Timely Reminder.

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day.  So said Roger Waters etc. on Dark Side of the Moon, the first album (remember albums?) that I bought when I finally had a few quid in my back pocket.  To an uneducated person like me, time is very difficult to describe but what strikes me is the absolute power it has.  The well know phrase 'the only 2 sure things in life are death and taxes' ignores the fact that both of these things are only possible thanks to the passage of time, so a more accurate phrase would be 'the only 3 certain things in life are death, taxes and time itself'.

Tyred Out

I had 2 new tyres on my car today - and it feels like I have had a really, really good experience.  Is it just me?  Could be because one of them was almost down to the steel reinforcements, so the relative difference was more than it should have been.  Maybe that's the thing - the relativity.  A bit like someone who gets a new car after a year is not going to as satisfied as someone who gets a new car every 10 years or more.  If that theory is correct, then my next new car is going to be an epic experience!

Dine Around

Frankie and Bennys is, in my mind, a bit of an oddity in the restaurant world.  It purports to be an American diner and there's no denying that the decor and style fit very well with that, but the food..I struggle to find anything good to say about it and if I take the price into account then my opinion cannot be aired here without risking a lawsuit.
Anyway, I read today that they are closing a number of restaurants because of falling sales that they think was due to a new menu.  So why not bring the old menu back? 

Good News

Blimey! Over 3200 comments to a Nigel Farage speech at a Donald Trump convention in the Guardian today.  I guess those 2 combined are worth commenting about.

Any publicity is good publicity they say (see above) and Jeremy Corbyn's team are talking up the recent row with Virgin Trains as a 'Good thing' even though it was a contrived attempt to make the railway system look bad to push home his point.  Drop The Dead Donkey at it's best.

You can keep your hat on...

Wearing the burkini has been outlawed in a few provinces in France, and there were some pictures today of armed police supervising one lady removing hers.  That's one job I would not want to do.  Not only is it such an intrusive thing to do to a person - 'can you take your clothes off please madam', but it seems such a harmless thing to pick on as a way of reducing anti-islamic tensions.  Very odd, but then again I'm not French.

Clouded Opinion

Smart Setup, or just do it?  I'm referring to the installation of network monitor software of course, and has got me thinking about the well known 'if all else fails read the instructions' adage.  The thing is, I like reading the instructions before I do anything, that way I become a geeky 'expert' before whatever it is I'm installing/building is even installed/built.  This does of course lead to some criticisms along the line of 'know it all', but well worth it in my humble know it all opinion.  Therefore, I am reading through the quickstart guides, closely followed by the operating manual.  They'll not catch me out!

All this knowledge might give me a warm smug feeling, but I need to remember that the guys/gals who created it are slightly better educated, which is enough to keep my feet on the ground.

Being a technical minded fellow, I like to think I keep myself up to date with the latest technical trends and market.  I'm not talking about the latest Minecraft version, I mean where the market is leading businesses in the IT world.  Therefore, it is a bit of a shock to hear that one of my 'babies' where I work - the phone system - has been described as 'old fashioned' by our new HR person.  This has got me pondering, is she right?  Have I misread the trend towards unifed communications?  Was I a bit rushed into specifying a PABX based phone system when flexible cloud systems were available?  ..or is she a politically motivated person who is trying to ingratiate herself with the boss at my expense by dissing one of my purchasing decisions?
I like to think it is the latter, but I can see her point.

Principles.

Poor old Jeremy Corbyn, he just can't find anyone in the parliamentary party who supports him, excep Diane Abbott of course.  The latest to drop him is the Scottish Labour leader who thinks that with Mr Corbyn in charge he'll have less chance of being elected.

That's Entertainment...

It looks like we have the truth about Ryan Lochte's non-robbery incident.  It was always looking a bit fishy, and we now know it was to cover up some high jinks - probably based on one of the American Pie movies they had viewed recently.  Just goes to show that real life is quite different to the film.

Meanwhile, on anorthe planet, we have Mr Trump appearing to apologise for soem of the things he has said.  In totally unconnected news, he has a new campaign team that advise him what to say.

The sad news today is that Deal Or No Deal, the tv show hosted by Noel Edmunds is being axed after 11 years.  It will be sorely missed by, er, someone I guess but not me.  It's an odd format for a show, but appears to have been fairly popular or an early evening tv program.  It was watched once in our household, but the tricky complexity of the format (guessing what's in a box) outwitted me and I bever tuned in again.
Luckily, Noel is fronting another couple of new shows.  I'm sure they will be as good.

Sweet Spot

There's something not quite right about the Ryan Lochte incident at the Olympics where he reported that he and his two pals were robbed at gunpoint.  The local police have now ordered that he surrenders his passport whilst investigations are ongoing, and the two he was with have been prevented from leaving the country.  Very odd.

Meanwhile, a long awaited report into what will be done about child obesity (an epidemic according to some) will be published today and the obligatory early leaks seem to indicate that actions include: almost nothing.  I'm not sure what everyone expected, but that's about in line with my own personal expectations.  The so called 'sugar tax' is supposed to beat the confectionery manufacturers up and persuade them into lowering the sugar content in sweets, but all it did was create a few meaningless headlines.  There doesn't seem to be any easy answers to this, but maybe the focus should be on the parents - giving them advice, healthy freebies etc. and could be a more cost effective solution.  Some seem to think that a ban on advertising would fix it, but I'm not convinced on that one.  It didn't stop people smoking did it?  The problem with sweet things is that they are, well... sweet aren't they?

Comment is Free.

The GB Olympic team continue to shine, winning a few more medals on the cycling track, boating and gymnastics.  It feels a bit odd, not being on the losing side, the newspapers must be very annoyed.

Meanwhile, I read that Mr Calvin Harris is the worlds best paid DJ.  Who would think to compile a list for that?  Evidently he drew in about £50 million, down on last year, but I guess he'll get by.

More Olympic news from the Huffington Post which reports that there is 'outrage' over Chris Boardman's comment on TV that Jason Kenny would be asking his partner Laura Trott 'What's for tea'.  I think there should be more outrage that someone would think it fit to report such piffle.

Because Your Worth It.

'Speak with data' is an adage I often use when we need statistics to back something up.  This happened in a climate change debate yesterday, where an Australian climate change denier clashed with the scientist Brian Cox, who proceeded to indeed speak with data and pulled a few graphs out of his back pocket to prove the point that global warming was really happening.  Unfortunately, the opposing guy had seen it all before, and dissed the data as being manipulated by NASA.  Why NASA would want to alter the figures I don't know, but this guy obviously thought it was a good line of argument and probably left the debate feeling as if he had won.
So this brings me back to 'Speak with data' - pretty pointless if its easily dismissed, so maybe should be 'speak with irrefutable data'.

In the Olympics, the data is definitely speaking - GB second in the medal table!  Evidently we have ex-prime minster John Major to thank for this.  I didn't read the article, but it must be a lottery funding article.
So my twenty pounds or so I have invested in the lottery to date have been worth it, but not for me.

Busy Bees

In a previous life, one of my colleagues (I use that term loosely) was the busiest fellow in the company.  We knew that because he told us.
When it finally dawned on us that he was in actual fact only busy because he was telling everyone he was busy, our lives were enriched each time he told us.  Which brings me to the related observation: that if you say something often enough, it eventually becomes fact.  Urban myths are probably the result of some relatively outrageous (or not) story that soon becomes established as 'A Fact', and takes quite some time to unpick and get to the truth.  My young work mate is prone to stating these facts and facts, when they are so obviously one of these urban myths, which (I think) he has picked up from an authoritative source such as his father, Uncle or similar...which brings me to the other observation, that these Facts are given a huge weight when uttered by an older (wiser) person.
Unfortunately, I suffer from a little known condition called 'Sceptical Bollox', which usually kicks in when someone spouts off about something.

Old News

Scientists have been doing some testing on sharks, and have found one that is more than 300 years old.  The testing uses some sort of carbon dating technique which I first heard about when the Turin Shroud was the centre of controversy but the tetsing was destructive in that the tested material was destroyed.  I hope the same fate didn't befall the shark.  A bit like trying to drown a witch where if she drowns she was innocent, but if she lived she was witch.  Well, not quite like that but hopefully you get my drift.
In the news article, other old creatures were mentioned including a 500 year old clam.  I wonder how they found that out?  They asked, but he kept his mouth shut.

Harmless Fun

Poor Mr Trump is getting a great deal of grief over his 2nd amendments comments that have been interpreted as a call to do Mrs Clinton in.  This, the latest in a long list of statements that wind people up does seem to have been blown up a bit too much, although some of the criticism is probably warranted.  Unfortunately, there's enough nutters in the US (other countries are also available) that might think they can take what he says literally and I guess that's the problem with these 'jokes'.  What is a harmless throw away comment to some, is a call to arms for others. 
Still, I'm sure he will calm his rhetoric down eventually.  Or not.

The French government want to fine parents who make their children have a vegan diet, then there's the Guardian reporter who has gone vegan to reduce his impact on the planet.  Bit of conflict of ideas there.

Cakewalk

After my embarrassing fall yesterday, I wanted a smooth, trouble free bike ride home yesterday.  However, after a couple of miles into the stiff breeze I realised fuel levels were low and I felt hungry and tired but what should I do?  I had a single gel in my pocket and full water bottle, but felt like I needed much more than that, so a quick stop to see what cash was in the saddle bag (£3) and I turned off for a slight diversion to the first village shop I came across.  There, I found a billy bargain of 6 x cake type things for 1 pound.  I consumed 2 of these right away and felt so much better.
Note to self:  Keep some long life cakes at work as emergency rations.

Queue Jumper

My occasional cycle into work is sometimes stalled by a rather long wait at some train barriers in the city.  If I time it wrong, it can be up to 10 minutes as I wait for 3 trains to cross.  However, a new  footbridge is now operational, and I took the opportunity to use it this morning when I realised a long wait was on the cards.  There was already a small queue of traffic, so I know it would not be the full 10 minutes, and one train was passing as I arrived but the barriers remained closed when it had passed.  So, I swung across the road in front of a bus in the queue, and unclipped my left hand shoe ready to dismount and walk up the steps.  But wait! My right shoe did not unclip as quickly as I hoped and I unceromoniously rolled over onto my side unable to arrest my fall.  What a dick.  A thoughtful chap descending the footbridge enquired if I was OK, so I assured him it was only my pride that was hurt - didn't look over at the bus.  Actually, I do have a bit of a sore buttock to remind me of the incident, so take more care next time you wally!
I hope I cheered everyone up on the bus.

Boxing Clever.

Another day, another 'story' to fill space in The Mirror.  This one told us about a 60cm ruler ordered by a teacher, but came delivered in a really large box with 24ft of paper!!  Hilarious,  and really, really informative.  They even had a picture of the chap standing over the box with all the packaging as if he had just opened it.  What a load a cobblers.  It transpires that the sender of  the package was a private seller and therefore probably just happened to have this box available, but more pertinent was that the buyer and star of the story was not only a maths teacher but a maths 'entertainer'.  Ah, publicity methinks.  Unfortunately, I clicked on this link via the Microsoft news feed, which probably means that a supercomputer somewhere is busy going though it's consumer favourites' algorithm calculating which other rubbish stories will now populate the news feed.

High Living.

An article in The Mirror (a bastion of honest British journalism and good taste) informs us that Prince William and Kate (a bit too familiar this 'Kate' naming in my opinion) had a few nights in a palatial hotel in France, where suites come in a £3500 or so per night.  There's an accompanying picture of the said hotel, but I can't help but think it looks like the Grand Hotel at Scarborough.  You can stay at The Grand for as little as £18 per night (if t'internet is to be believed) but I guess suites are a bit more than that.

I read that Byron sell upmarket burgers, mainly in London, which is probably why I had never heard of them until they hit the news when some of their employees were nabbed by immigration and deported.  On the face of it, it seems that this was a simple illegal immigration case, but it transpires that Byron's colluded with immigration to fabricate an early morning meeting where the offenders were rounded up and dealt with.  For me, that shows that Byron's is a responsible community minded company, to others, they are a capitalist uncaring employer in cahoots with the fascist immigration thugs.  To make Byron's aware of the depth of feeling, some have demonstrated outside stores, and in some cases have release cockroaches (I think) into the shop.  Don't they know cockroaches have feelings too?

Straight Path

On the face of it, being where you say you are going to be at a specific time sounds quite an easy thing to do, and oif you;re not there, the power fo the mobile phone springs into life to assist as required.  Unfortunately, Lizzie Armitsted was not where she said she was going to be 3 times on the trot, thereby invoking the 3 strikes and you're out poicy when you miss 3 consecutive drugs tests.  The 'you're out' would have meant her missing the Olympics, so she argued the toss over one of the missed tests, won her case and she's back on for Rio.  Unfortnately, this has resulted in a great deal of bad press around 'drugs cheat' etc etc.  It's an old story, and she has had to defend herself on social media with what looks like a heartfelt plea explaining in some detail why it got to where it did, and for people to get off her case.  Don't know if she will be successful, but it seems to be necessary in the social media age.
Personally, it looks like a genuine mis-management case, but I can understand the sceptism and critism such a case brings.  It's just a pity that all the ranting pub talk by the know-it-alls can be seen by everybody.

There's No Place Like Home

One of the Olympic structures - only a temproary pier it has to be said - has collapsed and needs what look like quite a bit of attention to get it ready for next week. I can't help but think that we'll see more of this over the next 3 weeks, although the obligatory 'athletes village not ready' stories are piling up.

Meanwhile, there's focus on the continued decline in home ownership in the UK - the general concesus being that it is a bad thing, but no-one really explains objectively why it is so bad.  True, home ownership allows you to build your castle without bothering anyone else, but surley having someone else worry about all the day to day nitty gritty maintenance stuff is a huge benefit, a bit like hiring a car, only you stay in one place.
The one and only Kirsty Allsop (the go-to girl for home related topics) has stated that the home buying process 'is broken' without explaining why.  Clever girl that Kirsty.