Thursday February 28, 2008

Pictures I wish I'd taken

The BBC have a pictures of the week submitted by the general public that is worth a look at. The two Swan's one (no 7) is awsome.

You have had your fun..

Harry has achieved what he wanted but it is time to bring him back . I am afraid he is a target that is too tempting for the various baddies out there in Afghanistan. What I mean is he could bring more danger on his army chums by being who he is and I don't think he would want that. Hats off to the UK media groups for agreeing to keep a lid of his.

Back garden....

Last year before I suspended this web log writing I talked about covering our back garden with gravel. Well it is done now as you can see. It has worked quite well we think. There is a dry stone wall between the gravel and the beds which is starting to naturalise quite well. In the pots at the moment we have wallflowers, tulips and small pansies. In the summer these will replaced by plants for summer colour. The beds themselves have had a thick layer of bark chippings from a local tree surgeon to keep the moisture in - that was not a problem last summer though! The stream had already been taken out and the rocky bed has lots of perenials in it that are doing really well. In the picture you can see out white wysteria and it is getting that lovely knarled trunk you see on older specimens. I am sure the birds are loosing out but blackbirds seem to be happy foraging in the bark chippings (and the apple/pear cores I leave out for them in the mornings) and I am feeding them all with fat balls and seeds.

Wednesday February 27, 2008

Five pence a bag

At last one supermarket chain is trying to do something about the waste disaster which is the supermarket shopping bag. so often you see these littering our streets and countryside and I expect most are thrown away after they have taken the shopping home. Let us hope the other supermarkets in the UK follow suit.

Wonderwoman stops traffic

A very good program last night about Kris Murrin who spent some time in Marlow Bucks (not far from where I live) and tried to reduce car usage in the town. The culmination of this effort had the towns car usage dramatically reduced for one day and the idea was that every car user would not use their car one day a week in the future. She worked with schools and businesses to achieve what can only be described as a amazing reduction. The program failed to show what long term effects there was on traffic levels after the event. The series continues in another town next week. It is clear to me if we are to reduce the car usage in this country then local action groups like this are the way forward funded centrally of course. Ironic that the page lined above has an advert sidebar fr an Audi car...

Tuesday February 26, 2008

Did the earth move for you ?

Well for some people it did earlier today because at 1am with a force of 5.3. Thankfully only a few people have been hurt; one person has a broken pelvis as a result of a chimney falling on the him while he was in bed. It just shows you the UK is not immune to Earthquakes and Hurricanes and other natural disasters but thankfully not very often..

Hard Cheese but who will suffer?

The ruling on this case is now decided. The EU court has said the producers in Germany who sell Parmesan cheese can continue to sell it with that name on the packaging. The Italians won't be happy are saying this is ruining their cheese making companies. The EU court said Parmesan has become a common byword for grated hard cheese.

Monday February 25, 2008

Free Training ?

If you want free training you need look no further. Depending on your situation there are several possibilities open to you:

If you are a developer you need to look here .

It gets slightly more complicated if you are a student. Here is a site open to all students. Sun also has a program called the Sun Academic Initiative and you should encourage your University to join it if they are not already part SAI - a form is here that needs to be filled in to apply - you will need to get a senior person from your University to fill this in.

Once your University is a member of SAI you should then be able to get login details from your University and access more courses here

Note there is a guest login on the site so you can see what you are missing!

Sunday February 24, 2008

Lines not fines..

An interesting scheme being trialled in Norwich was on the news this morning. Basically the kids give the speeding driver a talking too instead of them getting a speeding ticket. I think they even get to do a set number of lines saying something like "I must not break the speed limit" or something like that. There are concerns about using children in this way - but I think if supervised properly and if it works then it has to be worthwhile.

Closing time..

The smallest cinema in Wales is closing after a Star student night which should rival the Oscars. The cinema is in Swansea and has been running since the 1950's. It is in fact an old railway carriage and sadly it cannot be maintained anymore. It seats only twenty four people! The Smallest cinema in the world is in Nottingham but not much smaller seating only twenty.

Friday February 22, 2008

Has'nt he done well?

Bruce Forsyth is eighty today. Here are some pictures capturing his career. For me his highlight was the The Generation Game . It was essential Saturday night viewing.

Thursday February 21, 2008

2008 F1 season review

A quick review of this years season. Ahead of mega rule changes in 2009, there are several for 2008: gearbox lifetime enforced, removal of traction control and standard ECU's are the main ones of interest.

Ferrari have to be the team to beat. They started testing their new car almost before anyone else and despite complaints about having to use their rivals ECU they have set blistering pace both on single lap and race distances.

Mclaren appear to be on the back foot having undertaken self imposed development restrictions on potential Ferrari based innovations that would have appeared on this years car. In testing they appear to be the second fastest team out there.

BMW Sauber have designs on race wins this year - I think they will be lucky to get one. They admit to be trying to understand and find the sweet spot of their new car and have even stuck on antlers on the front of the car to improve its aero. Guys it is not a reindeer pulling Santa's sleigh..

The surprise package could be the William's car. Embarrassing their engine supplier was the norm in 2007 and this year they are not far behind the top three.

Renault had a torrid year last year and if Alonso shows his true grit he ought to be able to put them on the front row if he is a good as he claims. The problem he has is another rookie teammate who was faster than Lewis on certain GP2 weekends, so he will need to watch our for that.. Lets hope Flav has put strong hinges on the of team Redgie's motorhomes..

Red Bull have the potential to do well but they need reliability. Their sister team should do ok with the same chassis ( but with different engines) with the two Sebs driving for them but their long term future is unclear if car cloning is stopped.

Honda hand over their miserable effort of a car (2007) to Super Aguri who have tried delaying its arrival and who are also struggling financially. Honda themselves with Ross Brawn should move forward up the grid but at the moment the car is not fast. It is predictable and there are rumours the tea might head for respectability for 2008 and tried and make a big step forward for the 2009 season when the big changes come in.

Force India the latest paint and owner change for the old Jordan team might well punch above the other F1 minnows but that will take time. Having Renault Renegade Fisi was a good decision and benchmark for their second driver.

Toyota - well the least said about them the better. At least they had the decency to sack their overpaid driver and employ one who will try and make some effort to score points. With no changes in personal or strategy I think they will remain where they are..

Tuesday February 19, 2008

Wildlife in the city...

Anyone who lives in a city will know animals like foxes are moving in. But amazingly enough the fastest bird, the Peregrine falcon is also find a home in the cities. This morning we were shown their latest high rise abode Lincoln Cathedral . Another family were seen in a block of flats last year. These places are safe and there is plenty of food in the form of pigeons around, who do not stand much of a chance when falcons birds attack them at speeds around 100MPH. A last point is these birds are finding they can hunt at night with amount of artificial lighting around them making city life even more attractive.

Lights on please ( repeat)

My first Grumpy old man entry.. since restarting writing these weblogs..

Like autumn when road users start their journey in daylight but... people are not putting their lights on when they need too. I drove home usual time the other night and lots of cars did not have their lights on. It is amazing the difference it makes when you look at a line of cars and one of them does not have their headlights on. Worse was a regulated L plate car - the one you pay money for a lesson was blithely going along with no lights on. Whether or not the car had a learner in it or was being driven by the instructor is irrelevant it is not a good example to the rest of us. This news article confirms what I heard - that in four years new cars will have their lights on all the time. Given my recent experiences on the road I am coming round to the idea.

Being flushed away..

On BBC Breakfast today they told the sad story about the state of public toilets. On Sunday I used one in Henley which was Solar powered, very clean, with vandal proof washbasins. The reality is the number of open toilets is decreasing and councils are not obliged to keep them open anyway.

Amazingly enough there is a British Toilet Association what other country in the world would have one of those! In early March a consultation about the state of our pubic toilets is to be published with a strategy for going forward.

I am sure most of us have nipped into a pub or fast food outlet when the call of nature got too desperate and now in Richmond certain places have stickers in their windows inviting people to use their facilities. What a fantastic idea.