Cardinal Says Paedophilia Not Criminal
This astounding statement was made by Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier and is reported here on the BBC. Here’s the first few paragraphs.
The Catholic Archbishop of Durban, Wilfrid Fox Napier, has described paedophilia as a psychological “illness, not a criminal condition”.
The South African cardinal told the BBC that people who were themselves abused as children and then abused others needed to be examined by doctors.
Do these guys live in the real world?
A scandal sheet has pointed out that hailed Pope is actually an anagram of paedophile. Search for the phrase in Google and you find a lot of matches.
My father who was a stickler for spelling would probably be arguing that paedophile is properly spelled with a diphthong. As I said in this post, diphthongs in letterpress type have a really solid feel.
My Times Wasn’t Folded Properly Today
As my father was a printer and bookbinder, I don’t like poor quality printing, even in a newspaper.
My Times Wasn’t Folded Properly Today
I did try looking for a good one, but all the copies I could see were similar.
The Wheatsheaf, Enfield Chase
The Wheatsheaf, by Enfield Chase station, is another pub, where I used to drink with my mate, Pete, like the Warwick in New Barnet.
The Wheatsheaf, Enfield Chase
Both these pubs were on the 107 bus route from where we lived at Oakwood.
If I’d walked back up the hill in the 1960s, I would have seen the local printing firm of Bennett and Starling, who were one of my father’s competitors. The site is now a littleWaitrose and some housing.
Dyslexia
They were talking to Charlie Boorman on the radio this afternoon and dyslexia came up.
I was brought up in a letterpress print works, where of course all the letters are backwards.
An expert once told me that playing with these letters could have made me dyslexic.
It didn’t and even after a bad stroke, it all works reasonably well. I’ve met others, who have had a similar upbringing to me and it has enhanced rather than hindered the brain. For instance, I have a very powerful image mirroring ability.
The brain is a strange wonderful thing. Where would be without it?
3D Printing
I was shown some 3D Printing in the Department using this machine from MakerBot.
3D Printing
The surprising thing is the cost, as it’s only a couple of thousand bucks, not the tens of thousands I expected.
I can think of so many applications in all of the things I’ve done in the past.
You’re Never Too Stupid To Do Science!
I like this story about Sir John Gurdon. Eton College told him he was too stupid to do science and now he goes and wins a Nobel Prize.
I could have titled this post, You’re Never Too Stupid To Do Anything!
In my case, an English teacher, told me I’d never pass my O Level in the subject. I just did, but now, I’ve self-published a couple of books, written stories and had letters in several publications.
It’s probably still not good, as people say I use too many commas and shrieks. Shriek is printer’s slang for exclamation mark. Or it was my father’s! Wikipedia says this.
The name given to “!” by programmers varies according to their background. In the UK the term pling was popular in the earlier days of computing, whilst in the USA the term shriek was used. It is claimed that these word usages were invented in the US and shriek is from Stanford or MIT; however, shriek for the ! sign is found in the Oxford English Dictionary dating from the 1860s.
My father had never been to the United States, so it must have come from his printing background somewhere. His father was also a printer.
We Mustn’t Forget Old Techniques
As someone, who grew up in a letterpress printing works in Wood Green, I welcome stories like this.
Abelardo Gonzalez has developed a font for those who suffer from dyslexia and it seems to work.
I don’t suffer from dyslexia, but I do have slightly sub-standard eyesight and know that reading some fonts is easier than others.
Transport for London would also agree, as years ago they developed a special clear typeface for travellers called New Johnston. It’s even on the destination boards of buses.
I also think that I do better in eye tests than I should, because of all that time I spent setting up type and especially the very small ones like 6 pt. I think sometimes my father gave me those pieces to do, as my eyes and dexterity as a child were very good.
My First INR Self Test
I’ve just taken my first INR self-test. Or should I say successful one, as I tried yesterday and couldn’t get a proper sample onto the machine.
But today, I thought it through and sat at the table with everything on a clean face flannel. I actually used my gammy left hand to take a sample from the right
I recorded a value of 2.2, which is in my target range of 2.0 to 3.0.
The major problem other than getting the sample quick enough was trying to read the manual whilst I was using both hands to do the test.
The Non-Spiral Bound CoaguChek Manual
My father would be fuming now, as he believed after fifty years in the printing business that all instruction manuals should be spiral bound.
I just proved him absolutely right.
Some people might have worried about making yourself bleed. I didn’t as I spent fifty years badly-biting by nails and fingers. Often until they have bled!
It’s generally all stopped now, although my nails aren’t good, but that’s down to the humidity!
Why Not A Standard Hospital Chart?
I’ve been presenting information by computer for forty years and before that my father was a printer, who designed forms for companies for probably fifty years. So to say I have a lot of experience both in my brain and having been taught by several masters, I was surprised when I saw this item about hospital charts, I was initially surprised that it wasn’t already happening.
On the other hand though, when was healthcare anywhere in the world logical?
Every hospital chart and report on a world-wide scale should be the same, so let’s say like I did you go to hospital after an attack in Italy, your GP or British doctor can get a hang of what happened and what drugs you got. So in my case it would have been in Italian, but because everything would be in the same place, a doctor could get the gist of it.
But of course, it would remove the independence of a doctor to do what he or she wanted.
Lessons in Love
Ater The Times, on Saturday answered what to do, when your husband doesn’t like bondage, tonight the Evening Standard has an article about how to write erotic fiction, entitled Lessons in Love.
The odd thing about the article is the picture. In the actual paper, it’s taken from her left with the typewriter to the left, but on the web, it’s the other way round.
It probably doesn’t matter, but it does to me, as I was brought up in a print works.
It’s seriousness pales into comparision to the boob Horse and Hound once made, when they published in reverse a picture of the Queen at Trooping the Colour. It was only obvious, as in those days, she was riding the horse side-saddle.
The Anonymous Widower 