Beware Of Young Girls
I was travelling back from shopping this morning, when I became aware that a rather pretty blonde young lady was leaning over me. It took me a few moments before I realised she was a ticket inspector and her machine with the London Bus logo was being held out. It rather surprised me, as the usual inspectors, be they male or female, are generally older and look like they can handle themselves in a serious fight.
As the ads on London’s buses and tubes say. “Ticket inspectors look just like you!” Or not me, in this case, but the sort of lady, I’d like to take out for the evening. Although, my son would have said, she would have been too young for me. Which is probably true!
A Beam Of Hope In The MIddle East
Science is an area of life, where generally political and other prejudices are left behind. Get the facts right and the answers are generally good, but try to say follow extreme left or right wing views and they just don’t fit scientific facts.
So this article on the BBC’s web site about Sesame, a large synchrotron being built in Jordan, is a real beam of hope. Even the Israelis and the Iranians are working together on the project.
My Father’s Advice
My father always said that you never buy a house where it can flood. He never did and I haven’t. I suspect my son is fine on the high hills of Walthamstow. So he’s following the family tradition.
The only house of the seven or so, C and I lived in, that was on low-lying land, was our holiday home at Antibes. That was close to the sea, but you don’t get very high tides in the Mediterranean.
More And More Floods
They just keep coming as the BBC reports here.
There have been times in my life, when I can remember lots of floods, including the massive and tragic North Sea Flood of 1953.
But they do seem to be getting more common, even if not as bad as those of 1953. And then we had superstorm Sandy in New York.
i can’t prove it, but I do think that two man-induced factors don’t help.
I was taught at school, that in rain forests there was constant circulation of the water by evaporation and rain and it was a stable system, that calmed our weather. So what are we doing, destroying rain forests!
And then there’s the burning of fossil fuels, which certainly increases carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Local flooding in some places of the UK, could well be caused by the passion for concreting everything, without giving the water anywhere to run.
If we looked after the planet better, we might get a few less problems.
We could also take a lead from the Dutch and build proper defences, often paired with large much-needed infrastructure.
As an example to increase the size of Heathrow is complete folly. If we do build a new airport in the South East, it should probably be built in the Thames Estuary and paired with a very large tidal barrier for London.
The Anonymous Widower 