Nairobi’s Two-Wheeled Taxis
I like this story.
We must think creatively about how to deal with young offenders.
An Extraordinary Theatrical Experience
There has been a lot of publicity in London about the Railway Children, which is playing until January at the old Waterloo International Station. It sounds as if it will be worth seeing, especially as one of the stars is a Stirling Single.
It is a superb example of how to reuse a redundant building.
You also wonder if the various railway museums and perhaps disused stations around the world will also stage the experience!
Solving the Roadkill Problem
It is being reported that roadkills cost a Norfolk council about £1,500 a month to send them to a crematorium.
But there is a more elegant and dramatic solution.
Why not release a few more red kites? These birds would love all those roadkills.
Odd Uses For Products
I was reminded last night of the old true tale about Barratt’s aniseed balls being used as part of the trigger for a limpet mine. They were protected by a condom and this was then removed to allow the ball to dissolve, which then let the trigger fire. Simple and it worked very well, although some people in the Ministry though that it was wrong that part of the war effort rested on a sweet costing less than an old penny.
Last night, someone told me that a well-known luxury skin care product, is also a good fly repellent, when applied to horses. I didn’t believe it, but I did find this page. It’s about half-way down.
Royal Mail to Abolish Counties
Well not quite, but they are going to remove the county line from addresses.
Just out of curiousity I looked up the address of their ground on Ipswich Town’s Web Site.
Ipswich Town Football Club
Portman Road
Ipswich
Suffolk
IP1 2DA
United Kingdom
So it would only mean one line disappears in this case, but I suspect there are few in the UK, who don’t know that Ipswich is in the County of Suffolk. Incidentally, there are people in Suffolk, who would say that Ipswich is in the County of East Suffolk, which was merged with West Suffolk to form Suffolk in 1972, when Ipswich lost the County Borough status it had gained in 1888.
So the address of Ipswich Town, if the pre-1972 rules applied woiuld now be exactly the same as the Royal Mail is now proposing.
Ipswich Town Football Club
Portman Road
Ipswich
IP1 2DA
United Kingdom
So it might not make much difference to many here in Suffolk, but I can imagine that others might be not so relaxed about it.
What annoys me about addreses, is that I moved here nearly twenty years ago and my bank still haven’t got the new address on my statement correct. But the Royal Mail usually gets it delivered correctly.
So does it all matter? No!
Pakistani Sensitivities
Since David Cameron made his comments about Pakistan in India last week, there has been a lot of criticism for the Prime Minister, from both the Pakistani government and people of Pakistani origin in the UK.
Having read extensively on the country, I feel very much that David Cameron was right.
This was then published in The Times in a letter from Shaun Gregory at the University of Bradford.
David Cameron has now seen the UK and US intelligence available on Pakistani army and ISI links to the different Afghan Taleban groups and to Punjabi terrorist organisations such as Lashkar-e-Taiba. He has also been able to reflect on eight years of Labour’s softly-softly approach to Pakistan since 9/11, which has led precisely nowhere in terms of the resurgence of the Afghan Taleban from bases in Pakistan. The Prime Minister is right therefore to seek to increase the pressure on Pakistan in this critical year for Isaf and to reassure India that Britain stands beside the world’s largest democracy in the face of terrorism exported from Pakistan.
Surely though with the flood problems in his country at the moment, the place for the President of Pakistan is at home supporting the unfortunate citizens of his country. Obviously, he is following Dubya’s thinking, when he refused to go to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.
It was reported in the Sunday Times at the weekend, that Pakistan has received billions of dollars of US aid. Perhaps some of it should have been used for disaster planning? According to Newsweek, it has not been spent well. Here’s a paragraph from the hardhitting article.
But how effective will this round of money be? Officials at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad have alleged that Pakistan misspent some 70 percent of the U.S. funds that paid the Pakistani military to run missions in the unwieldy provinces along the Afghan border. U.S. officials accuse Pakistan of running a double game with the money, keeping the Taliban at bay just enough to persuade American benefactors to keep their wallets open, thereby ensuring a lifeline for the country’s mangled economy. All of which raises the question: will any amount of money produce results?
I doubt it! So we must kep the pressure on the corrupt and dangerous regime that is Pakistan, but continue to support the people with humanitarian aid and the rebuilding of the flood-damaged areas. But all funds should be funnelled through agencies and people we can trust, both to do the job and not to divert it for other purposes.
Understanding UK Regional Accents
There has just been a discussion about regional accents in the UK on Radio 5. Apparently a survey has shown that the Geordie accent is the easiest to understand and is often chosen as the voice in sat-navs.
That’s as maybe, but what bright spark put the call centre for the Child Support Agency for East Anglia in Northern Ireland. Suffolk people couldn’t understand a word that was said. My late wife, C, was a barrister and this caused her a lot of grief, as some of her clients couldn’t get their finances sorted at all.
A Good Idea from South Dakota?
South Dakota operates a 24/7 sobriety progam for drink-driving and domestic violence, where offenders have to be tested twice a day. You should read this piece in The Guardian, where Kit Malthouse, London’s Deputy Mayor, expands his ideas, based on the South Dakota experience, in detail.
I think that the idea is worth trying.
I also think that it could be applied to some drink-driving cases. I have only been breatherlysed once and I was well under the limit and as at the present time, I can’t drive, it would be no benefit to me personally at the moment. But supposing now, someone is just over the limit and was perhaps caught say because they were stopped because a brake-light was out, would it not be a good idea to fine the driver and put them on a 24/7 sobriety program. It would not mean they lost their job and had problems ferrying children and elderly relatives. They would just have a bit of inconvenience about going to be tested twice a day.
There is also the point, that routine often brings people round and improves their lives. I have mentored people in the past, who’ve asked me how they can get and keep a job. Often it depends on a lot of small things, like being on time, being smart and polite. I’ve told them this and often a few months later, I’ve got a thanks.
Another Onshore Oil Field
They were talking yesterday on the radio about the SIngleton oil field, just a few miles north of Goodwood race course in Sussex. This piece in the Daily Mail says that some of the locals don’t even know it’s there!
There is also this web page at the University of Southampton web site showing all the small oil fields in the south of England.
You don’t hear of many problems, so perhaps the US could satisfy its thirst for oil, by driling in more environmentally sensitive areas on shore. There would appear to be less risk, if they follow the English precedent. Incidentally, BP seems to be the operator in a lot of these fields.
A Sweet Act of Kindness
Someone who used to work with me has just sent a card from the Lake District with an ode by Wordsworth on the front.
Intimations of Immortality
There was a time when meadow, grove and stream,
The earth and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore ;-
Turn wheresoe’er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
I like getting cards like that. It was a nice touch.
The Anonymous Widower 