Gene Therapy on the Horizon
Horizon tonight was on gene therapy. It really did give people with genetic diseases hope.
As both my wife and our son died of cancer, it was thought that he may have inherited a faulty gene. He hadn’t, but I can understand how much something like that, would blow families apart.
On the other hand, I have an inherited genetic disease in coeliac disease. Would I want to be cured by gene therapy? Probably not now, as I control my symptoms through diet, but it would have been nice to know, I carried the faulty gene earlier and I could have modified my diet accordingly.
Horseracing in Crisis
The long running dispute about the size of the Levy seems to have hit the stops again as horse racing and the bookmakers can’t agree how much should be paid. According to this article on the BBC, the decision will go for the last time to the Government.
I love my racing, but I know that this can’t go on!
In the first place, horse racing needs bookmakers and bookmakers don’t need horse racing, as mugs will bet on anything from horse racing videos to the X-Factor. I bet rarely, but I still have one running on Strictly Come Dancing. Any unbiased analysis of bookmakers income shows that their profits come from areas other than horse racing.
One of the troubles with racing is that it is perceived in the wrong way by much of the public and racing sees the public in the wrong way too. For instance, few know that most race meetings outside of the really major ones, let those under 16 in free with an adult. I’ve always found that children enjoy racing as it’s something so different to what they encounter in normal life. Many race courses do try to encourage families in the summer, but others just don’t bother. They just don’t realise that by changing the product on offer slightly they can reach a whole new audience.
Another problem, that exists locally is that big meetings at Newmarket often clash with football at Ipswich. And I suspect Norwich too! I suspect these aren’t the only clashes either. Planning of meetings must be better!
But racing real problem is that it continues to make really bad decisions at the top.
One thing that I can’t understand is why racing has split its television coverage between two separate channels, one of which is free and the other is so much a month. If ever there was a decision that smacks of corporate suicide it is this one.
The trouble with the quality of the decisions, is that it allows those, who perhaps should be funding the sport, like bookmakers, to find ways out of paying for the product.
Racing only powerful card is that it is a large employer, but so were the coal mines and look what happened to the miners. It was just an industry whose time had come. Not because of politics as many on the left would believe, but because of the carbon dioxide burning it produces.
So has horse racing’s time come?
Perhaps in its present form, Yes!
I wouldn’t dream of telling the racing industry what to do, but I know they must change, or at least be perceived to have changed.
Can the Government do anything to help?
I believe one trhing that would help is to move the clocks to European time, as this would give us extra opportunities for evening meetings, which do seem to attract crowds. But even here, some people in racing aren’t as pro this, as I am. But I suspect, it is something that will finally happen.
Racing often has a big asset and that is land, which sometimes is not used to its full potential because of planning restrictions. The Government is giving more power to local people, but would this be for or against racing’s interest?
I would hate to see racing fade out of the rich pageant of Britain’s sporting scene, but unless we think long and hard, it might just happen.
I hope not!
Possibly!
The Netherlands By Rail
I was looking at Eurostar, as I want to go to Berlin at some time to see the new museum.
When I went to The Netherlands last time on the train, I had to wait for about an hour in Brussels to buy a ticket to get to Den Haag, as it was impossible to buy one before I left London. Now though you can buy a ticket from London to any Dutch station. All you have to do is get to Brussels Midi and then take a Dutch domestic service within 24 hours! The rules for return, are that you can take any Dutch domestic service that arrives within 24 hours of your Eurostar departure.
That sounds like a really sensible way of travelling. You could catch the next train to say Rotterdam and save time or you could catch a morning train to Brussels, have a look round the city and perhaps have a good lunch as I did in the spring and then take an evening train across the border.
It would seem to be cheaper too, as my ticket last time to Den Haag from Brussels and back would have cost 60 Euros in Standard Class. Looking today and going in a couple of weeks, it looks like I can do the whole journey both ways for about £120 or less. That price was for next week, so I suspect, you could beat that if you booked further in advance.
Incidentally going by Thalys to say Amsterdam from Brussels on the same dates, doesn’t have a very good choice of trains and costs twice the price! I suspect you might save a few minutes on the journey, but because of the connections, you would probably have to leave London an hour or so later. That is not my style, as I’ve always been one for an early start! I always think that you can get a good lunch in Brusssels anyway. Or you could visit the falcons in the cathedral.
It all sounds to be a good deal to me! But one that won’t be too good to be true!
Mercury in the Oil, Gas and Chemical Industries
When I worked years ago at ICI, I had a lot to do with analysing the air in chlorine cell rooms for mercury. In those days when you electrolysed brine to get chlorine and hydrogen, you used a mercury cathode.
We understood the health problems in those days nearly 50 years ago and I would have thought that we had got mercury leaks under control. But I read an article in The Sunday Times, saying that mercury is a problem with oil and gas extraction.
So I searched the Internet and found this article, from a company who have solutions, or at least know about the problem.
It just shows how we much be very careful. After all, things like antique barometers which use mercury are under all sorts of regulations, but the worse problem of mercury in oil extraction is not controlled.
Remember too, that one person’s impurity is someone else’s feedstock. I remember an engineer at ICI, who gave a lecture on integrated chemical plants, who said that nothing except pure cold water should ever be discharged from a chemical plant. He said, that even hot water had a value in heating terms.
The Anonymous Widower 