This is a piece of shameless plagiarism and lazy research in that I nicked it from a post on a forum I frequent, but found it funny and I think you might:
Here are the winners of this year's Washington Post's Mensa Invitational which once again asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter,and supply a new definition:
1. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus: A person who is both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy: Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.
7. Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high
8. Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
9. Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)
11. Karmageddon: It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido: All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler Effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic Fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets intoyour bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you're eating.
The Washington Post has also published the winning submissions to its yearly contest in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. And the winners are:
1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one hasgained.
3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Willy-nilly, adj. Impotent.
6. Negligent, adj.. Absentmindedly answering the door when wearing only a nightgown.
7. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.
8. Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavored mouthwash.
9. Flatulence, n.. Emergency vehicle that picks up someone who has been run over by a steamroller.
10. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.
11. Testicle n. A humorous question on an exam.
12. Rectitude, n. The formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.
13. Pokemon, n. A Rastafarian proctologist.
14. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation withyiddishisms.
15. Frisbeetarianism, n. The belief that, after death, the soul fliesup onto the roof and gets stuck there.
16. Circumvent, n. An opening in the front of boxer shorts worn byJewish men.
I have managed an 18mile run, which was a bit of an effort as I haven't run that far since October last year. A weekend on call looms so apart from gym trips I will be limited for physical acticity over the next few days. I do need to get out and play some golf but the weather is very variable - I might get some action tomorrow if the rain holds off for long enough.
Thursday, 29 January 2009
Saturday, 24 January 2009
warning: ill tempered ramblings
As I said, right at the beginning, this (blog) was started to record the minutiae of my life, and was intended as a way for me to keep a record of these events in the very likely event that I go nuts and lose the ability to think. Facebook took over a bit, especially for the books, but there is still a place for my musings. I dont expect anyone to agree with me and I may change my mind next week but a least it will give me an idea of what was exercising my brain at the time it was posted. It has been very sporadic, but that is just because I rarely remember to keep it up. The following is very typical and although intemperate, is currently representative. I really do need to get out more...
A Storm is brewing over the showing of the anti-Muslim film “Fitna” by Geert Wilders http://www.mediawatchwatch.org.uk/. This site is very useful for pointing out what is happening and it always pays to be aware of the atheist / humanist fools, as much as it does to be aware of the fundies.
Maybe this makes me a sit-on-the-fence neither-here-nor-there person without a definitive view but I don’t really care as I think it might just give me a more balanced viewpoint. I would not like to be packaged to any of the narrow-minded bigot groups and I would resent the limited philosophical outlook this would allow me to have.
Here: http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/, you can see what happens when opinions are allowed to run freely. The site points out the loonies who frequent the BBCs Have-Your-Say website – it is truly amusing and quite worrying in equal parts. This: http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/the-twat-o-tron/, can provide almost endless amusement.
Back to the point in a round about sort of way and bringing together the above. The MWW website is attracting comments about the cancelled showing of “Fitna” and I can only conclude that they are reaching the depths previously only attained by posters to "Have-Your-Say". You can easily see this happening here: http://www.mediawatchwatch.org.uk/2009/01/23/house-of-lords-fitna-show-cancelled/#comments
I fail to understand why such vitriol is required by "atheists/humanists", or anyone for that matter, in order to make their point, they just look a "bit stupid".
A Storm is brewing over the showing of the anti-Muslim film “Fitna” by Geert Wilders http://www.mediawatchwatch.org.uk/. This site is very useful for pointing out what is happening and it always pays to be aware of the atheist / humanist fools, as much as it does to be aware of the fundies.
Maybe this makes me a sit-on-the-fence neither-here-nor-there person without a definitive view but I don’t really care as I think it might just give me a more balanced viewpoint. I would not like to be packaged to any of the narrow-minded bigot groups and I would resent the limited philosophical outlook this would allow me to have.
Here: http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/, you can see what happens when opinions are allowed to run freely. The site points out the loonies who frequent the BBCs Have-Your-Say website – it is truly amusing and quite worrying in equal parts. This: http://ifyoulikeitsomuchwhydontyougolivethere.com/the-twat-o-tron/, can provide almost endless amusement.
Back to the point in a round about sort of way and bringing together the above. The MWW website is attracting comments about the cancelled showing of “Fitna” and I can only conclude that they are reaching the depths previously only attained by posters to "Have-Your-Say". You can easily see this happening here: http://www.mediawatchwatch.org.uk/2009/01/23/house-of-lords-fitna-show-cancelled/#comments
I fail to understand why such vitriol is required by "atheists/humanists", or anyone for that matter, in order to make their point, they just look a "bit stupid".
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
This Is a test to see if the system will work . I was quite keen to work out how to use all the features of this new phone . It took me a bit of time to get the email to work. I have even had a very long distance chat over the internet to sort out connection issues! This Is all very exciting (I know I need to get out more) but I have to be able to use every possible phone feature.
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
Masters of Creation
Ripped from Orbital who ripped it from Russel Davies; just about sums it all up I think:
“You are becoming gods. There's a new master of creation; and it's you! You've unraveled DNA, and at the same time you're cultivating bacteria strong enough to kill every living thing. You think you're ready for that much power?”
"You Lot,?”
”You Lot ?”
”Cheeky bastards... You're running around science like kids with guns, creating a new world, while the world you've got is stinking, but, hands up, hands up; anyone who thinks you've got it right?”
”Yeah, there's always one. I can see you.”
”If you want the position of God, then take the responsibility!”
“You are becoming gods. There's a new master of creation; and it's you! You've unraveled DNA, and at the same time you're cultivating bacteria strong enough to kill every living thing. You think you're ready for that much power?”
"You Lot,?”
”You Lot ?”
”Cheeky bastards... You're running around science like kids with guns, creating a new world, while the world you've got is stinking, but, hands up, hands up; anyone who thinks you've got it right?”
”Yeah, there's always one. I can see you.”
”If you want the position of God, then take the responsibility!”
Sunday, 16 November 2008
panem et circenses
The alien anthropologists admitted they were still perplexed and
On eliminating every other reason for our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left
This species has amused itself to death…
Roger Waters: Amused to Death
This seems strangely apt in the face of a rash of advertising for the rather-less-than-erudite “Zack and Miri make a porno”. We truly have reached the peak of human achievement in that case; haven’t we? I would also like to think that it rather weakens the case for evolution as it would appear that we are taking deleterious steps rather than making progress.
... iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli
uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim
imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,
panem et circenses. ...
Richard Dawkins might like to think we are developed to such a degree that we no longer have need of religion and that the power of rational thought will carry us forward to a glorious new future but I give you “Zack and Miri make a porno”.
On eliminating every other reason for our sad demise
They logged the only explanation left
This species has amused itself to death…
Roger Waters: Amused to Death
This seems strangely apt in the face of a rash of advertising for the rather-less-than-erudite “Zack and Miri make a porno”. We truly have reached the peak of human achievement in that case; haven’t we? I would also like to think that it rather weakens the case for evolution as it would appear that we are taking deleterious steps rather than making progress.
... iam pridem, ex quo suffragia nulli
uendimus, effudit curas; nam qui dabat olim
imperium, fasces, legiones, omnia, nunc se
continet atque duas tantum res anxius optat,
panem et circenses. ...
Richard Dawkins might like to think we are developed to such a degree that we no longer have need of religion and that the power of rational thought will carry us forward to a glorious new future but I give you “Zack and Miri make a porno”.
Saturday, 15 November 2008
Catching up
12th June 08
Try this – marvellous!
http://www.therightfoot.net/mystuff/whatever/swf/bubblewrap.swf
This is going to be one-of-those-days. No-one here seems capable of performing even the smallest task without requiring my input – very frustrating. It would also appear that a person who left a couple of months ago, did not leave adequate instructions for certain of their tasks and this is creating significant confusion.
I am still not managing to keep this up. It would appear that it takes up too much of my time. I do actually have better things to do. Reading other peoples blogs can be quite fun. There are, I discover, some people who do this on a semi-professional basis. This, as I have said before, is strictly for my own consumption. Anyone else who reads and is offended or otherwise can just “Jog on”.
This is now the 5th of July and I have just watched “Control”. The film is just excellent and whether you like the music or not, or whether you know the ending or not, are just irrelevant. As a biopic with bias (Its based on Deborah Curtis’ book so you can work it out), it works very well indeed. I felt that it appeared to deal fairly with both Ian and Deborah.
Last Sunday we had a climatologist here for lunch. He was here to represent the A-Rocha charity for the church. I think I may no-longer be in global warming denial. I am slowly ploughing my way through the IPCC 4th Report. It is very convincing. We’re all doomed so live with it.
I read Jpod by Douglas Coupland. This is a most strange book. Quite compelling in its organisation but the story was shallow and uninspiring, and despite the component parts to create a truly excellent ending from the material, Coupland fails to do this and seems to be happy with an ending more worthy of a secondary school literature student.
“Dogs” by Ray Coppinger, is a much better read. Being non-fiction does not stop its content being challenging and surprising. I would love every “dog-breeder” to read it and be chastised, and you can add all those idiots who think that dogs descended from wolves. This book turns a lot of those ill thought-out notions on their head and looks at it from a more logical and biological perspective with less basis on emotion than fact.
27th October 2008
This is not being kept up – all sorts of reasons really – I have lost focus with it and only have a limited length of time to devote to it. It would, perhaps, be better if I spent less time surfing the net and a bit more time recording the minutiae of my life. Who knows – I might even reward myself with a broader overview of what I am actually achieving.
I am, however, using Facebook a lot more and I do like the “Status updates”. This is a helpful way of cataloguing the ongoing bits and pieces.
30th October
Another load of nonsense:
Today I decided that if I had to write my autobiography it would probably be titled “As if anyone was really bothered”. The Evening Mail would probably get very excited about it so I would suspect it would sell well (in Barrow). I could therefore suggest a second title but I'm not going to put it here.
E4B (Electricity for Business) have gone into administration and we are one of the 40,000 customers. BG have taken on the book and by a spot of luck they are able to offer us a very similar deal to E4B. Looks like we might not lose out too much.
Totally random things happen here. So far this week I have seen:
The opening of a new estate agency (In this economic climate??)
The opening of a large leisure / home store (in this town???)
Threats that a charity has had made against it to burn down the kennels because the person was refused a Rottie Puppy. This is an undesirable person to own such a dog and I would suggest that the threats are further evidence of the unsuitability. The person also claimed to have links to Al Qaeda. If such an organisation were active in Barrow I am sure that they would not like their name used in this way. How thick do you have to be?
A puppy called “Nigger”. Neanderthal doesn’t quite do these people justice.
That said, I have tickets to Quantum of Solace on Saturday night and those at short notice as well. I have not got tickets to AC/DC or Metallica. Bit sore about both of those but I’ll get over it in time.
15th November
Another couple of weeks have slipped by. For my books you can keep abreast of the Visual bookshelf on Facebook.
Had a night out at the Apollo in Manchester last night – Danko Jones, Saxon and Motorhead – all extremely loud and all very good. Lemmy was in good form and you knew it would be pretty good after the second track on their set he asked if we would like it “a bit louder”. Dano Jones played some good numbers and very solid rock n roll stuff it was too. The only problem was the lead guitarist / singer who rather let himself down when he opened his mouth. That was almost embarrassing. Saxon were also very dependable stuff , no baldness issues in that band apart from the lead guitarist who has not a hair on his head. I can see why Spinal Tap was based on them – I even thought as much when they came on the stage.
There was a slight amusement as Motorhead appeared – a pint of beer came flying over the top of me and I was somewhat drenched –all part of the enthusiastic experience. Josh caught the drummers’ towel – we had survived the front row for the whole evening. It was very good value for money in that Danko Jones came on at 7-30 PM and Motorhead left the stage at 11-15.
Today we have been very relaxed. One of our neighbours appears to want our discarded bathtub. We have had the plumbers in to do the main bathroom. They have made a start and are beginning to reinstall already. The Electrician comes in to start his work on Monday and the plumbing work should be under control by the end of the week and then the tiler can start to do his bit.
I made another trip to the gym and my legs have largely recovered from the 20+mile run through Grizedale on Wednesday. That run was very entertaining as I saw a very rare red squirrel run across the path in front of me.
Try this – marvellous!
http://www.therightfoot.net/mystuff/whatever/swf/bubblewrap.swf
This is going to be one-of-those-days. No-one here seems capable of performing even the smallest task without requiring my input – very frustrating. It would also appear that a person who left a couple of months ago, did not leave adequate instructions for certain of their tasks and this is creating significant confusion.
I am still not managing to keep this up. It would appear that it takes up too much of my time. I do actually have better things to do. Reading other peoples blogs can be quite fun. There are, I discover, some people who do this on a semi-professional basis. This, as I have said before, is strictly for my own consumption. Anyone else who reads and is offended or otherwise can just “Jog on”.
This is now the 5th of July and I have just watched “Control”. The film is just excellent and whether you like the music or not, or whether you know the ending or not, are just irrelevant. As a biopic with bias (Its based on Deborah Curtis’ book so you can work it out), it works very well indeed. I felt that it appeared to deal fairly with both Ian and Deborah.
Last Sunday we had a climatologist here for lunch. He was here to represent the A-Rocha charity for the church. I think I may no-longer be in global warming denial. I am slowly ploughing my way through the IPCC 4th Report. It is very convincing. We’re all doomed so live with it.
I read Jpod by Douglas Coupland. This is a most strange book. Quite compelling in its organisation but the story was shallow and uninspiring, and despite the component parts to create a truly excellent ending from the material, Coupland fails to do this and seems to be happy with an ending more worthy of a secondary school literature student.
“Dogs” by Ray Coppinger, is a much better read. Being non-fiction does not stop its content being challenging and surprising. I would love every “dog-breeder” to read it and be chastised, and you can add all those idiots who think that dogs descended from wolves. This book turns a lot of those ill thought-out notions on their head and looks at it from a more logical and biological perspective with less basis on emotion than fact.
27th October 2008
This is not being kept up – all sorts of reasons really – I have lost focus with it and only have a limited length of time to devote to it. It would, perhaps, be better if I spent less time surfing the net and a bit more time recording the minutiae of my life. Who knows – I might even reward myself with a broader overview of what I am actually achieving.
I am, however, using Facebook a lot more and I do like the “Status updates”. This is a helpful way of cataloguing the ongoing bits and pieces.
30th October
Another load of nonsense:
Today I decided that if I had to write my autobiography it would probably be titled “As if anyone was really bothered”. The Evening Mail would probably get very excited about it so I would suspect it would sell well (in Barrow). I could therefore suggest a second title but I'm not going to put it here.
E4B (Electricity for Business) have gone into administration and we are one of the 40,000 customers. BG have taken on the book and by a spot of luck they are able to offer us a very similar deal to E4B. Looks like we might not lose out too much.
Totally random things happen here. So far this week I have seen:
The opening of a new estate agency (In this economic climate??)
The opening of a large leisure / home store (in this town???)
Threats that a charity has had made against it to burn down the kennels because the person was refused a Rottie Puppy. This is an undesirable person to own such a dog and I would suggest that the threats are further evidence of the unsuitability. The person also claimed to have links to Al Qaeda. If such an organisation were active in Barrow I am sure that they would not like their name used in this way. How thick do you have to be?
A puppy called “Nigger”. Neanderthal doesn’t quite do these people justice.
That said, I have tickets to Quantum of Solace on Saturday night and those at short notice as well. I have not got tickets to AC/DC or Metallica. Bit sore about both of those but I’ll get over it in time.
15th November
Another couple of weeks have slipped by. For my books you can keep abreast of the Visual bookshelf on Facebook.
Had a night out at the Apollo in Manchester last night – Danko Jones, Saxon and Motorhead – all extremely loud and all very good. Lemmy was in good form and you knew it would be pretty good after the second track on their set he asked if we would like it “a bit louder”. Dano Jones played some good numbers and very solid rock n roll stuff it was too. The only problem was the lead guitarist / singer who rather let himself down when he opened his mouth. That was almost embarrassing. Saxon were also very dependable stuff , no baldness issues in that band apart from the lead guitarist who has not a hair on his head. I can see why Spinal Tap was based on them – I even thought as much when they came on the stage.
There was a slight amusement as Motorhead appeared – a pint of beer came flying over the top of me and I was somewhat drenched –all part of the enthusiastic experience. Josh caught the drummers’ towel – we had survived the front row for the whole evening. It was very good value for money in that Danko Jones came on at 7-30 PM and Motorhead left the stage at 11-15.
Today we have been very relaxed. One of our neighbours appears to want our discarded bathtub. We have had the plumbers in to do the main bathroom. They have made a start and are beginning to reinstall already. The Electrician comes in to start his work on Monday and the plumbing work should be under control by the end of the week and then the tiler can start to do his bit.
I made another trip to the gym and my legs have largely recovered from the 20+mile run through Grizedale on Wednesday. That run was very entertaining as I saw a very rare red squirrel run across the path in front of me.
Monday, 9 June 2008
long-winded nonsense.
Another week over. I have finished reading Ruth Rendell “The waters lovely”. It was a weak outing for her and I longed for an ending which was clever and well constructed, but actually got an ending which was as predictable as the story itself. It passed the time, however, and I am now reading an extremely strange book by Connie Willis “To say nothing of the dog”. I’ll elaborate further as I go. “Dogs” is proving to be a very remarkable read. I will never look at an ethological principle in the same way again. Ray Coppinger comes up with page after page of excellent insight. The paragraph on cheetahs (cats in a dogs book; wtf?), made me sit up and take notice.
I am still waiting for EasyJet to come out with their winter flight schedules. I can then complete my bookings for Switzerland at New Year.
What about the chap who has just had his 112th birthday today – quite brilliant – great little video on the bbc website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7439117.stm
The internet provides far too much opportunity for diversion and I do wonder how some of these bloggers manage to get down quite so much on a daily basis. I even learnt a new descriptive phrase “turdspurt”, in reference to unthoughtful vitriolic postings by unintelligent members of the public and with specifically directed at the BBC’s very own Have Your Say comments. I shall now try to include “turdspurt” somewhere every day.
This has been a very long week at work and is still not quite over. It has, on the whole been a lot less stressful than last week, despite having spent more time here. The work load has been quite sane, although I am looking at a very busy evening consulting period – bring me the pounds please!
The only really “off” moment, was the awkward telephone call I made last night. I spoke to a rather irate client, who lambasted me from a number of angles and made some rather nasty accusations regarding the care of his pet. He was adamant that it was me he had dealt with over this matter, but on looking at the records, I was in Switzerland at the time! Truly surreal to be accused of something which happened when I was nowhere near the building. I do almost hope he takes it to the papers, as he threatened, as I would love to set my legal team onto that one. Hang on!!! I should forgive him; or I am as bad as those idiot fundamentalist nutters I ranted on about above. It’ll take some doing but I’m going to have to get my head round it. I can only claim the high ground if I am prepared to “do the right thing”.
The builders have been trying to get me to press the Structural Engineer to come up with his revisions, and indeed I have engaged in a bit of high diplomacy to see if I can move things faster. This is not easy to keep everyone on-side.
Just booked the cinema tickets for Indiana Jones – I know that this is not my usual high-brow art-house stuff but I love all that corny stuff OK?
One of my staff has just handed in her resignation – we couldn’t fulfil her needs for development and she has looked elsewhere. The real potential benefit of this is that it could improve our short term profitability. That is no bad thing but it is still quite sad to be losing a member of staff. Don’t look back, I say.
Now I am going to have to admit to something rather interesting. I must concede a point to the fundamentalists – a small one, but it’s a point. I am bothered. I am bothered because I wonder on what actual evidence we base some of our scientific “facts”. So much is given to us with the assumption that it is actual truth, but the basis for it may (or may not) be erroneous. We could take, for example, the age of the earth. They love this one because they think it was made in 7 days and is only a few thousand years old. The scientists would have you believe that it is an awful lot older than that. I have never been given any conclusive proof in either direction. This puts both as a statement of faith and you must choose to believe what you wish to believe in.
This is indeed most interesting, as I am sure you will agree. I know that I have a science bias and that I am more likely to take an evidence-based approach, but it doesn’t stop me from being a rational person who can look at the whole picture and appreciate the other sides of the argument. This is something which is sadly lacking from the extreme poles of science and religion. Neither would appear to hold the whole answer. Scientific theory is NOT fact. Holy books are NOT fact. Deal with it.
It also concerns me that some science can be hijacked by those with another agenda to pursue. This is very evident in the area of “health scares” e.g. MMR/autism debate. It would seem that these areas become “crap attractors” drawing in those who seek to side themselves with one camp or another. A whole “industry” then appears to peddle some form of quackery based on ridiculous supposition, the only aim of which is to make money. The losers are of course, those who gain nothing from any of this, those with whatever problem is being fought over.
It also concerns me that “peer review” is all very well but if, as mentioned above, the review is done within the “crap attraction framework”, the review will almost always be favourable, and the inevitable publication of the rather suspect science. This “crap attraction”, is seeing its zenith in the internet, as any old idiot can set up a website and give their opinion, be it right or wrong.
The problem here is that anyone with a personal axe-to-grind can find a like-minded group of individuals within a few minutes and seek comfort in their own little bunker. They will then seek to protect themselves from all forms of attack and the battle lines are drawn. Sadly, all reason is lost in this debate, and truth is thin on the ground.
The number of instances where this occurs are not limited to the sphere of science and religion, you could also add politics, sport (although there is extensive cross referencing to religion there), and anywhere the “unsinkable rubber duck” phenomenon pervades.
As much as I cannot stand entrenched inflexible dogma, I also cannot tolerate those who deliberately seek to offend. The whole “cartoon” fiasco in Northern European newspapers is an excellent example of this. This who are drawing these “cartoons” should grow up and move on and those who react in quite an inappropriately excessive manner should seek to become forgiving. In this way we could start to build a culture of mutual trust, where we could all move forward.
Why have we chosen to take our communities into moral decline? I think this has been a matter of choice. We are seeing an increase in the sexualisation of young girls and as this has been facilitated by our own actions, how can we then declare that paedophiles are the largest menace our children face. Don’t get me wrong here; paedophilia is disgusting and incomprehensible to the normal human mind. These people do require treatment and control. Counter to this would run the argument that we are virtually securing their persistence by exposing our children to an overtly over-sexed culture from a very young age. We are therefore to blame for the position in which we find ourselves. The tools for the improvement of our society are all in our hands, we just need to use them.
I have also had a large amount of fun with the pond. On Friday night I decided that the water level was dropping at a rate that was inconsistent with normal evaporation and concluded that there was a leak. I therefore started to drain and empty the pond. In an ideal world I would have done this at the end of October last year, but this did not happen for lots of reasons. I continued the job on Saturday afternoon and eventually had emptied all the water and plants and sludge from the pond. I found no leak. This was perturbing. I refilled the pond with a large amount of tap water and by this morning 9/6/08 the pond was obviously losing water again. I simply do not know what to do know. I would love to provide a conduit for rainwater from the downspout, but there has been so little rain recently, that this would not have added any significant amount. It still remains the most easily implemented solution and I may have to act on this at the weekend. I have contemplated creating a rainwater deposit tank in the garden to act as a reservoir for this, but the excavation could prove quite onerous. Replacing the liner is out of the question as it runs under the slates at the edge of the pond and I have no desire to empty the pond ever again. I am dreading the water bill at the end of the year as I fear I may have further top-ups to provide.
Euro 2008. My Oh my, is there no topic which is safe from my comment? The French were decidedly poor this evening and with Italy and Holland in their group; one would have to put money on them not progressing beyond the group stage along with Romania. It will be very interesting to see how Capello manages to bring a team on, and perhaps we can avoid the embarrassment of non-qualification for future tournaments.
I am still waiting for EasyJet to come out with their winter flight schedules. I can then complete my bookings for Switzerland at New Year.
What about the chap who has just had his 112th birthday today – quite brilliant – great little video on the bbc website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7439117.stm
The internet provides far too much opportunity for diversion and I do wonder how some of these bloggers manage to get down quite so much on a daily basis. I even learnt a new descriptive phrase “turdspurt”, in reference to unthoughtful vitriolic postings by unintelligent members of the public and with specifically directed at the BBC’s very own Have Your Say comments. I shall now try to include “turdspurt” somewhere every day.
This has been a very long week at work and is still not quite over. It has, on the whole been a lot less stressful than last week, despite having spent more time here. The work load has been quite sane, although I am looking at a very busy evening consulting period – bring me the pounds please!
The only really “off” moment, was the awkward telephone call I made last night. I spoke to a rather irate client, who lambasted me from a number of angles and made some rather nasty accusations regarding the care of his pet. He was adamant that it was me he had dealt with over this matter, but on looking at the records, I was in Switzerland at the time! Truly surreal to be accused of something which happened when I was nowhere near the building. I do almost hope he takes it to the papers, as he threatened, as I would love to set my legal team onto that one. Hang on!!! I should forgive him; or I am as bad as those idiot fundamentalist nutters I ranted on about above. It’ll take some doing but I’m going to have to get my head round it. I can only claim the high ground if I am prepared to “do the right thing”.
The builders have been trying to get me to press the Structural Engineer to come up with his revisions, and indeed I have engaged in a bit of high diplomacy to see if I can move things faster. This is not easy to keep everyone on-side.
Just booked the cinema tickets for Indiana Jones – I know that this is not my usual high-brow art-house stuff but I love all that corny stuff OK?
One of my staff has just handed in her resignation – we couldn’t fulfil her needs for development and she has looked elsewhere. The real potential benefit of this is that it could improve our short term profitability. That is no bad thing but it is still quite sad to be losing a member of staff. Don’t look back, I say.
Now I am going to have to admit to something rather interesting. I must concede a point to the fundamentalists – a small one, but it’s a point. I am bothered. I am bothered because I wonder on what actual evidence we base some of our scientific “facts”. So much is given to us with the assumption that it is actual truth, but the basis for it may (or may not) be erroneous. We could take, for example, the age of the earth. They love this one because they think it was made in 7 days and is only a few thousand years old. The scientists would have you believe that it is an awful lot older than that. I have never been given any conclusive proof in either direction. This puts both as a statement of faith and you must choose to believe what you wish to believe in.
This is indeed most interesting, as I am sure you will agree. I know that I have a science bias and that I am more likely to take an evidence-based approach, but it doesn’t stop me from being a rational person who can look at the whole picture and appreciate the other sides of the argument. This is something which is sadly lacking from the extreme poles of science and religion. Neither would appear to hold the whole answer. Scientific theory is NOT fact. Holy books are NOT fact. Deal with it.
It also concerns me that some science can be hijacked by those with another agenda to pursue. This is very evident in the area of “health scares” e.g. MMR/autism debate. It would seem that these areas become “crap attractors” drawing in those who seek to side themselves with one camp or another. A whole “industry” then appears to peddle some form of quackery based on ridiculous supposition, the only aim of which is to make money. The losers are of course, those who gain nothing from any of this, those with whatever problem is being fought over.
It also concerns me that “peer review” is all very well but if, as mentioned above, the review is done within the “crap attraction framework”, the review will almost always be favourable, and the inevitable publication of the rather suspect science. This “crap attraction”, is seeing its zenith in the internet, as any old idiot can set up a website and give their opinion, be it right or wrong.
The problem here is that anyone with a personal axe-to-grind can find a like-minded group of individuals within a few minutes and seek comfort in their own little bunker. They will then seek to protect themselves from all forms of attack and the battle lines are drawn. Sadly, all reason is lost in this debate, and truth is thin on the ground.
The number of instances where this occurs are not limited to the sphere of science and religion, you could also add politics, sport (although there is extensive cross referencing to religion there), and anywhere the “unsinkable rubber duck” phenomenon pervades.
As much as I cannot stand entrenched inflexible dogma, I also cannot tolerate those who deliberately seek to offend. The whole “cartoon” fiasco in Northern European newspapers is an excellent example of this. This who are drawing these “cartoons” should grow up and move on and those who react in quite an inappropriately excessive manner should seek to become forgiving. In this way we could start to build a culture of mutual trust, where we could all move forward.
Why have we chosen to take our communities into moral decline? I think this has been a matter of choice. We are seeing an increase in the sexualisation of young girls and as this has been facilitated by our own actions, how can we then declare that paedophiles are the largest menace our children face. Don’t get me wrong here; paedophilia is disgusting and incomprehensible to the normal human mind. These people do require treatment and control. Counter to this would run the argument that we are virtually securing their persistence by exposing our children to an overtly over-sexed culture from a very young age. We are therefore to blame for the position in which we find ourselves. The tools for the improvement of our society are all in our hands, we just need to use them.
I have also had a large amount of fun with the pond. On Friday night I decided that the water level was dropping at a rate that was inconsistent with normal evaporation and concluded that there was a leak. I therefore started to drain and empty the pond. In an ideal world I would have done this at the end of October last year, but this did not happen for lots of reasons. I continued the job on Saturday afternoon and eventually had emptied all the water and plants and sludge from the pond. I found no leak. This was perturbing. I refilled the pond with a large amount of tap water and by this morning 9/6/08 the pond was obviously losing water again. I simply do not know what to do know. I would love to provide a conduit for rainwater from the downspout, but there has been so little rain recently, that this would not have added any significant amount. It still remains the most easily implemented solution and I may have to act on this at the weekend. I have contemplated creating a rainwater deposit tank in the garden to act as a reservoir for this, but the excavation could prove quite onerous. Replacing the liner is out of the question as it runs under the slates at the edge of the pond and I have no desire to empty the pond ever again. I am dreading the water bill at the end of the year as I fear I may have further top-ups to provide.
Euro 2008. My Oh my, is there no topic which is safe from my comment? The French were decidedly poor this evening and with Italy and Holland in their group; one would have to put money on them not progressing beyond the group stage along with Romania. It will be very interesting to see how Capello manages to bring a team on, and perhaps we can avoid the embarrassment of non-qualification for future tournaments.
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