A Personal Vitamin D Tester
I’ve thought that the ability to purchase one of these over-the-counter in your local Boots, Superdrug or any or the umpteen pharmacies, would be very worthwhile for some time. But I’ve nver found anything on the web.
Tonight I found this article on the Natural News web site, which is entitled Over-the-counter vitamin D tester would be a boon to public health, cancer prevention.
The writer makes some good points and would be very in favour of the sale of such a device.
Read the article and see what you think.
With my engineering hat on, I can only think that no-one has come up with a simple method akin to the one I use to test my INR.
I also believe there are a lot of doctors, who believe patients doing their own testing is a no-no! Possibly becuase it blows a hole in his staff needs and therefor reduces their budget. Nurses doing lots of testing gives the feel-good factor of a busy surgery.
But then the Healthcare Industry all over the World, is the last one to start using Twentieth Century managenment methods. In private medicine, it is a sensible way to inflate the bill and in the NHS, it means you don’t have to make unnecessary staff redundant.
A Design Crime – Train Platform Interface At St. Pancras Thameslink
Frank Grdner has been complaining at the problems of travelling on planes in a wheelchair.
I took these pictures of the step between platform and train at St. Pancras Thameslink station.
All of the trains including the 1980s built Class 319 trains seem to require the same step-up into the train.
As the Platforms at the station were built after the Class 319 trains became the most numerous trains on the route, this a real design crime of the highest order.
It would appear that Merseyrail will offer roll-across access with their new trains, so why isn’t Thameslink.
But then in an ideal world, St. Pancras station needs a substantial rebuild underground.
All Of Scotland Is Now Twinned With Marlow
This article on the BBC, is entitled Winds close Forth Road Bridge and cut power to homes.
At two this morning a truck overturned on the Forth Road Bridge and the bridge has been closed since.
This is the full story from the BBC report.
The lorry on the Forth Road Bridge blew over at about 02:00 GMT. A spokesman for the bridge-operating company said the bridge had been closed to HGVs from 00:30 GMT.
The truck was travelling north from the Edinburgh side towards Fife, but was blown on to the southbound carriageway, damaging a 40-metre stretch of the central grilling, he said.
It had been lifted off the central grilling by a crane by mid-morning, but it could not be completely cleared from the scene until the weather improves.
The bridge remains closed both north and south-bound.
The driver of the lorry has been charged with dangerous driving, police said.
What an idiot!
But there was also the incident on the historic Marlow Bridge over the Thames. This is from Wikipedia.
On 24 September 2016 the bridge suffered ‘potential structural damage’ following an incident where 37-tonne Lithuanian haulage lorry exceeding the weight limit attempted to pass over the bridge. The bridge was closed for two months to allow Buckinghamshire County Council to undertake a series of stress tests on the suspension bridge hangers and pins, together with ultrasound and magnetic particle tests. No significant damage to the bridge was found, and had given the all-clear to reopen the bridge on Friday 25 November following restoration of sections exposed for weld testing with three coats of paint, removal of scaffolding surrounding the bridge’s two towers, and reinstatement of timber work removed for inspection. To the applause of around 100 onlookers, Marlow Bridge was reopened to traffic at 10am on Friday, 25 November.
Consider that Marlow Bridge was built in 1832, it has survived the better part bof two centruries well.
However Marlow Bridge was built by Bristolian; William Tierney Clark, who was also responsible for Hammersmith Bridge on the Thames.
Internationally, Clark was also responsible for the iconic Széchenyi Chain Bridge across the Danube in Budapest.
Bada Castle And The Chain Bridge
I took the picture, when I did my Home Run From Budapest in 2013. What you see is not wholly the original, as that was blown up by the Nazis in the Siege of Budapest in 1945.
Incidentally, the engineer who supervised the construction of the bridge from parts sent out from the UK, was the Scot; Adam Clark.
As Adam Clark was born in Edinburgh, I’ve concluded by bringing the narrative back to the Forth Bridge.
Gas-Lighting
This article on CNN is called Donald Trump is ‘gaslighting’ all of us.
It introduced me to term gas-lighting, which all goes back to a 1940 British film and an earlier play.
This is said about the term in the Wikipedia entry for the film.
The psychological term gaslighting, which describes a form of psychological abuse in which the victim is gradually manipulated into doubting his or her own reality, originated from the play and its two film adaptations.[7] Gaslighting, today, mostly refers to one of the methods of abuse used by a narcissist to emotionally control a victim, through which the narcissist gains pleasure.
Now CNN is accusing Trump of doing this to us all.
This is an extract.
After mimicking a disabled reporter and seeing the video used as evidence against him, he repeatedly denied it, claiming his opponents should be embarrassed to say he did. “I would NEVER mock disabled. Shame!” The denials continued after Meryl Streep brought up the subject this week at the Golden Globes. With the video easily available, Trump’s argument boiled down to “Who do you trust, me or your lying eyes?”
Here’s the video.
Trmp is going to gove the World’s comedians more material, than any other politician in history.
The Anonymous Widower 