I forgot to mention a first time pass last Monday (6/7/2009) – well done PW for just 6 driver faults.
And well done also to MT for his first time pass yesterday (14/7/2009) with 8 driver faults. Don’t forget the foo dobber – you’ll need it!
Both will be good, safe drivers and I wish them well for the future.
This caught my attention on the news during the day – The Telegraph has a reasonable write-up, and you can watch the BBC news story here.
Scientists at the Northeast England Stem Cell Institute claim to have created human sperm from embryonic stem cells. If the claim turns out to be true, it could have implications for people unable to have children. On the innocent surface of it, childless couples could have children via IVF which are genetically their own. On a more sinister level, women might also be able to have children without the involvement of a man at all!
The whole thing has sparked controversy on numerous fronts.
Some groups are suggesting that the sperm are not viable – that is, they may not allow fertilisation to take place (although the technique used has already been used in mice and offspring have been produced, though all died shortly after birth). Others are questioning the ethics involved.
It will be interesting to see how this one develops.
As I’ve mentioned before, I do a lot of work on my PC when I’m at home.
Ever since I can remember, whenever the weather warms up a little – and this includes potentially every day of the year – the moths, flies, and gnats have driven me crazy. Even in deepest winter, if the temperature rises even a little above average they start hatching. And what do they head for through the open window?
Hinged Flyscreen
My monitor!
Last year it suddenly occurred to me that this is why (well, one reason) Americans have flyscreens. OK, I know this might sound stupid and obvious, but it was like a sudden flash of inspiration to me at the time.
A quick search and I came up with FlyscreensUK. You can get different mesh types, so I requested some samples – the company was extremely helpful with this and a few other questions about the kinds of insects they stop. In the end I decided to go for the finest (midge mesh), which I was assured would stop just about anything,
Retractable Flyscreen
Once it started getting a bit milder after the snow this year I sent away for the appropriate kit. It was easy to measure up (though you do have to cut the frame material using a hacksaw, so be aware of this) and assemble. They attach to the window using continuous magnetic strips to ensure no gaps.
I have to say I was sceptical about the ability of the midge mesh to keep out what I think of as ‘midges’ – those tiny little black things that get everywhere around this time of year. But after sitting outside the test centre the other day in the boiling weather we’ve had, and getting covered in these things, I’ve not had a single one get into the room where I have my computer (nor anything else with wings).
I also had a few reservations about the midge mesh blocking out light, but it doesn’t do that much at all. In fact you hardly know it is there.
Mine are just for normal windows, but you can get them for doors and French windows. These flyscreens are excellent, and I’d recommend them to anyone. They are one of the most useful things I’ve ever bought – and when I think of what I’ve put up with over the years…!
They really do work (and that seems to be a search term being used to find this topic via Google), and FlyscreensUK is a company I can highly recommend.
Another collection of music from the past, featuring the likes of Gordon Giltrap , Be Bop Deluxe , Johnny Winter , Thin Lizzy , Jimi Hendrix and so on.
I’m not so sure I consider The Jam , Status Quo , or AC/DC as ‘guitar heroes’ – but the BBC does like to screw up and rewrite perfectly good history to make it accessible to all. When Still More Guitar Heroes is made, I expect they’ll have Dizzee Rascal and Jay-Z on it!
I’ll post a link to the show once it is online – it is being broadcast live on iPlayer at the moment.
The show is now online here (link now dead – this is an old story).
Why is that I am watching The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (with Clint Eastwood) for about the 1,000th time and – even with the most ridiculous number of ad breaks imaginable – I am seeing scenes I have never seen before?
There was one with Tuco meeting up with some friends immediately after Blondie dumps him in the desert, then another just now with Angel Eyes going to a semi-deserted and ravaged Confederate town and meeting up with some soldiers to ask about Bill Carson. And I’ve just seen another one where Tuco has taken Blondie into the desert and is washing his feet to torment him! They’ve never been shown before – and there’s another 2 hours to go yet (well, maybe 90 minutes, not including the adverts).
TV usually has that irritating habit of cutting bits out, not putting them in.
I’m not imagining it. The original Spaghetti Western trilogy with Clint Eastwood is my favourite, and I’m a big Eastwood fan anyway. I’ve seen them lots of times, and I know these scenes are additions (the Tuco one was noticeably poorer quality and badly dubbed).
In 2003, a new law was introduced in the UK which prohibits the use of handheld devices whilst driving. Initially, you could be fined a fixed penalty (£30) for doing it, then in 2007 the law changed and the fixed penalty fine was increased (£60) – plus you’d get 3 penalty points on your licence. In all cases, if the case were taken to court a fine of up to £1,000 was possible. The RoSPA site has more details.
As I drive around on lessons each day, the number of drivers blatantly ignoring this law – and getting away with it completely – is staggering. I see people flying up behind me at junctions, only to slam their brakes on because they’ve got a mobile phone stuck against their heads. I have people tailgating me, also with mobiles glued to their ears, and who would not be able to respond anywhere near quickly enough if my pupil braked suddenly. I see van drivers turning corners with one hand – intently yammering away on their mobiles. Last week, I said to a pupil “look at this guy in front. He’s got his mobile against his right ear – now look at his left arm when he moves away and changes gear “… and yes, he changed gear with his left hand whilst holding the mobile to his head with his right!
But by far the biggest danger on the roads is people texting.
Texting is the favoured activity of the moron. Or I should say, young moron. Their entire lives seem to revolve around their mobile phones and texting. You see them walking down the street in bright sunshine, oblivious to nature going on around them, shoulders hunched, thumbs curled over their mobiles.
Have you ever read one of these texts? Meaningless drivel! You can get a rough idea by going to a typical web forum (or Twitter) and looking at a typical post by a typical user with a lot of posts to their names. It’s likely to be just a bunch of ridiculous smilies and symbols – and on the rare occasions actual communication takes place, it’ll be using embarrassingly poor spelling and grammar (as I’ve already mentioned, they are morons).
But back to the main point… next time you stop at traffic lights, just have a glance around you at the drivers in other cars – and especially the young drivers. Watch their eyes.
The number of people texting whilst driving their cars is frightening. Only today I was walking past a light-controlled junction and traffic was stopping. A girl in a blue car (didn’t get the model: reg. no. YT55 AVM ) was still moving, but slowing down behind another car, and as I looked down she had both hands off the wheel and was using them to text using the mobile phone in her lap .
The Police really ought to crack down on this. They could make an absolute fortune from it.
Edit 12/07/2009: Had another one today (silver Clio Sport (typical pratmobile) reg: YK55 OZB). He was in the wrong lane anyway (left turn only but he wanted to turn right). You should have seen his eyes flicking up and down as he frantically texted at the side of me as the lights were on red. As we moved off he did the typical trying-toedge-ahead routine, then managed to shoot forward and cut into a one-car-length gap in front of the car ahead of me. Disappeared at speed, only for me to catch up with him a few minutes later at traffic lights. He tailgated a car for about a mile, trying to overtake between pedestrian refuges. I saw a large gap coming and thought “this time he’ll go”. He did, and nearly hit another car head on. He vanished doing at least 50mph in a 30 zone.
Easily missed as a result of Jacko’s death, Farrah Fawcett also died yesterday.
I remember her from Charlie’s Angels when I was at school, but she had a successful – if low-key – career after that.
Another one who’ll be sadly missed. It’s a bad sign when you realise your childhood heroes (well, those people who were part of your childhood years, anyway) start popping their clogs.
I fell asleep last night and when I woke up around 4pm, I was surprised to see the same Jacksons documentary on most of the MTV/VH1 channels. I guessed something was up.
Obviously, this was confirmed this morning when I heard the news. It seems it was a heart attack. It’s a shame – no matter what you thought of him, he was a talented (if latterly, very confused) individual.
There’s a good write up in The Times. The one in The Sun isn’t too bad, either. All the other papers are covering it, of course. Best if you read those instead of me quoting anything.
I’m sure this will upset some people, but in many ways it is as significant as Elvis’ death. Not just the fact that Jacko was a superstar and supremely talented person (more so than Elvis, in my opinion), but due to the way the public is behaving already. The media has gone crazy.
Right now on breakfast TV they’re at Glastonbury interviewing people about what it means. And they’ve got a Jacko impersonator in the studio. And I took the car to the Ford dealer this morning to get it looked at (EMS fault), and on the radio they have got people phoning in with their opinions: mainly middle-aged women, clearly contemplating suicide over his death. The news channels have covered little else, though it is tiresome listening to Z-list celebrities stuttering and stammering (why is it they can’t talk properly off-screen?) for 5 minutes just to say ‘I’m shocked’.
I was never into Jacko’s kind of music, but I didn’t specifically hate what he did. I just recognised him for what he was: musically gifted.
Edit: 26/06/2009 #1 – Daytime TV is driving me nuts. Phone-in after phone-in with such gems as:
I’m just [pause]… really [pause]… really sad! He was very [pause]… very [pause]… good!
People really are idiots.
Edit: 26/06/2009 #2 – And now they have Uri Geller on the phone. I don’t think I need to say any more on that: you know what he was like at the best of times.
Saw this article in yesterday’s press.
I won’t duplicate it here, but the section titles are listed below:
I’ve said before that taking salt out of food is making it taste like crap!
Mini Cheddars have been screwed up by taking it out, most Chinese takeaways have been screwed up (especially the rice, which they now cook in plain water instead of salted), Cornish Pasties usually taste like cardboard because the salt is gone, Pot Noodles the same… the list goes on. Indian restaurants appear to have used a little more common sense (except the ones who offer ‘healthy’ options – what the hell is a curry without oil and salt in it?)
The article was apparently extracted from a forthcoming book: Global Warming And Other Bollocks: The Truth About All Those Science Scare Stories by Professor Stanley Feldman and Professor Vincent Marks. I fancy a look at that to see what the evidence for these claims is.
Sometime, you just couldn’t make it up!
In one news story today, two young girls were treated in hospital for burns they sustained to their bare feet after walking on to freshly-laid tarmac.
Fair enough: it’s obviously not something you want to happen – but it happens. It’s what they call ‘an accident’. Well, they used to. But not nowadays. You see, the girls’ parents are going to sue the backsides off whoever they can.
Their parents Robert and Hazel Woodley are now planning to sue for damages, claiming there were no proper signs or barriers to warn holidaymakers of the newly laid surface.
There were cones. And if memory serves me correctly, the rising (and often visible) fumes tend to be a bit of a giveaway. And just what kind of parent allows kids to walk barefoot on what is obviously new (and therefore sticky) tarmac? Burns or not, you just don’t walk barefoot on something which is sticky and dirty.
The father, Robert Woodley, laid it on thick – no doubt in preparation for the millions he is going to try and claim:
“The girls were just screaming in pain. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone in such pain. It was awful for us to see the kids in such agony.”
Mr Woodley said one side of the path was lined with a few traffic cones but there was nothing to stop people walking across the hot surface.
Of course, seeing as a local council is involved, Mr Woodley can probably expect to receive at least a six-figure settlement:
Clive Smith, head of Poole council’s leisure services, said they planned to carry out a full investigation into the incident.
He added: “Leisure services staff were on site immediately after this incident occurred.
“We are taking this incident very seriously.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the same coin, another story details the sorts of things being banned in schools because they are dangerous.
Those last ones are from the Daily Mail’s version of the story.
It’s no wonder evolution throws up people like Mr Woodley, when society readily provides such an environment for his kind to grow up in.
When I was a kid, we had egg-and-spoon races, three-legged races, played football with anything even remotely spherical, ran, chased, laughed… rain or shine. We climbed trees, fell out of trees, rode bikes to places more than 100 metres away from home, played with hot tar (and got into trouble for ruining our clothes with it)… And we survived.
You fear for the bunch of dependent weaklings being bred today, don’t you?
And one more thing. ‘Back when I were a lad’ if you stood on something hot (or sharp, or wet and clammy) you danced around a bit and got off it… QUICKLY! From the way the tarmac story is worded these two girls must have been standing on it for several minutes… what great parents they must have, eh?