Friday January 30, 2009

Tea from Cornwall ?

On the BBC "One Show" last night Carol Thatcher toured a Tea plantation in Cornwall. It turns out the area where it is is exactly the conditions the tea shrub likes. The main problem is the time it takes for the shrub to grow to a decent size. The craziest part of this story is they export some of their crop to China

R.I.P John Martyn

It was announced yesterday that John Martyn had died aged sixty. His best music was the work he did with his wife at the time, Beverley who has a fantastic voice. Those two albums are the "Road to Ruin" and "Stormbringer". He kept touring and producing albums after he split up with Beverley and some of the solo stuff is pretty good.

Thursday January 29, 2009

The Deer problem

Twenty people die every year; these animals has doubled their population over the last ten years, woodlands are being stripped of the natural scrub other creatures need and two hundred accidents every day are attributed to these animals. The culprit? Deer. It seems we are going to have to accept a larger culling of these graceful animals to keep their numbers down, other things have been done to try and reduce accidents between vehicles and deer like rumble strips. But as usual it is another example of nature getting in the way of our lifestyle. Over the years I have "met" deer on three occasions in all cases they were standing in the road watching the cars go by. It was almost comical.

A bronze medal and I've not been to the Olympics!

Yesterday I got my bronze award for giving ten pints of blood - not in one go clearly. I know it is easy to say it but it really does not hurt. Even with my over active imagination it can hardly be called a painful or unpleasant experience. The thing I feel really bad about is that I could have donated much more had I got my act together when I was younger. I really believe a visit by the National Blood Service to schools explaining the scoop would get more young people to donate. If you feel tempted visit this site . The people who are the real heros for me are the staff. They are always kind and friendly and they work unsociable hours.

Wednesday January 28, 2009

Crete - The Battle and the resistance

I got this book by Antony Beevor for Christmas and have just finished it. This is the fifth book of his I have read. Stalingrad and Berlin are the best, this book and the one he wrote with his wife Paris after the liberation and the one on the Spanish Civil war are just not quite as good. Back to this book the battle for Crete should have been the first battle the allies would beat the Germans. We had great intel from breaking the German transmissions but it all went horribly wrong. The commander on the island had a steadfast belief he was beating the Germans right up to our surrender. There was no decisive counter attack which would have broken the German offensive. It had started well as the Germany paratroopers came out of the sky they were massacred.

The book then covers the resistance with several Greek organisations and soldiers from the British SOE doing their best too deny the Germans ultimate control of the island. The brilliance of Beevor's books are the details he digs up. One fact is supplies for the resistance were dropped on the island using yellow parachutes. These made of silk were prized by the female population and were turned into bright yellow under garments! He really brings the whole story to life and makes it so interesting so it appears like it happened yesterday.

The final act, surrender seems to have been a strange event. A long stalemate could have resulted but eventually sense prevailed and the Germans surrendered.

Monday January 26, 2009

A short stay in Switzerland

Excellent Drama on BBC1 last night. The story was pretty raw but Julie Walters was excellent as the Doctor who found out she had a terminal illness. The story charts her decline and the effect on her, the children and friends who have just seen the husband of the family also succumb to a similar illness. Unlike him Walters decided she would not suffer from the indignity the illness would give her. The final part of the program where she goes to Switzerland was especially moving. The person this story was based on was filmed by the BBC news people and they then showed the news item after she died so no one could interfere with her plans.

Those blood [sic] red cheats...

It seems Ferrari are perhaps stretching the rules again and have been accused of cheating but until the F60 is scrutineered during the first race then nothing will be proven. There are two causes of concern.....

The first is the exhaust pipe. It is visible on top of the side pod for quite a lot of its length instead of being under cover until its very end.

The second is the rear view mirrors which on a F1 car are pretty useless anyway. All the other teams have theirs mounted on short posts fixed to each side pod. Ferrari have theirs on a long vertical element that goes right down to where the side pod has a flat extension which I think is called a water wing. This vertical element must have an aerodynamic effect and in my mind goes against the regulation changes this year to remove the plethora of aero add ons that sprouted all over last years cars.

Meanwhile a couple of comments on a few of the other 2009 cars. The Renault has a big fat nose and looks quite ugly. The bodywork on that car has been called very basic and underdeveloped but the cars usually change a lot from their launch appearance to what they look like at the first race. The Renault has kept its shark fin which I thought would have been outlawed.

The Mclaren is quite simply drop dead gorgeous in its familiar silver/red colours and the detail on its body work is quite amazing. The front wing is especially extravagant. The Toyota looks ordinary in comparison. That team have almost been told - no win in 2009 - no team next year. They may well not use Kers at all this year, it might be that it causes their rival more problems than its alleged performance gains and if so Toyota will be making hay while the sun shines. If the other teams do get their Kers system working Toyota's reticence on using such a system may bite them hard.

As regards this Kers nonsense in the era of cost cutting getting the teams to develop Kers systems that will be replaced by standard ones in 2010 seems kind of crazy and wasteful. It will be interesting to see if William's system, the only one based on a flywheel steals a march on the other teams. Talking of that team, the nose on their car has been likened to a Pelican shape - first the Walrus nose now a pelican one, whatever next.

The team making clockwork precision progress up the team ladder is BMW Sauber. It is no surprise that they have met every one of their goals over the years being based in Switzerland. Apart from electrocuting one of their team their Kers system is meant to be the closest to being ready. Gary Anderson has likened to front wing on the BMW Sauber as being brutal, I don't really know what he means by that.

It will be interesting to see what the Adrian Newey designed Red Bull car take on the new 2009 regs is but of course one team unlikely to make an appearance is the now defunct Honda team. No buyer has been found although plenty of rumours abound including a Mexican named slim. It would have been interesting to see what they came up with.

Thursday January 22, 2009

Solving the Italian Job's dilemma

The Royal Society of Chemistry setup a competition to solve the dilemma of the gang in the Italian job ( the original that is ) to get them all out of the bus as it hangs over the cliff and of course recover the gold. The solution is described here .

A better thing to have done would have been to pick a better vehicle to move the gold and to drive more carefully on that twisty mountain road.... but of course that would have made the ending of the film not so interesting.

Save a life - sign up today!

The number of people who have signed up for donating their organs after their death is growing and is in fact one year ahead of government targets but still many people are dying because organs are not available.

Go on sign up today - you can even do it online!