Takk.

Justin Beiber left his show after performing one song.  Lucky audience.
Puzzlingly, some audience members were in tears, some angry.  That puzzles me.
Evidently his fans in the front row 'didn't listen to me'  Maybe he should learn to speak Norwegian.

In other news, the UKs longest Guantamo Bay resident (aka prisoner) left today after 14 years.  Can you imagine how he's feeling?  I can't.  Surely he's going to have a gigantic chip on his shoulder, that I can fully imagine.

Uprising

There's something brewing in the South China sea.  China have laid claim to most of the sea in that area, although there are some competing claims from the Phillipines, Vietnam and other military minnows.  They have even gone as far as creating artificial islands with runways to lend support to their claim.  The US (predictably) don't see it in quite the same way, so they have sailed a destroyer past one of these island thingys to make a point.  China has wailed and whinged as you would expect, but I can see this rumbling on for some years.
It's quite an interesting option, building islands where you would like to have a 'presence'.  We might see this in other contested areas, although with a bit of luck global warming will raise the sea level and render it a waste of time.

Sunny side up.

A dog named trigger shoots owner.  Really??  Actually shoots the owner?  In reality, the gun owner put the gun on the floor and the dog jumped on it accidentally (or was it?) setting it off and it hit the owners' foot.  So, a case of poor gun design rather than attempted murder.

In other news, there's been a report published that suggests a direct link between the consumption of red meat and cancer.  Increase the meat, increase the risk of cancer.  Sinple.  So should I stay avoid red meat?  If I do, I'll also have to stay away from red wine, anyone who smokes and sunshine.

Chequered History

Poor old Bernie Ecclestone.  He must be in a bit of a quandary with how to handle the Formula 1 circus/show/spectacle/money machine (delete as applicable).
The thing is, he's probably doing exactly as he has been doing for the last 10 years or so - simply feathering his own nest - or so it appears.
But it can't be an easy job making money for yourself and family whilst keeping the rest of the 'F1 Family' happy.  Our own Lewis Hamilton won a 3rd world championship yesterday, maintaining the British tradition of  producing decent drivers now and again.  It was even an 'exciting' race, with plenty of thrill, spills and overtaking manoeuvres, albeit aided by the stupid DRS system that they had to introduce to counter the aero technology available.

Life Changing.

Lists.  It seems that we need to itemise/catalogue 'things' to make them more interesting.  Buzzfeed has built a business on it, and the daily press are full of them: 10 things that will change your life; 15 American bridges you must cross before you die.  The American bridge thing popped up yesterday - what???!   I'm amazed that they are still prevalent, surely we all know its a load of tosh after a few years of seeing this sort of thing?
It could well have started with the 'bucket list' that seemed to balloon a few years ago.  It grates on me if I hear anyone still using that phrase.

There, that's 5 things that will change your life today.

Moleskin.

Eleven moles or more and you're 'at risk' of getting skin cancer.  This is on your right arm - very important that.  Don't want you to get worried about the 58 moles on your left arm, they're fine.  Even the pussy, sticky ones.
I wonder if this is a scientifically sound diagnosis?  If it is, then expect scrutiny on the beach.  I'm quite well endowed with moles, possibly more than 11 on my right arm even, so those looks I get when in my trunks were not what I thought.

The Bottom Line

I'm not sure what to think about Uber, the on-line taxi booking service.  It offers a very convenient way of getting a taxi, and (if what you read is true) at less cost than your conventional black cab.
The black cab guys are (of course) not impressed as their business gets taken off them, and they are kicking off about safety, un-registered drivers etc., but the bottom line is.. the bottom line of course.  They are not getting as much money as they used to, and no-one likes that.  One interview with a driver ended up with him admitting that he is quite well paid (or was), so do I feel sympathy with him?
In my own field of work (IT), we have been undercut by lower paid Indians for years, resulting in some companies employing more Indians than Brits, and my initial reaction was to assume they were lower skilled than us clever locals, but I have tempered those thoughts to admitting that they are likely to be as skilled, but definitely lack the experience of real life work.  However, even that is probably incorrect now, because they have gained quite a bit of experience.
The fact is though, that IT salaries have been lowered by this use of cheaper labour, and that's the way of the world, so unfortunately I do think that the cabbies are going to have to get their own on-line booking system, lower their prices and get used to it.

Swing Voters.

A new grammar school has been approved, which is an 'annex' of an existing, thereby getting round the 'no more grammar school' law.  No matter that the annex is quite a few miles away, it's in the spirit of the law.  Hmm, I'm not so sure.
Not that I'm losing too much sleep about grammar school, the comprehensive system that kicked in just as I was leaving school seems to cope reasonably well, and I didn't realise there was a law against building new ones.  Probably brought in on the back of the hunting ban.

The SDLP will look at running another Scottish referendum when enough 'No' voters have changed their mind.  I might have paraphrased that slightly, but that's the message I heard.  Obviously don't want to lose again.  A bit like '..and don't come back' when someone is already running away.

Quite Interesting.

I'm sure the Daily Mail will make a meal of it, but there's something morally right about a convicted killer winning a human rights act case where he has been unlawfully segregated (solitary confinement) for over 4 years.  Except that the unlawful bit was only 14 months long, and then, if they had kept to the segregation procedure where they get approval from a minister to extend it, it would not have been unlawful at all.  I hope the lawyers sleep easy at night winning that one.  Fortunately, the judge saw sense and didn't award damages, so the only outcome is that every prison governor will have to get the right paperwork in place for every person in solitary confinement.

Stephen Fry steps down as QI host should not be big news, but it is.  I associate QI with a high intellect, and as a watcher of the program, I'm sure that viewers are aligned with that.
Therefore, I'm a bit unsure about Sandi Toksvieg who will take over.  She was OK on the News Quiz, but that always sounded like it was scripted down to the last syllable.  We'll see.

I'm, Spinning Around..

Ah, the trials of selling stuff on eBay.  I have a couple of items in the shop window, and although one if knackered (I think), it has generated a lot of interest with a couple of bids to 'buy it now' even though I haven't added this option.  So I'm torn.. sell it now, or wait to see what the market comes up with.  I'll sleep on it.  Usually, it's easier to buy than sell stuff - just ask my wife, but in this case the rule has been suspended.

The labour party has given itself some work to do.  Jeremy Corbyn was voted in on an 'Anti-austerity' ticket, but recent remarks have put him in line with his predecessor i.e. stick to the spending cuts.  The spin doctors will have to work overtime to make this one look good.

Bombing Run

The last flying Vulcan bomber had it's final flight at the weekend (or could be one of it's last).  Crowds turned out to watch as it powered by, burning as much fuel in a few minutes as your average family car does in a year.  I made that up actually, but it's probably not too far out.
The thing is, I remember many a Vulcan practising south of Lincoln when visiting the mother-in-law's house not so may years ago without it instilling any romantic nostalgic thoughts.  Would we get so nostalgic as for example, seeing the last remaining Boeing 737 fly?  Probably not, so it must be something about the 'iconic' image we have about the Vulcan. 
It was just about to be retired in 1981 when the Falklands war demanded it's use to bomb the runway to stop supplies landing, so it should probably have flown it's last flight a few years ago if it wasn't for that.
And although the Falklands sorties were iconic in their own right (multiple mid-air refuelling, knackered old planes etc), I think that it's the design of the Vulcan that make people stop and stare.  The V-shaped wing is just so different from anything else in the air, and the 4 old jet engines kick out the decibels more than any current aeroplane.
We'll have wait a while for last reaper drone to fly, I wonder how many turn out for that?

Westworld.

There's a discussion going on at the UN about the banning of some types of 'robotic weapons'.  This is reported under a catchy 'Robot Wars' headline in the Guardian, whereas the definition of a 'robot' is a bit vague, and maybe that's why its' taking so long to get agreement.
The media are keen to portray these weapons as marching robots in the human form as in the film 'I Robot', eventually turning rogue and killing all mankind, but I reckon they are taking about much simpler types of automation.  It seems to me that automated weapons have been around for years in one form or another, probably since Smith and Wesson invented the automatic revolver that loaded the next bullet without any intervention.  I remember reading somewhere that trip wires were rigged up to spray bullet across no-man's land in Berlin during the cold war, and drones of one sort or another have been flown remotely for years.  When the button is pressed on a ;smart' torpedo, the weapon itself decides what action to take to hit the target, so why not have the torpedo decide when to launch itself? 
The genie is already out of the bottle.

The answer my friend....

As I was driving back from Spalding yesterday I was listening to a radio report about the new 5p plastic bag charge.  How ironic that I spotted one of the offending bags floating in the breeze as I drove along.
Hopefully this will be come a thing of the past.  The bag, not me driving.

I managed to shoulder barge a tree when cutting a corner yesterday at the cyclocross.  The tree didn't move, but I did, ripping my short on the process incurring a large sore, bruised shoulder and some cuts on my wrist.  Luckily, I managed to get back on the bike and not drop any places.