How Much Useless Advertising Do We Receive?
My Sunday Times is always full of junk. This picture shows this weeks offering.
How Much Useless Advertising Do We Receive?
How much of this is actually read? And how much ends up in landfill?
In my case, it was even more pointless, as I’ve just installed Sky.
A Must Read Opinion In The Sunday Times
Camilla Caendish’s opinion in the Sunday Ties today is very much worth reading. The title says a lot.
Tribal tensions on the ward are putting patients at risk
And it starts like this.
Managers bullying staff into fiddling cancer figures. Whistleblowers gagged with pay-offs. A&E doctors coping with patients who should have been seen by the GP. And that’s just last week’s headlines. With so many of the staff at loggerheads, it’s not surprising the National Health Service sometimes seems to forget about the patients.
It is full of nuggets that apply to any company or organisation. Like this one!
Hinchingbrooke Hospital in Cambridge has borrowed a programme from Toyota called Stop the Line. This lets any member of staff halt a procedure if they think the patient may be at risk. In one recent case, a patient was about to be stitched up after surgery when two theatre nurses found a swab was missing and “stopped the line”. An x-ray showed the swab in the patient’s abdomen. It was removed, saving the patient from harm and the hospital from heaven knows what kind of negligence claim.
If you can find the article, read it!
The Only Rollercoaster I’ve Ever Ridden
This article about Dreamland in Margate caught my eye.
I rode it once in probably the 1980s. I think it’s best we don’t delve into how I found myself enjoying one of the few wooden rollercoasters.
It was the only time, I ever rode on one!
I’ll go again, when and if it reopens.
More ARM Processors Than People
A friend has told me that he was in a meeting and one of the founders of ARM pointed out, that there were probably more ARM processors in the room than people.
As I type this, I’m wondering how many ARM processors are in this room with me.
For a start, there’s my Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini, which has an ARM CPU and GPU. As the CPU is dual core, is that a total of three or two?
There’s also a modern Samsung television, two set-top boxes, four Nokia phones, including three 6310i, two digital cameras and a Samsung Tab, all of which might contain one or more ARM processors.
I think that I’m outnumbered! But take note that in 2012, they sold 8.7 billion units!
And Now There Are Four!
I collected the third and fourth of my dining chairs today.
And Now There Are Four!
I did it like I did last time on a 30 bus.
As you can see, they still stack well, even with the IKEA cushions.
Reminder Of A Joke
As I walked out of my house to get my newspaper, a guy passed me carrying a heavy case and a large stepladder.
It reminded me of Act 2 of a very old joke.
In Act 1, a guy walks across the stage carrying a case and he’s asked what he’s doing. He says that he’s a lawyer and he’s taking a case to court.
In Act 2, the guy walks back carrying the case and a ladder. His answer to the same question is that he’s taking the case to the High Court.
In Act 3, the guys walks back again, just carrying the ladder. This time his answer is that he lost the case.
I think I first saw it performed at a Scout camp, when I was about twelve.
Keyhole Surgery For Gas Mains
I like this story from the Standard, as it shows how good design and clever technology can make the solving of everyday problems, quicker and easier. Here’s the first paragraph.
A £1m robot will today complete work repairing gas mains in London without having to dig a single hole in the street in a UK first that it is claimed will save thousands of hours of disruption to motorists.
It may have cost a lot, but how much did it save?
Does The Internet Lead Us To Strange Places?
This report on the BBC about the end of the GOCE satellite, was to me very much a must-read, as it covers a lot of my interests. It probably will make a lot of others think about the Falkland Islands too. But it was this paragraph that caught my eye.
American military data timed this event to have occurred at 00:16 GMT, or 21:16 local Falkland time – just as Bill, his wife Vicky, and dad, Tony Chater, were making their way home after spending the day with King Penguins.
I hadn’t realised that there were King Penguins on the islands. Looking them up in Wikipedia, it said that the biggest King Penguin colony is on Crozet Island, which is a French overseas territory.
There really are some amazing places in this world, some of which are virtually inaccessible.
A Sad Row Of Bottles
I have two drink problems. The first is that I never drink more than one bottle of cyder or beer in an evening and secondly, my fridge that keeps the wine cold has gone and died.
So now, I have a large number of bottles, that are probably ruined and I doubt I’ll drink them!
A Sad Row Of Bottles
I suppose, if I was an alcoholic, they’d have gone by now.
I’ve already poured some once-nice rose down the sink. But judging by the smell, I only missed stripping my gut and ending in hospital.
I’ve Just Switched To Ovo Energy
I will save myself a hundred and sixteen pounds a year, by swapping to Ovo Energy. Perhaps not much, but if I refer a friend and they sign up, we both get a twenty.
So if you want me to recommend you, I’m happy to do that. We could have a nice meal either by ourselves or together on the bonus!
Incidentally, I’ve found that I’ve got a lot in credit with my previous supplier. So hopefully, I’ll have that in my account in a few weeks. After all, it’s my money and it looks better in my bank account or wallet.
The Anonymous Widower 