Man’s Inhumanity to Man
I have just watched the story of the Blitzing of Coventry on BBC2. Looking back from nearly seventy years it is possible to say that good triumphed over evil and that it just stiffened our resolve to stand up to the Nazis.
I’ve stood twice in the grounds of the bombed cathedral and it is a place with a quiet significance that moves me deeply. And I’m not a religious person.
Coventry Cathedral
Compared to the later bombing of Hamburg and Dresden, the bombing of Coventry was not as severe. In the 1960s, I met a woman who had survived the inferno of Hamburg, and she told me that just as it did for those in Coventry, it just made them angry and wanting to fight more.
So was it worth it?
I would argue that it wasn’t on a strategic level, as to bomb important targets accurately has been shown to do more.
But we never learn!
We just tried to obliterate Iraq, when perhaps a more subtle, but more targeted and demoralising approach might have been better. In Iraq too, we virtually forgot all of the black propaganda methods that we were so good at in the Second World War. Surely with all the technology we now have from satellites to Hollywood, it could find a place to get messages across and cause chaos.
But then big explosions play better at home.
The Power of Magnets
It may be simple in essence, but it does look that it might not be so simple to make work. On the other hand, if it does it could be a spectacular breakthrough in the fight against cancer. Effectively, you induce ferrous nanoparticles to lodge in the cancerous cells and then you blast them with a strong magnetic field. This raises their temperature and kills them.
For a more detailed (and better) explanation see The Times.
I do rather have this belief that the big breakthroughs in medicine in the future will come by combining the best of medicine, with the best of engineering, physics, chemistry and many more disciplines.
How to Show Football on Television
Or rather how not to! This article in The Independent outlines the mess and problems caused by making Ukraine-England Internet only on a Pay-per-View site.
But like the earlier fiasco with ITV-Digital and the Championship and the failure of Setanta, it probably illustrates that there is a price viewers will pay and a price they will not. And those broadcasters that pay too much will end up going bust.
I have Sky and watch quite a bit of sport on their channels, like cricket, tennis and of course football. In general it is good value and it sustained me through some of the darker times since my wife died.
I have also subscribed to ESPN to take the extra Premier League matches. Whether I will continue to take the extra coverage for ever, is open to debate, as I have no interest in American Mickey Mouse sports, like basketball, baseball and American football.
But to return to the Ukraine-England match, that will only be shown over the Internet. I have watched some football in this way, through the Sky web site. The quality wasn’t that good and I suspect that here in deepest Suffolk, I would only get a very bad picture.
But in a few years time, this will be the way that many of us will not only watch football, but much of our television. But it will need much faster broadband and a proper device to put the pictures on a large screen.
I won’t be in England this weekend, but if I was, I’d be listening on BBC Radio Five. When it was pointed out to a pub landlord that it was being broadcast this way, he hadn’t realised it. But at least it might get a few punters in his pub! Especially, if he had wi-fi for a few laptops!
WordPress Statistics
My WordPress statistics haven’t seemed to add up for a week or so.
For instance, today, someone left a pingback on this blog and the counter didn’t move. The number of searches that brought people to the blog also equals the number of views and this can’t be right as pages that don’t relate to these searches are in the top pages.
Also a few days ago, I had thirty hits from someone searching for “Lotus Elan Yellow” and none of the pages about the Elan was in the top pages.
Am I paranoid or is there something wrong?
Loan Fraud
I assume that these two e-mails I received this morning are up to no good.
This one is from Homesteel Loan Management.
This is HOMESTEEEL LOAN MANAGEMENT, a private loan lender.We provide funding for companies and individuals that need funding. We work domestic as well as international companies. Our funding sources specialize in creative solutions to meet your needs for expansion, growth etc.
Our company do grant loans to individuals and companies as the loan grant varies from $5 thousand to $5 million Dollars with an interest rate of just 2.5 %.Borrower’s Information Needed
Full Names:…………………………………………
Country:……………………………………………
Phone Number:……………………………………..
Loan Amount Needed:…………………………….
Loan Term Duration:……………………………….Contact us today with the above information at honorablekalebcole1@gmail.com,mrkalebcole@sifymail.com
Company Name:HOMESTEEEL LOAN MANAGEMENT.
Registration Number: EA-ASL/941OYI/02/LN-UK
Telephone: +44-701-112-8005
Fax: +44 91-791-52-20Regards,
HOMESTEEEL LOAN MANAGEMENT
homesteelmanagement@gmail.com
And this one is from Eagle Loan Management.
This is Eagle Loan Management, a private loan lender.We provide funding for companies and individuals that need funding. We work domestic as well as international companies. Our funding sources specialize in creative solutions to meet your needs for expansion, growth etc.
Our company do grant loans to individuals and companies as the loan grant varies from $5 thousand to $5 million Dollars with an interest rate of just 2.5%.Borrower’s Information Needed
Full Names:…………………………………………
Country:……………………………………………
Phone Number:……………………………………..
Loan Amount Needed:…………………………….
Loan Term Duration:……………………………….Contact us today with the above information at eagleinvestment@sifymail.com
Company Name:EAGLE LOAN MANAGEMENT.
Registration Number: EA-ASL/941OYI/02/LN-UK
Telephone: +44-701-112-8005
Fax: +44 91-791-52-20Regards,
EAGLE LOAN MANAGEMENT
eagleloan.2009@gmail.com
Note that the registration, telephone and fax numbers are all the same.
Obviously, both of these e-mails are the same fraud. I suspect, that you will pay a lot of up-front fees and never see any money.
There is also the possibility that just phoning the numbers will be very expensive. In fact it is a good idea never to phone any UK number beginning with 7, unless you know who it belongs to! Many are mobiles, but some of them are linked to very expensive personal numbers.
Don’t whatever you do have anything to do with these crooks!
The Anonymous Widower 