Are You Eating Smuggled Garlic?
I hadn’t realised that the EU puts a limit and an import tax on garlic, ostensibly to protect farmers in the Community.
But then I read this story on the BBC web site.
I suppose that smuggling garlic is not as morally offensive as smuggling drugs or tobacco!
I don’t think too, that even eating garlic to excess will kill you!
Puppies Will Be Puppies
Another story from the BBC web site, shows that puppies love to chew anything they can get their teeth into.
The worst dog, we ever had for chewing was a dachshund, that really liked C’s expensive shoes.
But then so many of these short-legged German terriers, are itching to start World War 3. She was also very racist and would immediately take on any black dog, who walked past her. Even a friend’s Doberman was frightened of her. Luckily, she didn’t have the same feelings for black people.
Fatal Blow For John Lewis Store At Sprucefield
This is the headline over a report on the BBC web site. It concerns the political arguments about John Lewis opening a department store in Northern Ireland.
Personally, I think they would be very brave to do it, given the stupid fuss being created by so-called Loyalists about the flying of flags.
The article does suggest John Lewis might open in the Republic. Now that would probably be a sounder business decision, as the only organised violence there generally happens at places like Croke Park and the Aviva Stadium.
Americans Like To Live Dangerously
Two stories from the United States on the BBC’s web site have caught my eye.
The first concerns the upcoming python hunt in the Everglades in Florida. Apparently most of the snakes are the offspring of Burmese pythons released into the sensitive wildlife area. How stupid to do that in the first place, as after all there are so many examples around the world from the damage done by introduced species from over a hundred years ago, like rabbits and camels in Australia and grey squirrels in the UK.
The second isn’t possibly so dangerous and concerns porn actors being made to wear condoms in Los Angeles. I can’t possibly comment as I don’t watch those sort of tacky films and I haven’t tried to use a condom for many decades.
Ipswich Town Signing Tells It As It Is!
Ipswich Town’s new signing, Aaron Maclean is reported to be critical of the shopping in the town centre.
T’was ever thus! And it’s not just the shopping, but the pubs and restaurants as well!
When I first started drinking in the early1960s, I was living in Felixstowe. At that time pubs in Suffolk closed at eleven, but those in Ipswich closed half-an-hour early. So no-one in their right mind invested in pubs in the town. What made matters worse, was the great rush out to the county to get an extra half-hour of drinking time.
Before, I was a coeliac, when C and I lived north of the town in the 1970s and 1980s, we rarely ate there and if we did it was usually in the Golden Panda, a restaurant where we knew the owner and the establishment gave a name to one of our horses.
Although, we both worked there, except for Boots and Marks and Spencer, I doubt we ever bought anything of substance there.
Now I just go for the football and always arrange any meal before I get to the town, as it is a veritable gluten-free desert. People have tried to open decent restaurants but only a couple have lasted. If you want a good meal, you go a few miles outside the town.
Ipswich suffers too because of rivalry with Bury St. Edmunds. Ipswich has the trains, the football club, the port and perhaps a better hospital, whereas Bury has a cathedral, the beer, much better shops and a pro-business Council. The only other thing better in Ipswich is the street sculpture and the art galleries. Ipswich used to have Suffolk’s only airport, but it shut that, as the Council decided it was just rich men’s indulgences.
I blame the Council of the latter part of the last century. They were so anti-business, that even though we had created a hundred or so jobs in the town, we got no co-operation and help, as they wanted real manufacturing jobs. Their great saviour was Robert Maxwell, who effectively did nothing for Ipswich except shut Ransomes and Rapier.
Green Lanes Ventilation Station
The picture shows the ventilation station on the Piccadilly line between Manor House and Turnpike Lane stations.
Green Lanes Ventilation Station
Note that it actually looks like a station, although its purpose is only ventilation. According to Wikipedia, it was intended to be a station.
It was also planned to build a station between Manor House and Turnpike Lane at the junction of Green Lanes and St Ann’s Road in Harringay, but this was stopped by Frank Pick, who felt that the bus and tram service at this point was adequate. However, a ‘Ventilation station’, in similar architectural style to tube stations of the time was provided at the site, and is visible today.
But all we have today is the ventilation station!
Frank Pick’s assertion about the buses and trams probably doesn’t hold today, as although the 29s and 141s are fairly numerous, they can get crowded.
The gaps between stations is long too and there is a plan to move Manor House station to the Victoria line and build a new station underneath Harringay Green Lanes station. I doubt it will happen in the near future. If ever!
What’s Wrong With Snooker?
The news from Pakistan just seems to get worse.
The latest was this bombing of a snooker hall in Quetta.
I doubt that any religion or sect could be against such an innocent game of snooker and it looks like Sunni Muslims were attacking Shias.
I just can’t understand anybody wanting to kill anybody, except in exceptional circumstances!
Is This EL James’s DIY Store?
I passed this shop today on a 141 bus.
Is This EL James’s DIY Store?
I wonder if they sell chain and rope?
One Of London’s Step-Free Bus Stops
The picture shows one of London’s new step-free bus stops.
One Of London’s Step-Free Bus Stops
The stop was also changed from a Request stop to a Compulsory one.
They may make it easier to get on and off a bus, but in some ways because they stick out, it does seem that getting a clear view round the parked cars to see approaching buses is more difficult.
The Onward March of ARM
I’ve always kept a watching brief for ARM Holdings. Partly because it was local to where I lived, but mainly because one of the founders was Robin Saxby, who was in my year at Liverpool University.
I have just read this report in Forbes. There are some facts in that report, that will shape the world. Consider this abstract.
East (The ARM CEO) notes that by some estimates IT equipment now suck down 10% of the world electric power already; he also notes that there are estimates that in the next few years that the amount of data creates could increase 100x, or maybe 1000x. Even at 10x, he notes, we’re going to run out of power at the current consumption rates. “They are going to switch to ARM because it is all about the power,” he says. “The digital world is not going to become a reality unless servers and network infrastructure is designed in a different way….ARM is a tool in the toolbox for making this stuff more sustainable.”
Generation of electricity is one of the causes of global warming, as so much is generated by fossil fuels. So a small company in Cambridge will become a major player in the fight, just because its chip designs are so much more efficient.
Reading the Forbes article, says to me, that ARM can only get an awful lot bigger. But it is all about brain power and not about manufacturing in the traditional sense. On the other hand, ARM has been and will continue to be a company, whose technology enables other companies to start up in innumerable fields.
The Anonymous Widower 