It's a funny old world !

[melinx]

A few days ago, I went to the doctors to collect a prescription; on the door was a large notice to the effect ' If you are not feeling very well, just sod off we don't want the likes of you in here'

Inside there is a large touch screen to confirm your date of birth etc. to confirm you are there for your appointment.
This has now been shut down and covered to prevent passing on infection !

HOWEVER, everyone has to use the same door handle to get in

Today I'm mainly feeling 'snotty'

Over 40 years ago, I was idly reading the specification for a nuclear reactor refuelling system we were developing; on the very last page was a security notice which said that anyone who had not signed the official secrets act rendered themselves liable to prosecution if they read this specification 

I've been waiting for the men in black for over 40 yrs. 

I learned very early in life that it's a funny old world

WARNING : - This post may be contagious

[melinx]

Yesterday I decided to take the Diplomat for a day out to Ludlow, really enjoyed the drive (it’s a lovely mover) winding country roads with beautiful countryside (sometimes I actually got up enough speed for the auto. box to achieve positive lock up!)

I thoroughly enjoyed my walk around the wooded walks skirting the walls of the massive castle and through the medieval streets of the town with its many half-timbered buildings.

Just outside the castle wall with its bell tower dominating the old town centre is the church of St. Laurence, which dates back to 1200.
In my opinion it is misnamed as a church, it’s big enough to be a cathedral.

Inside, I wandered round admiring the beautiful carvings of the choir stalls, the medieval stained glass windows and the heraldic paintings on the vaulted roof.

However, inside the main body of the church is a modern erection of stainless steel and plastic about 25 feet wide by 10 feet high and fifteen feet deep which straddles one of the arched doorways leading outside.

When I asked one of the church guides what that ‘monstrosity’ was, I was informed that it was a public toilet block 

I know I’m a geriatric, probably with outmoded thought patterns but the idea of just popping into the church for a crap definitely jars.

Beam me up Scottie, I’m in an alien land 

[melinx]

The government is indulging in 'Quantitative Easing', which means printing a lot more bank notes.

My simple understanding of finance is:- -

You have a patch of potato's and you go to your neighbour who makes bread and say 'if you give me a loaf of bread every week, I will give you this note promising to give you one tenth of my crop'

If you look at a banknote, it says "The Bank of England Promises to Pay the Bearer on Demand the Sum of - - -"

Your neighbour then finds out that you have issued notes to other neighbours for butter, cheese etc. another 19 notes promising the same

This obviously means everyone is only going to get half of what the note promises  so everyone halves what they are supplying to you.

This is done by the government to 'ease' the financial crisis

If I need to ease my financial crisis by photocopying a few 'tenners', I'm pretty sure to get a term in the 'slammer'

In order to make goods 'more affordable' and keep manufacturing going, the government reduced VAT by 2.5%

They then increase the price of fuel by about the same percentage, thus ensuring that people have less money to buy those goods

I'm obviously a suitable candidate for the 'Home for the Mentally Confused'

But then, perhaps I'm already an inmate; the sign on the gate says "Great" Britain

[Whippit]

Interesting point..had a debate with a foreign friend as to why it is called 'Great Britain'.
I know the answer but it is surprising how many people dont

Answers on a postcard please

[melinx]

Perhaps it won't be "Great" Britain for much longer Whippit; you may be needing a passport to commute soon

[Whippit]

LOL

But where I am will always be part of Great Britain and no Government can change that
Even if Scotland Declare independence

Great Britain is an island not a country

[melinx]

You wait and see: 

After the coronation of Alex the First- - - 

[Whippit]

Your still missing the point

[melinx]

Your still missing the point

I obvious am Kirkaldy is north of Edinburgh !

Remembering my candidacy for the 'Home for the Mentally Confused'; please elucidate

[Whippit]

Great Britain is the name of the largest island in the British isles, contains most of England Scotland and Wales.
As it is a geographic definition not a politic one then Kirkcaldy will always be in Great Britain (though not necessarilly part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)

Its called Great because its the largest Island not because it is brilliant LOL

[Pedro]

Great Britain is the name of the largest island in the British isles, contains most of England Scotland and Wales.
As it is a geographic definition not a politic one then Kirkcaldy will always be in Great Britain (though not necessarilly part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)

Its called Great because its the largest Island not because it is brilliant LOL

Exactly right Mr. Whippet.

Cetainly not great in the 'brilliant' sense since the 1920's.
About the same time GM bought Vauxhall..........or is that pure coincidence?
 

[melinx]

I was assuming that the term Great Britain was only used after the act of political union under James VI of Scotland and I of England!

To confuse matters further

Wikipedia says:-

Derivation of "Great"
After the Old English period, Britain was used as a historical term only. Geoffrey of Monmouth in his pseudohistorical Historia Regum Britanniae (c. 1136) refers to the island of Great Britain as Britannia major ("Greater Britain"), to distinguish it from Britannia minor ("Lesser Britain"), the continental region which approximates to modern Brittany. The term "Great Britain" was first used officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Cecily the daughter of Edward IV of England, and James the son of James III of Scotland, which described it as "this Nobill Isle, callit Gret Britanee." It was used again in 1604, when King James VI and I, in a deliberate attempt to impose a term which would unite his double inheritance of the kingdoms of Scotland and England, proclaimed his assumption of the throne in the style "King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland

[melinx]

The government is indulging in 'Quantitative Easing', which means printing a lot more bank notes.

My simple understanding of finance is:- -

You have a patch of potato's and you go to your neighbour who makes bread and say 'if you give me a loaf of bread every week, I will give you this note promising to give you one tenth of my crop'

If you look at a banknote, it says "The Bank of England Promises to Pay the Bearer on Demand the Sum of - - -"

Your neighbour then finds out that you have issued notes to other neighbours for butter, cheese etc. another 19 notes promising the same

This obviously means everyone is only going to get half of what the note promises  so everyone halves what they are supplying to you.

This is done by the government to 'ease' the financial crisis

If I need to ease my financial crisis by photocopying a few 'tenners', I'm pretty sure to get a term in the 'slammer'

In order to make goods 'more affordable' and keep manufacturing going, the government reduced VAT by 2.5%

They then increase the price of fuel by about the same percentage, thus ensuring that people have less money to buy those goods

I'm obviously a suitable candidate for the 'Home for the Mentally Confused'

But then, perhaps I'm already an inmate; the sign on the gate says "Great" Britain

My confusion increases; the NHS says that they can't afford certain anti cancer drugs which are vital to some cancer patients.

To get us out of the disaster caused by greedy senior bank executives, the 'government' just prints a mind boggling amount of extra money.

So why can't they just print the extra money required to pay for these drugs

[carlton_mad]

the thing that gets me is they are giving the swine flu vaccine to junkies because they have a compromised imune system? Surely the money from that could......

[flash911]

letthe junkies shoot them selves !!!!! with a shot gun 

[melinx]

On the topic of 'Its a Funny Old World' : If standardisation within the EU (metrication) is so important, why is it that even on mainland Europe, TV and PC monitor displays are specified in inches ?

The same applies to car wheel diameters, but the rest of the tyre dimensions are in mm

Full metrication would make my tyre dimensions 195/65/381

[Whippit]

You can get metric sized tyres, had them on my old BMW, nightmare to buy

[melinx]

I guess those would be the 390 diameter tyres which = 15.354 inches

If they had standardised on 380 = 14.96 they would have probably fitted a 15" wheel

Seems like sheer bloody mindedness 

[melinx]

I'm struggling to understand; Nick Leeson (remember him ?) gets a prison sentence for causing the collapse of the bank he worked for by reckless speculation.

But now, after causing a far worse banking disaster, people not only get a huge pension for the same thing, but demand huge bonuses for continuing the same sort of behaviour

[melinx]

A few days ago, I went to the doctors to collect a prescription; on the door was a large notice to the effect ' If you are not feeling very well, just sod off we don't want the likes of you in here'

Inside there is a large touch screen to confirm your date of birth etc. to confirm you are there for your appointment.
This has now been shut down and covered to prevent passing on infection !

HOWEVER, everyone has to use the same door handle to get in

The doors have now been replaced (at considerable expense I expect) with automatic sliding doors

Magazines in the waiting room are now banished since they are an obvious source of infection transmission

HOWEVER, the touch screen is now uncovered and back in use

[Einarrson]

I'm struggling to understand; Nick Leeson (remember him ?) gets a prison sentence for causing the collapse of the bank he worked for by reckless speculation.

But now, after causing a far worse banking disaster, people not only get a huge pension for the same thing, but demand huge bonuses for continuing the same sort of behaviour

Yup and Goldman Sachs make a killing off it too.

[melinx]

We all know this happens, but now I have seen it outside my front door

I live on a corner of a very busy road with an exit from a large estate alongside me, the entrance to a large cemetery on the other side and a large ambulance station at the other end of the road.

This morning (Mothering sunday) a road gang turned up, spent about 20 minutes setting up 3 way traffic lights, another 20 minutes digging a small hole in the centre of the FOOTPATH on the other side of the road which they then covered over and buggered off leaving the lights and cones.

There is now 200 yards of traffic backed up either side of the lights people queing to get in and out of the cemetery and ambulances trying to weave their way through it all

[melinx]

On Monday morning, I 'played my face up' to the council traffic control department and they made Severn Trent Water who were responsible for this piece of stupidity come and remove the lights and cones.

The lights, cones and signs are now all piled up on the footpath and I have no doubt that they would have been still obstructing the traffic for god knows how long without my complaint

There can be little doubt that we are a nation of sheep

I remember that a couple of years or so back, legislation was proposed to fine on a daily basis the service providers for unnecessary and neglected 'hole diggery'.

The proposal faded into obscurity and I suspect that it cost the various interested parties a lot of money to ensure that it did

[melinx]

This afternoon I sent a comment to the BBC on Robert Pestons blog about the BA strike.

I wrote : -

"I don't know the complete details of this dispute, but it's obvious that BA are making serious losses and asking for considerable sacrifices from some of their crews.

I have heard figures of 40% loss of income should the changes be implemented !

As a gesture of the seriousness of the situation, are all the senior executives of BA prepared to take a similar permanent reduction in their pay."

This comment was rejected on the basis that it was 'off topic'

The next persons comment was accepted and read : -

"Robert... can you comment on this governments appalling act of treachery awarding a contract for the Army's new light tank to an American company rather than BAe ?

BAe will now make 500 people redundant and the chances are we will lose our tank making capability which of course means we can just add to the list of sectors where we will no longer compete.

The MoD say the contract will represent "value for money" which of course means decision was driven by the treasury and not by anyone that understands markets, strategy and what this does to the UK's long term intrests."


It's definitely a funny old world

[melinx]

Referring to the paedophile priest scandal : -

It seems to me that the Catholic Church hierarchy have never believed in the teachings of Christ.

In Matthew 18 verse 6, he said :-  But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

They conspired to cover it up and allowed it to continue for many decades.
 
Perhaps they argued amongst themselves that it would severely deplete the stock of millstones.

There are two civil laws carrying severe penalties which have been broken here.

1. Paedophilia
2. Conspiring to pervert the course of justice

I have yet to see any police investigations to uncover those who conspired to pervert the course of justice and I’m not holding my breath in anticipation either.

Despite the storm of apologies coming from the church hierarchy, I have yet to see any handing themselves over to the civil law authorities: I suppose they must reckon that there are limits to repentance.