Category: Uncategorized

Caught up with some VCR recordings yesterday and saw the Dixie Chicks on the Later with Jools Holland BBC show, great to see them back after suffering so much negative publicity and abandonment by their USA critics.

Another good example of a country that can’t take any criticism of itself or its unpopular actions. I don’t think that the Dixie Chicks need shed any tears for any Country & Western fans that have abandoned them. There are far more mainstream music fans that now appreciate them and their music.

Another group I saw on the same show was Gogol Bordello, champions of gypsy-punk as this genre was described! But what a highly energetic and entertaining group, more from them in the future I am sure.

Tags: BBC, Gypsy Punk

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With the announcement that Swan Hunter shipbuilders will close, another piece of UK manufacturing disappear from site! Having built some great ships of the past including the RMS Mauretania, the RMS Carpathia famous for its involvement in the Titanic disaster and of course many other ships including the current HMS Ark Royal.

I hope that some sort of salvage effort can save this company and with better management, it can carry on building great ships.

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Two very different people passed away last week that I remember for different reasons.

Syd Barrett a founder member of Pink Floyd brought a sound to my ears back in the 60’s that I had never heard the like of before. During my early navy service and being stationed in Portsmouth, I remember a number of trips to London to see many bands (then not very famous) of the 60’s and one visit was to see the early Pink Floyd at the UFO club, what an experience that was!

Sadly, Syd’s contribution to the music scene was all too short and he spent much of the rest of his life outside of the music limelight.

June Allyson was a Hollywood actress of the studio stable format. Never really becoming a super star due to the over control by the studio, she made many well received films including the Glenn Miller Story  – great film, great music and great actress and a shame that she was not allowed to do more with her talents.

Tags: UFO Club

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What is going on in our society? It seems that every man now has to be considered a potential predatory child pest!

I refer to the sad case of the Rev. Alan Barrett who innocently gave a ‘peck’ on the forehead at a prize giving and found himself the center of a police, social services and church investigation. Although no impropriety was found, he has resigned from the chairman of governors – see his statement. Even though he has taken this step after being found not guilty, the girls’ mother is still upset that more punishment has not been dropped on Alan Barrett.

I wonder what sort of mother this girl has, does she see every man as a threat to her daughters safety? I wonder what she will have said to her to explain what she has done on her behalf.

I am the first to say that all children should be 100% protected from what seems to be an increasing amount of abuse, but how can what Alan Barrett did, be seen in that light? I agree that times have changed and today, any touching of children is seen in a very different light from the time when I served on a Junior School Parents Teachers Association

Perhaps the child that had fallen over on the sports field that I picked up and returned to their parents for comfort, would now have to lay on the ground until the parents found them! Perhaps the nine year old girl that had cut her knee and I had applied a plaster and comforted her to stop the crying would now have to continue to cry and bleed all over the place!

Perhaps today, my youngest child when he was nine, might not be here, if two people had not helped him out of a pond when he fell in! Did we as parents suspect at that the two people that helped him were a threat? Did we think of challenging what there motives were, of course not, we were just grateful that he was helped.

There is something strange today when a man cannot be seen near a child that is not his own (that in itself raises other issues not addressed in this post) without society seemingly wanting to suspect the worst.

At the end of the day, a kiss really is only a kiss…

Tags: PTA

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With the day drawing closer for this unbelievable injustice to three UK citizens, YOU must sign the Daily Telegraph petition as soon as possible.

Here is what I said along with my signature.

What is happening is an outrage and further confirms my belief that for some secret reason, the USA seems to have control over a number of UK government ministers and our legislative agenda.

Over the top? No I don’t think so, gradually I am becoming more and more disenchanted with the way that this government has reduced our freedoms over recent years (at the same time seemingly blaming everyone else) and also how we seem unable to disconnect from transatlantic interference in our affairs.

Perhaps this sacrifice is part of our final loan payment for WW II assistance! I was under the impression that we had already given them many things apart from the monetary repayments over the years; Radar, The Jet Engine and Computer Technology to name a few. Perhaps we have not given enough!

Tags: NatWest, RBS, Daily Telegraph, WWII, Atlantic

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Generally I am not a big football fan, don’t support any particular team, but have always enjoyed watching the ‘big’ teams play and have enjoyed most of the matches of this World Cup. But one thing that has got me going during this competition is the amount of diving that is going on.

Over the course of the last few matches it really has got worse, with tonight’s examples by Ronaldo being the worst of all. How someone did not get up and give him the traditional ice-skating 6.0 – 6.0 – 6.0 score cards I will never know.

I class this as cheating,  in so far as at least four goals have come from dived-obtained free kicks! FIFA have got to stamp this out otherwise many casual fans like myself will continue to see this as a increasingly negative side of what should be a great sporting event.

Tags: FIFA, Football, Ronaldo, Diving

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I saw an interesting link to a story about RFID’s (Radio Frequency Identification) in a technical newsletter that I received today from silicon.com. The story was about a public consultation that the European Commission (EC) are to carry out, about how us (the public) feel about RFID’s and their uses.

The use of RFID’s are becoming more and more widespread as manufacturers, organisations and governments recognise their potential for tracking everything from what we buy in supermarkets and checking the validity of your transport season ticket, to the verifying the information contained in/on your Identity Card.

So having tracked through the Silicon.com email newsletter to the final article and read about the EC public survey, I scrolled up a down through the article but could not find any link to a survey!

So, what next? So I entered the words public enquiry into RFID in to the search line of Google which returned some 231,000 search results, surely there must be a link here!. As I reached the end of the second page (20+ search result links) I could not believe that none of the organisations (including Infoworld and Networkworld), could be bothered to insert a link into their version of the story so that I could at least go and look at the survey.

Next stop, the EC home page, surely I should be able to find a link here, at least the EC seems to be taking the subject seriously! It’s quite a while since I last looked at this home page – the last time was when the EU Constitution was being discussed, but that’s another post! – and it seems to have grown in size. So, where to look/click? First hit and I am successful! It takes me right to the Europe’s Information Society Page and there was the a link relating to the survey I was looking for.

Why this long post? Well I hate wasting time, and surely if mainstream media / news companies want to report news items that also help the reader and at the same time want to build up some kind of rapport / trust (return site visits for example) with their readership, then perhaps they want to improve what they put in their stories!

Although I did managed in the end to get to the correct RFID survey page from Europe’s Information Society Page, it was a tortuous route (click on | More | for access to the direct link), perhaps that’s something the EC web site designers need to work on.

So, now to the RFID Survey, more to post on that I am sure…

Tags: RFID, EC, EU Constitution, Media, Google

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I was sorting out a very old box of junk (hunter / gatherers collectable’s as I like to call it!) over the weekend and came across this ‘news cutting’ that I think I have had for over 30 years!

I have seem some variations of this on the Internet previously, but I have always liked the one I have. I cannot remember where I obtained it, but from its faded appearance, it was certainly on very old paper. For those of you who wonder about some of the terms, the Internet of course now provides a beautiful reference to some of the old terms. Enjoy!

1µFd Reward
for
Hoppalong Capacity
of
The Delta Star Network –

who escaped from primary cell armed with a carbon rod and sal ammoniac.

Characteristics – Tall long phase with Leydon Jar complexion, cats whiskers moustache, crystal blue eyes, and an air gap between his teeth.

Wanted for – The induction of an 18 yr old coil and stealing of her joules. He will be charged with a salt and battery. He was last seen riding over Wheatstone’s Bridge on a megacycle, heading for his ohm town. EMF’s in search coils have been ferrite-ing for him in neighbouring fields.

Capacity is dangerous and will offer a high resistance to arrest.

Signed
Die Electric – (Sheriff)
Eddy Current – (Chief Copper Loss)

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Over the years I’ve generally believed that the UK was right to have its own independent  first with Poseidon, then with Trident. Spending a number of years in the Royal Navy only added to that belief.

However, as time and world events have moved on, such as the fall of the Berlin wall and the subsequent end of the cold war, I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that the UK does not really need this type of expensive defense tool in today’s very different world.

Without sounding like many of the comments I seen over recent months and years, I agree that this type of deterrent would not have protected us from the IRA terrorist’s, the recent London bombings and of course the USA nuclear deterrent did not protect them from the 9/11 atrocity. Having a nuclear deterrent does put you in the ‘big boys’ club; but at what cost?

From my European point of view, the threat that was in the form of the USSR has gone and with each addition of the former eastern countries to the EU it recedes even further. Of course there is what’s left of the USSR in the form of Russia, but from that point of view, I am more concerned about terrorists obtaining a weapon to hand deliver than Russia firing one at the UK.

As far as I can see, any ‘missile’ threat could only come from further a field in the form of Iran/Korea or even China! With regards to Iran/Korea, they still seem to be years away from a viable long-range delivery weapon and I think that in the end Iran will be thwarted by Israeli intervention! Korea does raise another question, but again I firmly believe that the USA will not let Korea come online and provided that China does not object, that will then only leave China itself!

Do we want to believe that China would want to preemptively attack the UK with a nuclear strike? I am not sure what that would achieve.

Am I wrong to want to give up the UK’s nuclear deterrent? No, I think it would cost too much money and take too long to replace and requiring yet another replacement in another 20 years. The money would be better spent on UK infrastructure projects such as improving water distribution and UK security projects such as protecting the UK for further terrorist problems.

I intend to keep an eye on this subject, just so I can see how our MP’s give in to the biased information that no doubt will be laid before them, as to the threats that are out there, that require a Trident replacement.

Tags: Nuclear deterrent, Royal Navy, Poseidon, Trident,

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Anyone that watched the latest Real Story program on the BBC yesterday cannot have helped to have been affected by the contents of the program. Clearly there is a level of cover up going during the completion of death certificates with the substituting of real causes of death by general illness descriptions.

As the program points out, it’s very strange that despite serious concerns by Doctors, hospital acquired infections such as MRSA or Clostridium Difficile don’t seem to feature in death certificates. Nor does diabetes which many doctors think is reaching epidemic proportions.

I am aghast at some of the figures mentioned during the program – Government reports show that 45% of all UK Death Certificate are wrong! – hopefully the recent announcement for changes for coroners courts will go some way to correcting some of these errors, but more needs to be done, urgently.
While individual and overworked junior doctors are ‘dumped’ on by their senior colleagues to ‘fill-in’ the details with in some cases bland descriptions of death, there are still going to be a very high ‘error-rates’ with the accuracy of death certificates.

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