Hard going.

Away for the weekend with the family in a kooky little cottage in Devon.  A good time was had by all - there was a hot tub which was a big hit, and I spent most of the time catching up on reading "Jane Eyre" which is one of my granddaughter's set books for her "A" levels and I promised I would read so we could discuss it together. Wished I hadn't though - it's hard going - did people really talk and behave like that back then?  It's a wonder anything ever got done - the pace is so slow and the conversation so opaque.  It's a reasonably good story, but oh, the writing!

R. I. P.

Michael Bukht, perhaps better known as Michael Barry.  Who, you may say?  Well, he was one of my personal heroes, because he was mainly responsible for Classic FM, which I personally think is the best thing to have happened to the popularisation of classical music in my lifetime.  But he was also the "crafty cook" who gave me much pleasure all those years ago on BBC's Food and Drink programme.  I am ashamed to say that he died unnoticed (by me at least) back in August. He deserved better than that.

We knock 'em down....

Am I alone in feeling somewhat uncomfortable that, having been instrumental in the destruction of Libya, we are now seeking to profit from helping to rebuild it?

Pay attention!

On a route I regularly travel by car they've put one of those LED message boards high up by the side of the road, and it goes through a sequence of changing messages like "Don't drive when you are tired" and "Maintain a safe distance from the car in front" and suchlike.  And what was it showing when I passed it yesterday - "Concentrate on the road ahead"!

Go home and grow up.

Just what is this protest outside St. Paul's in London all about?  All I've come across are vague pretty meaningless phrases like "corporate greed" and "economic injustice".  Like most protests, it seems its main purpose is to garner publicity by inconveniencing ordinary members of the public - in this case church-goers who wish to worship in St. Paul's and are unable to do so.  Pathetic!

Rugby World Cup

Well, what irony!  After (in many people's opinion) unjustifiably beating Wales by a single point in the semi-final, France now, perhaps equally unjustifiably, go down by a single point to New Zealand in the final.  Bloody good match though.

You what...?

Have you heard of "fracking"?  Sounds rude, doesn't it?  But in fact it's a process by which natural gas is extracted from shale, and it appears that there are substantial resources of it in the north-west, in the Blackpool area.  So what are we doing about it?  Not a lot it seems.  Why not?  Because we are committed to these hideous wind-farms, and shale-gas would be a much cheaper source of energy which would make wind-farms economically unsustainable.  Of course it would mean that we, as consumers, would benefit from lower prices, but then when did our needs ever count for anything?

Oops. wrong again!

Ah well - back to the day job.  I suppose we should all be glad that the fighting in Libya is over - or is it?  It seems there are a lot of factional groups who will now be jockeying for position in the "new" Libya, and - given that they are all armed and have got a taste for fighting - if they don't get what they want...  Well you get the picture.  I hope for the best but at least in the short term, I have my concerns.

Apocalypse now??

The American evangelist who predicted that the world would end on May 21st has now said that it will definitely end today.  Have to give the bloke credit for trying - he had already predicted the end of the world on May 21st 1988 and again on September 6th 1994.  So there's no point in preparing a post for tomorrow then?

My name is Bond...

Interesting statistic that the number of Deed Poll documents issued so far this year is some 30% up on last year. The most common use of Deed Poll is to change your name.  The law regarding change of name is a bit fuzzy. The basic common law position is that you can call yourself whatever you like, provided you do not thereby break the law or seek to break the law.  But this is a two-way street - just as you can call yourself by some other name, you cannot demand that others use this new name you have chosen, and in particular official bodies are unlikely to accept you under any name other than your "official" name - that is the name which appears on your passport, driving licence, medical records and so on.  So this is where Deed Poll comes in - this allows you to officially change your name.  Of course, why you might want to do that is another matter...

It's mine, all mine...

Interesting court decision - which I fully expect to be appealed - that lottery winnings are "non-matrimonial property".  In other words they belong to the spouse who bought the ticket and not to the marriage.  So in the event of a divorce, the other spouse has no claim on them or any share of them.  If however the winning spouse uses any of the money to buy something for the two of them - in the case in question, a house - then that does become matrimonial property and is subject to division between them on any breakup.  The tricky question, which I am sure will go to appeal is whether the money which bought the ticket was matrimonial property - in which case it would seem the winnings must be.  In the case under discussion, the Judge appeared to accept that the ticket was bought by the one spouse out of their own income without the knowledge of the other spouse.  Problem is that it has always seemed to be a general principle of modern matrimonial law that each spouse's income belongs to them both.  So watch this space!

Death Race 2011.

The death of Dan Wheldon reminds us of just how dangerous motor racing is, but it also highlights the difference in attitude over the past twenty years or so between IndyCar racing and Formula One.   In F1 there have been enormous improvements in circuit and car design which have had a tremendous effect on the safety of the sport - to the extent where today if there is a smash, we fully expect to see the driver(s) get out and walk away.  IndyCar on the other hand has seemed to take the attitude of "why change a winning formula?" and continues to race older-style cars which provide less protection for the driver on oval circuits where if you go off you are straight into a concrete wall.  So will this change anything?  Maybe they might look at car design, but I think the concept of oval racing is so ingrained in the sport that it's difficult to see how that could be changed.

Rugby Union

It's unusual in this sport to see a match where the clearly superior side end up losing but, unless you are a diehard French supporter, this would almost certainly have been your assessment of the first semifinal of the current World Cup.  Wales of course will point to the fact that they had to play the majority of the game a man short after their captain was sent off - so should he have been?  It was clearly a potentially dangerous tackle for which he was dismissed, although it seemed there was no malicious intent and in the event no actual damage was done.  I think the problem is that a ten-minute sinbinning might have been seen as too lenient, whereas a red card was harsh.  Does the game need something in between?  An orange card perhaps which sends you off for 30 minutes?  That I think would have been a more appropriate penalty.  Anyway, the French are going to be tanked by the All Blacks - aren't they?

The blackboard jungle

A study has found that almost 50% of pupils' allegations of improper conduct against teachers are "malicious, unsubstantiated or unfounded".  I think we need to get back to the idea that teachers are in loco parentis with full parental authority.  Much of the problem in fact lies with the parents, who are too willing to automatically take the side of their little darlings.  I can remember a time when if you went home and told your Mum or Dad that the teacher had given you a clip round the ear, you'd get another one from them - the inference being that the teacher wouldn't do something like that without proper reason, so you must have been in the wrong.  It's a sad reflection of the current situation in schools that a friend who is a teacher of many years' experience tells me that their school has identified about a dozen pupils who must never be left alone with a single teacher for fear that they will automatically allege some impropriety or other, with all the attendant bureaucracy and unpleasantness.

Care for the elderly.

Much tutting and hand-wringing over a report that one in five hospitals are failing to provide the level of care required by law for elderly patients.  I have some personal experience of this relating to an elderly relative who had a few stays in hospital in her waning years and had some bad experiences which could only be put down to a lack of proper care and attention.  It seemed to me that the main problem was that the hospital was not prepared to accept that geriatric nursing is a specialist skill which requires a certain sort of person. What appears to happen is that a turn on the geriatric ward is seen as part and parcel of everyday nursing, with the result that you get people on there who simply are not psychologically or temperamentally suited to the job. I couldn't help but compare the far superior care and attention she got at the nursing home where she lived - the difference being of course that the staff there were recruited specifically for that sort of work.  Anyway, that's my penn'orth, for what it's worth.

Boinggg boinggg.

It seems some clarification is needed of yesterday's post.  I thought this was one of those things which "everybody knows" but apparently not.  Big Ben is the nickname given to the major bell - the one that rings out the hours - in the clock tower of the Palace of Westminster.  By extension, the name tends to be used for the tower itself but pedants - and I'm sure you know by now I am one - are keen to maintain the distinction.  Why "Ben" nobody is really sure - it may just be alliterative.  The main bell in the clock tower of the Museum and Art Gallery in Birmingham for example is known as "Big Brum".  Hope that clear things up.

Boinggg.

The Palace of Westminster Clock Tower - commonly referred to as "Big Ben" - is falling over apparently.  Due to subsidence - in no small part caused by excavations over the years connected with the Underground - the top is now some 18 inches out from the vertical.  No need to panic though, at it's present rate of movement it will be a thousand years or more before it becomes a serious problem.  No, the more pressing question - as raised by somebody on the Web - is which way is it leaning?  To the right or to the left??

Ha ha

A ventriloquist is touring and one night he’s doing a show in a club in a small town. With his dummy on his knee, he starts going through his usual act including his repertoire of dumb blonde jokes.
Suddenly a blonde woman in the middle of the crowd stands up and starts shouting at the stage.“I’ve heard enough of your stupid blonde jokes. What makes you think you can stereotype women that way?”
“What does the colour of a person’s hair have to do with her worth as a human being?”
“It’s men like you that keep women like me from being respected at work and in the community and from reaching our full potential as a person. Because you and men like you continue to perpetuate discrimination against not only blondes, but women in general, and all in the name of humour!"
The embarrassed ventriloquist starts to stutter an apology when the blonde yells,  “You stay out of this, mister! I’m talking to that little shit on your knee.”

Size sometimes does matter

I have come late to Jack Reacher, the hero (or should that be anti-hero?) of Lee Child's thrillers.  But I, like I suspect most other readers, have a sort of mental image of him, and in particular, because Mr Child tells us so, that he's tall - 6'5" as I recall.  So it's a bit of a shock to find that the actor who has been chosen to play him on film is Tom Cruise, who if memory serves had to stand on a box for his wedding photos in order not to have his bride tower over him.  Certainly not what I had in mind!

Difficult issue

Great admiration for Alex Salmond in his attempt to deal with "offensive behaviour" at Scottish football matches. It might seem a simple matter, but the problem is that in many cases the underlying cause has little to do with football rivalry and everything to do with religious bigotry, and therefore any attempt to deal with it could be seen as the repression of religious expression.  But at least he's had the guts to grasp the nettle.

Stating the obvous?

“In order for an obese person to lose weight - bearing in mind that most of them can't exercise because they are so overweight - all he has to do is eat less."  Lord McColl in a Lords debate on obesity.

Bad law?

I can see no sense in the Government's proposal to introduce a new offence of causing serious injury by dangerous driving which it is proposed will carry a maximum sentence of five years' imprisonment.  At present, a conviction for dangerous driving carries a maximum of two years inside.  So why doesn't it make sense?  Because it means that the length of sentence will depend on the severity of the consequences rather than the severity of the wrongdoing.  An accident caused by a really bad example of dangerous driving by a serial offender may produce just a minor injury, whereas a momentary lapse of attention by an otherwise careful driver may result in death.  The sentence should reflect the recklessness of your actions rather than your good or bad fortune regarding the outcome. 

Steve Jobs

I was never an Apple man, and perhaps because of that, I am able to assess Jobs's contribution to the tech world rather more dispassionately than some.  It was said on the news that he was the man who invented things you didn't even know you wanted, and certainly he always seemed to be ahead of the game.  Having said that, I always thought that Apple products were somewhat of a case of style over substance - they always looked good, but apparently didn't always perform up to their looks.  I remember one of my cars was a black low-slung sporty model - and I bought it on its looks - but its performance was average at best, and, although this was back in the days when Apple was still in nappies as it were, I have always thought of it as an "icar".  The other negative aspect of Apple - and I don't know whether this came from Jobs or not - was the way they sought to control the market - so if you bought their hardware you were restricted to using their software.  Indeed this was why I was never tempted to buy any of their products.  But having said all that, my kids and grandkids have ipods, iphones and ipads and swear by them.  So, Steve Jobs - visionary and astute businessman who died before his time.  Let's leave it at that.

Meeow!

Cats again.  Rather silly of the Home Secretary to have suggested that there was a case of an illegal immigrant whose deportation was blocked by the courts because he had a pet cat.  Nonsense of course - the deportation was blocked because the court accepted that he had established a family life here with his girlfriend and the existence of the cat was simply a minor piece of evidence in support of that.  Of course the way the Home Sec told it made for a better story and went down well with the party faithful who would like to see The Human Rights Act dumped, but it is a bit worrying that a Minister of the Crown should be so free and easy with the truth.

If you've got the money....

So Foxy Knoxy didn't do it?  The evidence was certainly pretty circumstantial and relied heavily on DNA finds which appear to have been discredited.  There are two worrying features here - to me anyway.  The first is that the appeal hearing seems to have focused entirely on the reliability, or otherwise of the DNA evidence, and ignored the rest of the prosecution's evidence at the original trial.  And the second is the extent to which the original trial and the appeal were subject to media pressure.  The Italian media at the original trial were baying for a conviction, and at the appeal the American media had clearly decided that Knox was innocent and were more or less demanding that she be acquitted.  So has justice been done?  What do you think?

Brmmm brmmm.

What about this idea of raising the speed limit on motorways to 80mph?  I can obviously only speak from personal experience, but surely this would just be doing no more than legitimising the status quo?  As I see it, most traffic in the fast lane is already going at 80 or faster.  And there is a theory, which may or may not be an urban myth, that you are allowed a 10% leeway on any speed limit which if true means that the current limit is really 77mph.  So is this just a PR stunt?

Begging for it!

I just couldn't resist this one - the court case against Christine Hemming has given a whole new meaning to the phrase "cat burglar" hasn't it?

A good laugh.

Have you heard of the Ig Nobel prizes?  No I hadn't either until a few days ago, despite the fact that they've been around for twenty years now.  The name is a humorous take on the word "ignoble" and the prizes are awarded for "unusual or trivial" achievements in their various fields.  This year prizes have been awarded for the discovery that a certain type of beetle will attempt to mate with a particular type of Australian beer bottle, that the quality of people's decision-making is affected (often for the better) when they have a strong desire to urinate, and research into why discus throwers become dizzy whereas hammer throwers do not.  How about that then?

I don't believe it!

Silly story of the week - at the Labour Party Conference someone was stopped by security and prevented from entering the conference hall unless they handed over a harmonica which was in their bag.  Yes - a mouth organ!  Quite what was the perceived risk is unclear.  Perhaps the threat that they might disrupt proceedings by playing something inappropriate?