Big Brother...

So now we don't just have static CCTV cameras, we have CCTV cars! It's started in London, but it's only a matter of time before it's rolled out to the rest of the country. Little "Smart" cars are being fitted with CCTV cameras and are being driven round filming drivers purportedly committing traffic offences - in many cases very minor ones. The driver will know nothing about it until the penalty notice arrives in the post some days later. The suspicion of course is that this is more to do with raising revenue for local authorities than with road safety. Being told that you (possibly) did something wrong a few days ago and must now pay a fine as a result is unlikely to change your behaviour - being approached on the spot and politely taken to task is far more likely to have that result, but almost certainly wouldn't garner as much dosh!

World Cup

I am looking forward to the Germany-Uruguay third place final tomorrow - two attack-minded teams who should (provided they still have the motivation) produce an open and exciting match. On the other hand, although I shall watch it, I haven't got the same interest in the final between Holland and Spain. Very skillful sides both, no doubt about it, but on the evidence so far their tactics are to smother the other side and grind out narrow victories, so it has every chance of being a rather boring affair. Hope I'm wrong, but yet again all the entertaining teams have over the course of the competition had to give best to the pragmatic ones - so much for the "beautiful game".

The Lazy Cook

I retired a couple of years before my wife, so during that time I was i/c looking after the house, and from time to time used to prepare the evening meal which more often than not was my "signature dish" which we used to call "pasta splodge". You won't be surprised to learn that this was simplicity itself, and I still make it from time to time, although these days it makes enough to last at least a couple of days. You need -

A packet of mince - I always use turkey mince, but any sort would do.

Half a tin or so of Easy Onions (see post dated 12/12/07).

Some garlic - fresh, frozen (see post 12/12/07 ) or ready crushed in a jar (see post 23/12/09).

A jar of pasta sauce of your choice - I particularly like arrabiata or putanesca.

Pasta - penne, tubes or twirls all work well.

Put a little oil into a fryingpan or wok.

Add the onions and garlic. Fry for about 5 minutes.

While this is doing, put the pasta on to cook as per the instructions on the packet.

Add the mince to the fryingpan/wok- fry until it has all changed to a greyish colour.

Add the pasta sauce and then the pasta.

Turn the heat down and let simmer for 10 minutes or so - you can't really overcook this.

And there you have it.

What is truth? - continued.

For centuries the finest brains on the planet believed that the Earth stood still, and that the sun appeared in the east every morning, travelled across the sky and disappeared in the west at night. Where it went to in the interim was a matter of some conjecture, but what was clear to everyone was that we were stationary, and it was moving. We now look back on those people as ignorant savages, but given the information they had - which amounted to no more than observing the sun as it moved across the sky - it was a perfectly logical conclusion to come to, indeed it was the only possible conclusion they could have come to. It was only when more information came to light (Galileo and all that) that it became clear that there might be other explanations. The main idea underpinning Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity is that everything is in motion, and that therefore there is no "solid ground" from which you can make definitive observations and measurements - all you can do is make observations and measurements from your particular point of view ("frame of reference") and these may be different from those of other people observing or measuring from a different frame of reference. This can lead to some rather unsettling ideas, as we shall see later.

Does prison work?

A question much in the news at present, and of course it all depends on what you mean by "work". Prison works to the extent that while they're banged up, prisoners cannot commit other offences. But if it then simply turns them out better equipped for and more motivated towards a life of crime, then it clearly doesn't. Not for nothing are prisons referred to as "universities of crime". Re-offending rates are horribly high. So it depends on what you are looking for really. doesn't it? I've had my say on this before - in my opinion, prison should be used only where a person presents a positive danger to society, or some member(s) thereof. Otherwise the emphasis should be on restitution and rehabilitation.

Ha ha.

Oxo are bringing out a special edition cube - it's white, with a red cross on each face. They're going to call it Laughing Stock!

Border wars.

Tongue-in-cheek (at least I hope it was tongue-in-cheek) attempt by one of the tabloids to claim Andy Murray as English - until that is he lost, when he went back to being Scottish again.

...and not a drop to drink,

Hard to believe that we are facing a water shortage. I know that memory tends to be selective, but we seem to have gone through a series of very wet years so you would have thought that the reservoirs would have been full to overflowing. Is the problem simply that we don't manage the water that we do have very well?

Mangerial merry-go-round

So Roy Hodgson has picked up the poisoned chalice at Liverpool. Nice bloke - but I think he's going to need a lot of luck!

The mail must go through...

...or not, as the case may be. Royal Mail have warned residents in a street in Paignton, Devon that they cannot guarantee deliveries due to their postmen being attacked by seagulls. Apparently they (the seagulls) are defending their chicks. It was the proud boast of the US Postal Service that "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" Obviously they hadn't come across Devon seagulls!