10 PRINT "I love my Spectrum": GOTO 10

Last week it was the 30th birthday of the Sinclair Spectrum and lots of people have gone online with their memories of this early home computer which produced a whole generation of amateur programmers.  I go back a little further than that to the ZX81 with its magnificent 1k of RAM - and believe me it took some ingenuity to write any meaningful program within 1k.  Actually there was an even earlier ZX80, but it was the 81 that really got the home computing ball rolling, and the Speccy which brought it to the masses.  Take a bow, Sir Clive.

That which must not be named.

Latest example of the draconian rules relating to the Olympics and sponsorship - the University of Derby put up a few (you would have thought pretty innocuous) banners reading "Supporting the London Olympics" but have been forced to remove them.  And why?  Because, believe it or not, the word "Olympics" can only be used with the permission of LOGOC (the London 2012 Organising Committee) and this wasn't forthcoming.  It's all becoming rather silly, isn't it?

Getting used to failure?

The England football manager's job is often referred to as a poisoned chalice, and certainly many famous names have come to the job with a proven record and yet failed to give England the success their fans crave.  But with Harry Redknapp the curse seems to have struck even before he is appointed - if indeed he ever is.  He became the most popular choice because of his record with Tottenham Hotspur, and yet no sooner had he become the number one candidate than Spurs' form dipped markedly and the Champions League spot which at one time seemed a formality is now anything but.  It has been suggested that the uncertainty about his future is a major factor in this loss of form.  Perhaps it's time to put the man, the team and indeed the country out of their misery!

Plane just landed -- see you in a couple of hours.

Quite a few stories recently about long delays in getting through passport checks at UK airports.  It's not a pleasant experience having to queue up to have the light shone in your eyes when all you're seeking to do is return to your own country, but I've never experienced unacceptable delays, and I cannot understand why there should ever be any.  After all, there can be few procedures which better lend themselves to organised management - what planes are coming in when, from where, and how many people are on board is known well in advance, so where's the problem?  As an ex-civil servant I strongly suspect the problem is the underfunding and undermanning of whatever department or agency carries out the checks.  Of course, another approach would be to look at the scheduling of arrivals, so you don't get a load of people all coming in at once.  So I'm sure the problem is solvable - just as I'm equally sure it will remain unsolved.

Do you mean fresh or UHT?

The Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer have been described as "two posh boys who don't know the price of milk" by another MP.  So what does "posh" actually mean?  There's a nice story that back when this country governed India, there were a lot of people going back and forth between the two countries.  No air travel back then of course, so you went by boat, and if you were rich enough, you would want to travel in as much comfort as possible, and in particular to be on the shadier side of the ship to be protected from the heat of the sun once you got into the tropics.  This would be the left-hand side of the ship on the journey out, and the right-hand side coming back.  Left-hand side of a ship is of course the port side, and the right-hand side the starboard side, and the story is that bookings for such people would be marked as "POSH" (Port out, starboard home).  Unfortunately there's no evidence for this - but come to that, there's no evidence that it's not true either, and it's such a good story I always hope that it's right.  These days "posh" tends to be used - as the MP has - as a pejorative word for anybody who speaks nicely and has more money than you.

Enter your destination and your age....

I like this idea of a "granny-nav" as it's being called - the idea being that instead of your sat-nav saying things like "in 500 yards turn right" it will say something more like "turn right just after the post office".  It reminds me of how we used to navigate in my youth - mainly by pubs.  Turn left at The Anchor and then right at The Ring-o-bells, sort of thing.  Problem with using pubs is that - at least in my neck of the woods - pubs are shutting down and being demolished at such a rate that you will need to update your granny-nav every month or so.  But I like the basic idea - much more intuitive and friendly.  I got really cross with a sat-nav in a friend's car I travelled in recently which insisted on continually saying "at the roundabaout take the second exit" when what it really meant, and what would have been far more helpful, was "go straight on".

Nostalgia

The Mexican volcano Mount Popocatepetl is in the news following it's recent eruptions.  I can never hear that name without also hearing the first lines of Frank Muir's, or Dennis Norden's (or was it both?) song - all I can remember are the first couple of lines but it goes like this - to be sung to the tune of "The honeysuckle and the bee" -

I am Mount Popocatepetl, 

You must agree

When I erupt I scatter metal

Over land and sea.....

Anybody know any more?

Oh dear. How sad. Never mind.

Another question answered (see post of 13/10/09).  The BBC have decided that "It Ain't Half Hot Mum" is not suitable for modern viewers, and it has therefore been taken off the list of programmes considered for re-runs. Not sure whether that is more of an indictment of the programme or of modern society.  Reminiscent of the fuss about one of the earlier Tintin books which I posted about in 2007.  Surely we are adult enough to be able to read a book or watch a programme while making allowances for when it was written or filmed and the fact that ideas and views may have changed since then.  Hope one of the other "nostalgia" channels picks it up - it was a good sitcom and of course made stars out of Windsor Davies and Don Estelle.

What is there left that is safe to eat?

The Food Standards Agency has published a list of foods which contain high levels of a chemical called acrylamide which they characterise as a "cancer-risk".  Pretty scary, yes?  Well, maybe - until you find that acrylamide occurs naturally as a result of cooking.  In other words, we've all been ingesting acrylamide ever since man invented fire and realised how much nicer food tasted for being roasted, toasted or fried.  So should we be worried?  Please yourself, but I shall not be adjusting my diet as a result, even though crisps feature prominently on the list, and I'm a sucker for them.

Formula One

So once again we have a problem with Bahrain (I'm a poet and don't know it!). Should the Grand Prix there go ahead?  The FIA's stance seems to be that putting on a Grand Prix is no different in essence from a touring theatre company putting on a play, or a circus coming into town and giving a performance. They are simply there to put on a show, and not to make any kind of statement.  The counter-argument is that there is a fundamental difference - the size and scope of the audience means that, like it or not, a Grand Prix is seen as a showcase for the area and indeed for the host nation.  So should the behaviour of the host nation be a determining factor?  After all, we've just held a Grand Prix in China, who are hardly a shining beacon of tolerance and democracy, and I don't recall any major objections being raised to that.  So what makes Bahrain different?  Is it the fact that there is open violence on the streets - nowhere near as much as last year, but still there apparently.  Clearly safety is an issue, but it seems to go further than that - the opposition (always ready with their shovel) are suggesting that British drivers should boycott the race, presumably on some sort of moral grounds, though they aren't spelling out exactly what - it seems they just don't like the regime and how it's acting, and that's sufficient reason.  I'm sure the race will go ahead - it's far too late now to cancel it - but I have no doubt the arguments will go on, and it may well be that in a year's time we'll be having this discussion again.