding graphene based technologies become embed into everything, how long before the most advanced of our wonderful cushies are easily surpassed by a rarely weary ai?
Not that i'm one of those railing against such an event, it should be a good thing, bar the usual scenarios of mad ai overlord taking control and ridding the planet of the human pest. Which might be a tragedy, on some level, but perhaps not if the majority are going to have happily aired ideas like philip davies, who of course has a right to say so. How else can the ebb and flow of discussions and growth continue if we all had the same ideas. Unless, of course, philip davies has obviously discovered that the perfect way to nirvana, is to have a huge impoverished sub-class, with the remaining 1-2% living the life, health and wealth of emperors - naturally those who lived to a ripe old age; and not the ones poisoned, stabbed in the back, or hurled off rocks to their deaths below.
Monday 4 July 2011
Madness of the unborn states?
After way too much inward navel gazing, its time to expand from myself and ponder for a while matters other than i.
The virulent antics of the anti-abortionist brigade (strangely usually headed by men - why is that?) has always struck me as strangely dyspeptic, even logic twisting; as many of its supporters appear happy venting unabashed vengeance against those providing services for women who don't want a baby, any baby not even a baby forced on them by a rapist, as presumably society as we know it will up sticks and collapse.
Mayhaps they are unaware of the 15,000,000 annual baby and children deaths around the world from starvation (have a read just in case you have no idea of the process, i didn't), a slow painful death as your body slowly feeds on itself over weeks in an effort to survive.
Perhaps that's not as pressing a concern as preventing a woman from having an abortion. A woman who has probably thought through and reached a decision that extremely affects her, her body, her health, her sanity, and her ongoing dividing embryonic cells. Not yours, nor mine.
No, these bubble-hounds believe it is far better that a child is born, regardless of the wants and wishes of the mother, so whatever passes for their conscience can be salved; happy, ignorant or uncaring of the other 15,000,000 deaths, occurring annually around the globe, from starvation. Or are they of the opinion that once a child is born, if it then succumbs to a slow and painful death then never mind, that must be the will of the almighty or the work of the fallen one? I believe the term sadist in this light is a woeful inadequate term.
People have always meddled in others lives, you do it, i'm doing it, its a product of who we are, and as our cities continue transforming into glamorous villages, action (for good or ill) is a slivering whisper away from a roaring inferno.
If the pro-lifers (but happy to kill you if we disagree with you brigade), wish to show they are much more than a fanatical band of whoopy-tunes, then they should go boycott big food, the pharmaceuticals, or demand an answer from their politicians, as to why in this day and age millions across the globe are allowed to starve, when at least 40% of 'westerners' foodstuffs ends up in a landfill never being consumed or opened. Then once they've committed to that and sorted that out, they might then have a claim to advise women on the benefits and joys of motherhood and the bringing up an unwanted child.
The virulent antics of the anti-abortionist brigade (strangely usually headed by men - why is that?) has always struck me as strangely dyspeptic, even logic twisting; as many of its supporters appear happy venting unabashed vengeance against those providing services for women who don't want a baby, any baby not even a baby forced on them by a rapist, as presumably society as we know it will up sticks and collapse.
Mayhaps they are unaware of the 15,000,000 annual baby and children deaths around the world from starvation (have a read just in case you have no idea of the process, i didn't), a slow painful death as your body slowly feeds on itself over weeks in an effort to survive.
Perhaps that's not as pressing a concern as preventing a woman from having an abortion. A woman who has probably thought through and reached a decision that extremely affects her, her body, her health, her sanity, and her ongoing dividing embryonic cells. Not yours, nor mine.
No, these bubble-hounds believe it is far better that a child is born, regardless of the wants and wishes of the mother, so whatever passes for their conscience can be salved; happy, ignorant or uncaring of the other 15,000,000 deaths, occurring annually around the globe, from starvation. Or are they of the opinion that once a child is born, if it then succumbs to a slow and painful death then never mind, that must be the will of the almighty or the work of the fallen one? I believe the term sadist in this light is a woeful inadequate term.
People have always meddled in others lives, you do it, i'm doing it, its a product of who we are, and as our cities continue transforming into glamorous villages, action (for good or ill) is a slivering whisper away from a roaring inferno.
If the pro-lifers (but happy to kill you if we disagree with you brigade), wish to show they are much more than a fanatical band of whoopy-tunes, then they should go boycott big food, the pharmaceuticals, or demand an answer from their politicians, as to why in this day and age millions across the globe are allowed to starve, when at least 40% of 'westerners' foodstuffs ends up in a landfill never being consumed or opened. Then once they've committed to that and sorted that out, they might then have a claim to advise women on the benefits and joys of motherhood and the bringing up an unwanted child.
Sunday 3 July 2011
Rambling stint
I'm hoping against hope (and past experience) that my little long stint in purgatory will soon come to an end. Despite those believing my use of religious terminology is odd, sometimes it's the only workable method until succinct remembrance bubbles up with alternatives.
Ending one's stint naturally involves ground work, research and prolonged visits to an area. However, if I view somewhere that looks whiter than white but turns out to be a cross between the twilight zone, stepford wives, hammer house of horror and shameless; i hope the past few years will have stood me in good stead, enabling good sense and fortitude to rise to the fore and start pumping these legs into running away, whilst alternately having me screaming and bursting out into bouts of gibbering laughter.
The plodding nature of this piece can be firmly placed on the pedestal of forgetfulness, barely able as i am to accurately remember the word(s) i'm reaching for, when i need them at any precise time. This entails bashing away padding stuff out, then re-reading and rewriting dozens of times before whatever i'm rambling on about passes for something intelligible and not simply the actions of a cat jumping all over a keyboard. A lesson long learned when initial attempts at posting straight from the hip left a mangled mess of unintelligible nonsense, that even i had problems making sense of.
Alcohol used to do the trick, dulled the senses, but even that's stopped. The resultant effect of damming that hole has me walking up at night with an outpouring of a myriad of ideas, thoughts and questions, all in need of a pen or damned heavy weight. Which is forgotten in a flash by the realising need to visit the bathroom.
So when will my time in purgatory end? Sometime before, during or after 2012.
Ending one's stint naturally involves ground work, research and prolonged visits to an area. However, if I view somewhere that looks whiter than white but turns out to be a cross between the twilight zone, stepford wives, hammer house of horror and shameless; i hope the past few years will have stood me in good stead, enabling good sense and fortitude to rise to the fore and start pumping these legs into running away, whilst alternately having me screaming and bursting out into bouts of gibbering laughter.
The plodding nature of this piece can be firmly placed on the pedestal of forgetfulness, barely able as i am to accurately remember the word(s) i'm reaching for, when i need them at any precise time. This entails bashing away padding stuff out, then re-reading and rewriting dozens of times before whatever i'm rambling on about passes for something intelligible and not simply the actions of a cat jumping all over a keyboard. A lesson long learned when initial attempts at posting straight from the hip left a mangled mess of unintelligible nonsense, that even i had problems making sense of.
Alcohol used to do the trick, dulled the senses, but even that's stopped. The resultant effect of damming that hole has me walking up at night with an outpouring of a myriad of ideas, thoughts and questions, all in need of a pen or damned heavy weight. Which is forgotten in a flash by the realising need to visit the bathroom.
So when will my time in purgatory end? Sometime before, during or after 2012.
Saturday 2 July 2011
War and peace
The problem with being a hermit, is that many things - who said life? - can pass you by; when you have friends you can count on your big-toe, or your migraine suddenly descends whilst watching regular news channels, each time leaving your wondering just how low can they go, and each time it's that little bit lower.
An element of that lifestyle entails missing something which fervently tickles and entices the neurons. One of which is work for peace by gil scott-heron.
An element of that lifestyle entails missing something which fervently tickles and entices the neurons. One of which is work for peace by gil scott-heron.
Friday 1 July 2011
The I.D.S idleness
So there are far too many migrants popping into the country, working harder, longer, with a better education, and with a get up and go kind of spirit; which doesn't refute the oft shrill cry of 'they're only migrant benefit cheats', there's just usually more to a story than one, or even two, strands.
British firms should give jobs to british workers, mainly the young mind as those who have passed their twelfth birthday are probably already set in the 'workshy, layabout, where's my benefit' mould; if we believe everything emanating from the mouth of ids and alienphobic shrills.
A nonsense all of it. Many manufacturing jobs went overseas because companies found they could happily manufacture products overseas far more cheaply (due to lower wages) and have the resultant stuff shipped back and still make a profit. As the education system in those outsourcing countries has improved and more of their citizens are able to send their own off-spring to ivy-league universities elsewhere, then home-grown businesses are starting to do what 'western' companies did, but actually employ their own home-grown workforce, at least for a while.
Increasingly 'westerner' middle-classer's (many who happily voted for sid and the resultant selling off of the family, gold, silver and half-cracked ceramic eggcup), are starting to find their livelihoods and possibly the livelihoods of their wee ones threatened, and feel somewhat aggrieved.
Too late. That boat has sailed to far eastern shores, and only the resultant fall in uk living standards, and brining property prices back to sensible levels, will provide an improvement and reduction in stress levels. Else the dog-eat-doggedness will continue its slippery slide until we're all bemusedly circling around, wondering when it all went so comically wrong.
British firms should give jobs to british workers, mainly the young mind as those who have passed their twelfth birthday are probably already set in the 'workshy, layabout, where's my benefit' mould; if we believe everything emanating from the mouth of ids and alienphobic shrills.
A nonsense all of it. Many manufacturing jobs went overseas because companies found they could happily manufacture products overseas far more cheaply (due to lower wages) and have the resultant stuff shipped back and still make a profit. As the education system in those outsourcing countries has improved and more of their citizens are able to send their own off-spring to ivy-league universities elsewhere, then home-grown businesses are starting to do what 'western' companies did, but actually employ their own home-grown workforce, at least for a while.
Increasingly 'westerner' middle-classer's (many who happily voted for sid and the resultant selling off of the family, gold, silver and half-cracked ceramic eggcup), are starting to find their livelihoods and possibly the livelihoods of their wee ones threatened, and feel somewhat aggrieved.
Too late. That boat has sailed to far eastern shores, and only the resultant fall in uk living standards, and brining property prices back to sensible levels, will provide an improvement and reduction in stress levels. Else the dog-eat-doggedness will continue its slippery slide until we're all bemusedly circling around, wondering when it all went so comically wrong.
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