The Anonymous Widower

A Newspaper So Hot, It Has To Be Kept In A Fridge With Lots Of Water

I took this picture, in W H Smith’s at Kings Cross station.

A Newspaper So Hot, It Has To Be ~Kept In A Fridge With Lots Of Water

A Newspaper So Hot, It Has To Be ~Kept In A Fridge With Lots Of Water

I prefer my newspaper to have the latest hot stories. Especially with lots of accessible Vitamin D.

November 21, 2016 Posted by | World | | 3 Comments

BT Gets Tough With Flying Rats

Flying rats or pigeons to the RSPB, are a problem in Liverpool Street station.

So BT has got tough!

BT Gets Tough With Flying Rats

BT Gets Tough With Flying Rats

It would probably help, if everybody dropping littler got sentence to sit on top of the phone-box for an hour.

November 21, 2016 Posted by | World | , , , | Leave a comment

Crossrail Lined Up For A Skyscraper

This article from Building Design On Line, is entitled Shedkm’s Crossrail tower in for planning.

This is the first paragraph.

Shedkm-designed plans for a 29-storey residential tower block next to Abbey Wood Station in south-east London have been lodged for approval with the Royal Borough of Greenwich.

So Crossrail will go up and down, as well as East and West.

This scheme will comprise 208 homes and a ninety-bed hotel.

I think we’ll see more of schemes like this, especially to build much needed housing.

 

November 20, 2016 Posted by | World | , | Leave a comment

Would I Go Back To Las Palmas?

It’s over a week now, since I returned from Las Palmas and I ask myself the inevitable question.

Yes! I certainly would, at this time of year, as the sun has done me good.

Although, I probably wouldn’t go back for a year or so, as there are lots of other islands out there in the Atlantic with sun.

November 20, 2016 Posted by | World | | Leave a comment

Brits Keen To Go Green But Don’t Want To Pay For It

The title of this post is the same as that of this article on Energy Live News.

It is an interesting article.

  • People in London and Northern Ireland are more likely to pay a green premium.
  • People in the South-East and Wales are most unlikely.
  • More than one in 10 of those willing to pay more would be happy to pay an extra 31-50% for greener energy.

I think it is better value to make sure you don’t use the energy in the first place.

I also feel, that much of our housing stock can never be made energy efficient and should be knocked down and replaced with better quality housing.

 

November 17, 2016 Posted by | World | | 1 Comment

It’s Time To Look On The Bright Side Of Trump

This was the title of a comment by Matt Ridley in The Times yesterday.

He may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I have read a couple of his books; Genome and Nature via Nurture and found they added to my knowledge.

This is a precis of his comment.

He starts like this.

So here, after a few days of talking to people in America’s two biggest economies, California and Texas, are ten reasons why I think a Trump residency may not be as awful as many think, even if, like me, you heard of the news of his victory with a sinking feeling.

The article has ten main sections.

  1. Just as after Brexit, the markets went up, not down. Despite the predictions of analysts.
  2. He is already watering down his more outlandish threats.
  3. The Presidency is nothing like as powerful a job as it seems.
  4. The Democratic Party will soon be back and hounding Mr. Trump, if only in the Courts.
  5. Mr. Trump is already surrounding himself with reasonably sensible people.
  6. Some of his policies are not so bad.
  7. His adviser on climate and energy, Myron Ebell, is right that climate change policy has become a gravy train for the rich that hurts the poor.
  8. The promised “swamp draining” – in the unlikely event Mr. Trump pulls it off – will be cathartic.
  9. His reprehensible attitude to women, minorities and the disabled, though setting a terrible example, is fortunately unlikely to result in actual persecution by the government.
  10. The idea that this is the end of democracy or the start of fascism, as some hyperventilating luvvies are saying, is nonsense.

Ridley finishes with.

If he really does kill the North American Free Trade Agreement, as well as the transpacific and transatlantic trade treaties, he will assuredly cause a recession that hurts blue-collar workers in the rust belt more than free trade ever did. And he might craqsh the world economy.

I can see few silver linings there.

Here are some quotes from the article I can agree with.

  • Mr. Pence is a creationist and religious conservative, which is not my cup of tea.
  • The House Speaker, Paul Ryan, is a formidable figure who will effectively decide how much of Trump’s programme will happen.
  • Steven Mnuchin, the likely Treasury Secretary, is from Goldman Sachs, for goodness sake.
  • If Mr. Trump unleashes more gas production, that will cut emissions and drive out coal faster than renewable energy ever could.
  • Compared with many Republicans, Mr. Trump is positively liberal on matters such as abortion and religion.
  • If Mr. Trump makes a mess of things, he will be gone in four years – or sooner.

If you get a chance to read the whole article, you should.

 

November 15, 2016 Posted by | World | , , | 2 Comments

Mobile Signals

When I was on the excursion on Gran Canaria, that I wrote about in A Tour Of Gran Canaria, I was getting an excellent mobile signal all the way, despite at times being amongst mountains that were nearly two thousand metres high.

Yesterday, I was in Victoria station and I was trying to use the Internet to find out, where my train left. The Internet signal was like one of Donald Trump’s speeches – utter tripe!

I think for reasons of safety, that all train stations and bus stops, should have a top-rated mobile signal.

Some years ago, the office at my stud in Newmarket had a dreadful signal.  So I pointed a parabolic aerial at the nearest mast and rebroadcast it in the office.

Problem solved!

If I was an MP, who won the right to put a Private Members Bill through Parliament, I would make it the law, that all bus stops and train stations had a mobile signal, of the same quality, I was receiving high up in the mountains of Gran Canaria.

Or are the Elite waiting until a fourteen-year-old girl is raped and murdered because she couldn’t phone her parents for a lift, after getting lost on her bicycle?

 

November 15, 2016 Posted by | World | , | 2 Comments

Where Will Madame Tussards Put Their Donald Trump?

The BBC in London are reporting, that Madame Tussards are creating a new waxwork of Donald Trump.

I was wondering, where they would put it!

Vote Early! Vote Often!

November 14, 2016 Posted by | World | | 1 Comment

Leaving Las Palmas

I took these pictures, as I rode to the airport at Las Palmas.

I was in a free shuttle from the hotel.

Wikipedia has a section in their entry for Las Palmas, which is entitled Train Under Construction.

This is said.

Tren de Gran Canaria (TG) is a rail project initially proposed as an alternative way to get from Las Palmas to Maspalomas[44] but was later raised to Agaete extension.

Another project is the Tramway Palmas (Gran Canaria), which would cover the same journey as the bus line 1, with an average frequency of 5 minutes and a journey time of 35 minutes.

As the pictures indicate a train will be more interesting.

November 10, 2016 Posted by | Transport/Travel, World | | Leave a comment

Las Palmas Wakes Up

I rose early and took these pictures along the the promenade by Las Canteras Beach.

I always get up early and it was good to walk along the promenade.

Note the three restaurants where I had a good gluten–free meal.

  • Kitchen Lovers
  • Balalaika
  • Restaurante Molinet

I also had a good tuna salad at Max Bread, so if you’re coeliac or gluten-free, you shouldn’t starve, unless you’re exceedimgly fussy.

Other points to note.

  1. The Hotel Reina Isabel looked to be a good place to stay because of its location.
  2. The beach was very clean.
  3. The promenade was a good place to walk, with no pavement problems.
  4. There were plenty of places serving good coffee and ices.

I would certainly return, but try the Hotel Reina Isabel next time.

November 10, 2016 Posted by | Food, World | , , | Leave a comment