In the News

[Mike]

There is a news article on CNet regarding a computer engineer who developed a program for a self driving Prius. The preparation was pretty intense though. He had to drive the route first and scan the surroundings with a low power class 1 laser. The car guided itself with a combination of laser proximity detection, extremely accurate GPS and massive computers! Ace but no link because of the lacking copy paste on the phone!

[Mike]

Creationist Professor from the Royal Academy has resigned based on his comments that Creationism should be taught along side science. I think that (from the article in a read in a real paper) that his comments had been misquoted. I believe that he was suggesting that Science teachers should engage with un-scientific theories like Creationsim and use this as a method for explaining a science to pupils! If that is the case then he has been rather harshly treated but I suppose it happens quite frequently.

[Mike]

Inflation has jumpted from 4.4% in July to 4.7% in August which is the highest for 11 years. . . .

[johnriley1uk]

In a manner of speaking, this government ran the economy on its credit cards, so when the crunch came it was ill-placed to deal with it. As a consequence, it has now gone to the inter-government equivalent of Ocean Finance....

[Mike]

You mean, Consolodate all your Public Debts and re-finance to reduce your debt in a mere 25 years? You know what the real disturbing thing about this whole affair? That they will go through the cycle again in the next 25 years.

For the next decade they will actually be fighting elections on tax cuts and reduction in public spending. ie not maintaining these shiny new academy's, council buildings, privatising public assets for very low returns, letting assets be mismanaged and under resourced in a short sighted attempt to save money and therefore be seen to increase value for the Tax payer etc.

Then it will take 20 - 25 years to reduce the national debt to the point where they can consider lending again. Whilst still maintaining tax cuts and reductions in Public Spending.

Then they will realise that all their new buildings are really poorly maintained and ill equiped to deal with the new teaching methods, need £150 million to repair their Town Hall and Library (Manchester) etc and start a massive building project that will send us back here again.

In the start they will probably blame their short sighted behaviour for the last 3-4 decades for some of the problems and we will see it all happen again because, lets be honest, how can the events of 4-5 decades ago really be relevant in a modern society?

[johnriley1uk]

The NHS is a good example of how governments mis-manage.

They've been at it since 1948, so you would think that by now they would have got it right.

Can you imagine learning as a child how to manage pocket money, making a dreadful messs of it, going back to the International Bank of Mum and Dad all the time....and sixty years later being just as bad at it, having learned nothing and now owing masses of dosh to some bank or banks....

The pity is that government is constantly forgetting and re-learning. The Foot and Mouth crisis was another example. What was learned from the previous time, not much it seemed.

[stimpsonslostson]

10 books NOT to read before you die!

LOTR, Ulysses, War and Peace... the list goes on.
For the record, the only book I've ever started and not completed is Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. I HATED it! I got 250pages in and NOTHING happened.
The labyrinth by Kate Mosse was totally overrated too...

p

[Mike]

There are some really good books on that list! I guess that says a lot about me though (from that Author's point of view anyway).

Today I learned that a neglected garden full of stones = kitty litter. I think I have got it all up now (shudder - it was gross - especially the diarrhoea blah!) but am off to the garden centre to get a massive dose of Kitty repellant. They have been trying to repel me now it is my turn

[BarcelonAl]

Don't bother, we've had 'cat problems' for decades back home...the best repellent my Mum ever found was the hosepipe!

[John Knight]

We always found having a dog gets rid of the cats pretty quick, only downside is dogs actually seem to crap more than their own body weight.

[Mike]

I am going to use the principle that either Kitty repelant will work, a boot will work or a bunch of reflective CD's to scare them off!

[John Knight]

I have heard that lion poo is quiet effective. That or loose the gravel, deck a bit and plant the rest up. make it less like a litter tray.

[stimpsonslostson]

i heard the lion poo thing too! And may be able to get it cheap... Although if cat poo is a problem, replacing it with the excrement of a 250lb kitty instead seems strangely counterintuitive!
p

[Mike]

I wonder if just getting the 250lbs kitty would do the trick. It might actually make Lizzie leave the house too though.

[Mike]

Stonehenge is being excavated at the moment and two professors believe that it was the site of an A&E department for southern England. Interesting theory backed up with some plausible evidence.