Looks interesting, including the retro Cybermen
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Quick Links 13th March 2017
Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read, inspired me or just sparked my interest in the previous week, with a little background and my thoughts and other things that I’ve been up to in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.
Life In General.
My birthday this week, and also a quiet week work wise (see below), not that I planned it that way, but it worked out well for me. Next week is looking a little different, busier and some family things to do.
Work.
A quiet week this week. No news on any proposals, and I am assuming that no news isn’t necessarily good news. I’ll be doing some chasing next week to see where things stand. A few meetings lined up next week, although at the moment I think it’s likely that it won’t generate any paid work – we’ll see.
Wonky Veg – I find the results of the surveys reported here to be a little concerning. I think the public is a little bit out of touch when it comes to what’s involved in growing veg at a commercial scale, and just how little the growers actually receive, particularly from large supermarkets. A 50% discount just wouldn’t be viable, but it is better than this just going to waste. I’d be interested to see some more work done on the economics of this, and perhaps a little more education of the public too.
Australian Urban Wildlife – [LINK] As you probably know, urban wildlife is an important thing to me, so this was a nice read for me, although on the other side of the planet!
Champion Of The Unofficial Countryside – [LINK] In a way this links to the one above, but it’s important to recognise why these sites are so important.
Not So Smart Meters – [LINK] I can’t say this surprised me when I read it. Although smart meters are great when they work, I still feel they are too vulnerable to being hacked or other glitches, particularly software problems.
Q. Why Did The Elephant Cross The Rail Tracks?
A. Because He Wanted To!
Currently Reading
The Massacre of Mankind by Stephen Baxter [GoodReads] a birthday present and the “official” sequel to The War of the Worlds.
A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk’s True Life (Journals Vol. 3) by Thomas Merton [GoodReads]
The Wind Through The Keyhole by Stephen King [GoodReads] I’m reading for an online group.
The Week In Wildlife – In Pictures
Busy Doing Nothing
Some days are meant for catching up on all those things you’ve been putting off but don’t seem to achieve much.
Welcome to my Sunday.
Broccoli Success
I’ve been really please with the broccoli that I’ve grown this year and last. I’ve concentrated on one variety that can be spring sown, but also overwintered. It’s a variety called “Marathon”, and I started out with some spring (late March) plants that I was harvesting by the early summer. I planted some more in mid-summer and these grew all through the autumn / winter and I’m harvesting now.
I’ve backed these up with some purple sprouting, that looks as if I’ll be able to harvest later on this week, and so I’ll have a pretty good crop of broccoli nearly year round. My plan is to do the same again, and in fact it looks as though the next lot of spring sown plants will be here in the next week to ten days.
Probably the most significant difference between the spring sown and the overwintered plants are that the spring sown varieties, have produced a single large head and then once that has been cut lots of little side heads. The overwintered plants, have only really produced the latter, but they have been prolific so we’ve had lots to eat. Weight for weight I’d estimate it’s about the same, and in fact there’s also quite a bit more green leaves with the overwintered plants, so that adds a bit of variety too.
Broken Promises, Broken Country
[Today’s post is a bit of a political rant – please feel free to skip it if that sort of thing doesn’t interest you].
In 2015 the Tory Party manifesto contained a promise not to raise income tax, national insurance contributions or value added tax (VAT). At the time I can remember saying to my then colleagues that it was a stupid promise, (effectively blocking the three main ways a government can raise money at significant levels) and that I doubted that they would be able to keep that promise.
On Wednesday they broke that manifesto promise and raised NI contributions for the self employed. [Full Disclosure: I am self employed and therefore this will effect me directly]. Now there has been significant claim and counterclaim that they haven’t broken a manifesto pledge because it wasn’t what the legislation said; but I’m sorry – liar, liar, pants on fire. A manifesto pledge is made before an election, the legislation is enacted afterwards (assuming that you get in government). So actually the promise was broken when the legislation was laid and not last Wednesday then, wasn’t it, the manifesto pledge did not distinguish between employees and the self-employed, whatever your subsequent claim it is you manifesto pledge that you have broken.
As the proposal further unravelled we’ve now seen the Prime Minister back pedal and say that this won’t be legislated on until the autumn and not now (probably because there are sufficient Tory backbenchers who would vote against it, and the government would loose the vote), presumably in a hope that it will be forgotten about by then, and it can be sneaked through.
Regardless of all of this, I actually think that NI should be raised – across the board. We have a Tory government and once again we see that Education, Public Services, especially adult social care, and the NHS are completely f***ed (remember when we were last in this situation? Well it was a Tory government then too).
Austerity (or budget cuts) have been the mantra of the Tories since 2010 – the first five years they had their Lib Dem glove puppets to hide behind (bad news send out a junior Lib Dem minister), who got their reward in 2015, and lost nearly all their parliamentary seats. Coupled with buying off (one-off grants to) local authorities not to raise Council Tax (until now when the horse has finally bolted and now a 5% rise means a lot less than a year on year rise of 1% over the past five years would have) and in some cases buying off local authorities in order to prevent them embarrassing the government (Surrey County Council), this Country’s finances and public services are firmly in the toilet.
So actually put 1% on NI across the board or if you want to “even things up” 1% on employees and 2% on the self-employed, I really don’t care about your manifesto pledge (you’ve always been a bunch of liars, so you don’t change your spots overnight anyway), which was a stupid promise in the first place – just try being honest. You’re in government and need to sort out the mess that you’ve created. Austerity (cuts) do not work, and they never have, so now that the chickens are coming home to roost, how about having an honest conversation with the country and asking them what they actually want, and not what you think is important and while you’re at it what about some of those other stupid promises? Do we need HS2 (to save 20 to 30 minutes travel time) or could we spend that money better some place else? Do we need two (or three) new nuclear power stations, when there are better renewable alternatives, and spend the difference some place else.
FFS – have an honest conversation with the Country and stop pretending that we don’t have an opinion or a view, and only what you think counts.
The Sun Has Got His Hat On!
The sunshines on me today.
Temperatures between 16 & 18°C, blue sky and barely a cloud in sight. Sunglasses 😎 for the first time this year.
We went for a nice walk this afternoon. It’s my birthday, so no work for me today. Lots of butterflies about, loads of brimstones, plus a peacock and a comma.
Lots of new books to read too, the only problem is knowing where to start!
Hacked
I’m not surprised at what Wikileaks has revealed [NY Times Article Link], I don’t think I’d ever assumed that any item of technology was completely safe. On the basis that the moment anyone claims to have made something secure, someone else will be looking at ways around that. Virtual cat and mouse if you will.
Also glad to see that George Smiley is making a return to print 😉 [LINK]
Just Because You Can, Doesn’t Mean That You Should…
Today’s “Last Word On Nothing” blog raises some interesting questions [LINK]. It’s nice to suppose that we now have the scientific ability to do something like recreate an extinct species, but should we?
I know there has been hype before about recreating dinosaurs, sabre-toothed tigers, and woolly mammoths, but there are also a whole host of other species that mankind has wiped off the face of the earth by its own arrogant stupidity. One of the obvious ones is the Dodo. We hunted that to extinction, and we are pushing and have pushed many more species the same way.
If we can recreate a mammoth, shouldn’t we recreate some of the more recently extinct species? But would we actually learn anything? I mean would we actually learn that just because we can drive a species to extinction, it doesn’t mean that we should, and just because we can now recreate it if we do, does it mean we should? Where are the lessons that we have learnt or should learn about how we are but one species on this planet, and whilst we might consider ourselves to be the most intelligent one (or not), would we be better spending our time and effort not allowing species to become extinct because of our actions (or inaction?)
Dinosaur, woolly mammoth, and sabre-toothed tiger are all arguably species that died out because of other forces (i.e. Not man induced) but is it still right to bring back those species now?
Quick Links 6th March 2017
Each week I’ll try and post quick links to things that I’ve seen, read, inspired me or just sparked my interest in the previous week, with a little background and my thoughts and other things that I’ve been up to in the previous week. Mostly gardening, cooking and environmental stuff but not always.
Life In General.
It’s March already – can’t believe this year seems to be going so fast, I’ve got so much going on that time is flying by. Consequently this edition of Quick Links is likely to be quite light on content.
Next week it’s my birthday and I have a rule that I never work on my birthday. In the past when I have, it’s never a good day at work (something goes wrong or something bad always happens) and consequently I have a bad birthday. This means in the past I’ve taken leave (normally the whole week), now that I work for myself I’ll just take the day off – I don’t book meetings for that day and I tend to screen my calls and email a little more.
Work.
More work on proposals this week, some are longer term and some with quite quick turn-a-rounds. Still waiting to hear on those already submitted. So far the success rate is zero. That happens sometimes, but paid work is obviously better!
Currently Reading
Scorched Noir by Garnett Elliott [GoodReads]
A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk’s True Life (Journals Vol. 3) by Thomas Merton [GoodReads]
Wizard and Glass by Stephen King [GoodReads]. The next book in the Dark Tower series, a book I’m reading for an online group.
Shark!
What’s the saying? “You don’t see one of those everyday”? In this case it’s true, bit surprising to see an previously unseen species. It happens occasionally with birds and butterflies but sharks don’t seem to get the same coverage.
The Week In Wildlife – In Pictures
Ruffled Feathers
This last week I’ve been noticing a lot of small fluffy feathers all over the playing field. It’s been a pretty wet and blustery week on the whole and the usual black-headed gulls have been there in large numbers, along with several other species, but the black-heads make up by far and away the largest proportion. They are also just turning from their winter plumage and getting the feature that they are named for. (In the winter they have a mostly white head with a small black patch just henind their eye).
Best guest is the extra feathers are related, but it’s quite a carpet and when the breeze gets up it picks them up and blows them dancing around the field. From a distance it looks a little like a carpet of cherry blossom but up close it’s clear what it is.
Electronic Scrapbook 