Theft At Cash Machines On The Rise
This story says that thefts at cash machines are on the rise. I’ve never been targeted and I usually make sure I get my money out at machines I know well and often in the morning, as prejudice says that criminals always lie in bed as they drunk too much last night. I also often use a machine inside a branch of Nationwide, because there are comfortable seats there to sit down, whilst I sort it all out. This paragraph from the article is telling and shows how to use a stolen card to get cash.
The perpetrators used the card to lay £400 in bets at Ladbrokes and withdrew £240 in cash.
As someone, who once held a licence for a betting shop, I know the fiddles that go on in these places.
Incidentally, a fraud expect told me, that he’d analysed card thefts and subsequent withdrawals. He felt that if customers used an easy pin like 1234, it was more likely to be discovered. My pin jumps about all over the place, so I hope if someone watches they can’t get it.
I have said before in this post, that I wish my bank statement gave me more information about my withdrawals, with perhaps the location of the cash machine. I think, if this was done, it would alert customers, that perhaps their card had been skimmed.
Why Was This Idiot Allowed To Drive?
When I had my stroke, I was not allowed to drive until I’d proved I was safe. As my eyesight never returned to 20/20, I decided that it was probably best to give up trying to drive again. I suspect now, that I might be able to drive without any problems, but I couldn’t live with perhaps knocking someone over, even if it was impossible for it to have been my fault.
On the other hand, the idiot driver of the van shown in this report from the BBC, was a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, who went on to kill a young mother and injure thirteen others. In other words he was a worse killer than the two who are accused of murdering Lee Rigby.
What doctor allowed him to drive after the diagnosis? He should be struck off at the least.
Is There A Cardigan Gene?
My father liked to wear cardigans and so does my son. So is this in our genes?
I obviously don’t have that particular gene, as I’ve never worn a cardigan.
On the other hand, C had lots of them!
Legible London
Legible London is described like this on their web site.
Legible London is a pedestrian wayfinding system that’s helping people walk around the Capital.
It does mean that information posts like these are turning up everywhere.
I’ve noticed these signs for some time, but it is only now, they’ve started to appear near me.
When the whole of London is covered, who will need a map on a mobile phone?
Drivers Are Being Persecuted
That’ll be the call that goes up after the government crackdown on bad driving. It’s reported here on the BBC.
Obviously, as a pedestrian, it doesn’t affect me.
But bad driving does!
I regularly cross the road at the junction of the Balls Pond Road and Southgate Road. several times, whilst crossing on the green pedestrian light, I have nearly been run over by someone turning right illegally out of Mildmay Park. Only buses are allowed to do this, but do it only rarely.
I also get very annoyed with drivers, who disobey Rule 170 of the Highway Code. This is the relevant advice to drivers.
Watch out for pedestrians crossing a road into which you are turning. If they have started to cross they have priority, so give way.
Many don’t. Especially on one junction near me, where drivers think they are clever to take it as if they are entering the pits at Silverstone. Luckily, I now know the driving habits at that junction and check carefully, but quite a few drivers, don’t have the courtesy to use their indicators, so I have to wait to see their intentions.
So let’s persecute bad drivers and use the fines to improve driver education, public transport and walking routes.
Advice For Expectant Mothers
There is a widely trailed story today about what expectant mothers should avoid. It’s here on the BBC. This is the main advice.
- Use fresh organic food rather than processed
- Avoid food and drink in cans and plastic containers
- Minimise use of moisturisers, cosmetics, shower gel and fragrances
- Avoid buying new furniture, fabrics, non-stick frying pans and cars when pregnant or nursing
When C was pregnant with our first child, she was a student in her last year at Liverpool University. She actually did her exams at nearly seven months pregnant. She got a II-2, so she couldn’t have done badly.
She didn’t purposedly avoid any chemicals, but as the nice flat we lived in didn’t have a shower, she did at least avoid shower gel, which is on the list of products to avoid. As to the last point, we couldn’t afford new furniture or cars. our frying pan had been borrowed from her mother and was a well-used steel one, complete with a bit of added rust. Did it put iron into the food?
Neither of us smoked, although throughout her pregnancy, she had to endure the Capstan Full Strength cigarettes of her tutor; Robert Kilroy Silk.
But advice was different in those days. We went to stay with a family in Hingham in Norfolk, where C had been a mother’s help during University holidays. The mother, who incidentally was the daughter of a doctor, asked if she’d like a brandy before going to bed, as it would make the baby sleep better. She declined, but only because she was pretty abstemious with alcohol.
We also moved south just a week or so before the expected birth date and then in London, she didn’t have a hospital. I told that story in a post called Waiting for Apollo 11. Theses are the links to Part 2 and Part 3 of the story. We didn’t do boring, even in 1969.
We all survived and the only question, that sometimes comes to mind, is was the cancer that killed her caused by all of those smoky tutorials forty years before she died?
I do know that if she was here today, she’d be laughing like a drain!
George Clooney And Matt Damon Relax In Cambridge
Usually, when a story about celebrities relaxing ends up in the media, it usually concerns something like alcohol, drugs or bad behaviour.
But not this story from Cambridge, where George Clooney and Matt Damon are making a film. Here’s the final paragraphs.
Damon turned up with Clooney and two other men, and spent the hour “shooting hoops”, before Miss Shadrack said she had to inform them their time was up as others were waiting to use the court.
“They were very nice, such lovely people, and they posed for some pictures and chatted with people, but they didn’t say anything about the film they were making,” she said.
It looks like a good time was had by all!
Wetherspoons To Open A Pub On The M40
It looks like Wetherspoons will be opening a pub on the M40 according to reports like this one from the BBC.
I have no view on whether it would increase drink-driving, but surely it would be just as easy to drink in a pub just off the motorway, than one in a service area.
But what I would like to see is better rail interchanges on motorways! Very few railway stations are close to motorways with large amounts of parking. Personally, I’m not too badly affected, as I don’t drive, but sometimes when I want to meet someone driving along the motorway, finding a suitable station is difficult.
The Sun And INR
For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been testing my INR daily. These are the early results taken daily on my Coagucheck.
Tuesday, June 4th – 3.0
Monday, June 3rd – 2.9
Sunday, June 2nd – 2.8
Saturday, June 1st – 3.0
Friday, May 31st – 2.9
Thursday, May 30th – 2.3
Wednesday, May 29th – 2.7
Tuesday, May 28th – 2.5
Monday, May 27th – 2.4
Sunday, May 26th – 2.2
Saturday, May 25th – 2.2
Thursday, May 23rd – 2.4
Wednesday, May 22nd – 2.2
Tuesday, May 21st – 2.2
Monday, May 20th – 2.1
Sunday, May 19th – 2.5
Saturday, May 18th – 2.3
I’m not having any medical problems, but to a certain extent I’m scientifically curious, and feel that the INR swings up and down a bit. As I’m paying for the strips, no-one can say, I’m wasting NHS money. A cardiologist once said to me, that if I got my INR right, I wouldn’t have another stroke.
I have to keep my INR between 2 and 3, with a target value of 2.5. As I’m a trained Control Engineer, I’m using a simple algorithm to make sure I’m in range and to try and nudge the INR to 2.5.
What is interesting, is that when this sunny spell of weather started on the 31st May, the INR has increased and despite reducing the dose to a sensible minimum of 3 mg., it remains at the high end of the target range.
Obviously, a few days don’t prove it conclusively, but there are other reports on the Internet of the sun affecting the INR. There a thread here.
Note that I now keep the results in a single post here and also with other data like the weather and how I feel in an Excel spreadsheet.
ARM Fire Another Shot
My trawl last night picked up this news item about ARM. ARM’s chief marketing officer, Ian Drew, is reported to have said:
Mobile users expect a range of devices at different price points, and for a mid-range mobile experience to include some high end mobile features. With a billion smart phones predicted to ship in 2013, and tablets projected to out-ship notebook PCs, device-makers can now provide quality, high-performance mobile products with the features that matter the most, at a range of price points.
I probably would agree. I for instance don’t use a smart phone, but carry a £10 Nokia phone and a Fuji Coolpix camera. For notes, I carry a small notebook and a couple of pens. So I don’t need a smart phone. I just want something to make and receive calls and text messages. In London, I’m never far from home and there are maps everywhere, so who needs on-line information and maps and the constant terror of e-mail, much of which is spam?
So a mid-range phone might just be the right one for me. But what would be better is a camera, that was wirelessly connected to my phone, so that I could post pictures quickly. If a camera is part of the phone, you inevitably end up with something that is just too big and the sort of device, that is regularly nicked.
I don’t think I’m alone either, in that several of my friends don’t have smart phones.
So have ARM come up with a winner in their new range of processor designed for smaller smart phones and tablets?
I think they have!
The Anonymous Widower 