Should I stay? No I'll go.

So it's Brexit day at last.  I suppose it was inevitable, although the remain hungry MPs did their best to keep us waiting eventually succumbing to a risky election call by Boris Johnson and unwisely backed by the Liberals and labour.  At least we now have clarity and MPs that have got to respect the initial vote.

The coronavirus is now an official 'global health emergency'.  I guess it now qualifies for more attention.  We have the first 2 cases in the UK and I guess there will be plenty more.
I wonder if Chinese food sales will suffer?  My guess is that it will.  It has a healthy (!) share of the market, so even a small percentage change will impact overall figures.

Training Regime

I can't remember if I've ranted on about HS2 before or not, but it's such an eyewatering project (money-wise) that is deserve an airing.  The Tory government has commissioned a report as to it's viability - a type of business case review if you will.  The initial signs were that the chairman was not too impressed with it, then he was overruled (can't remember if he was pushed out or not) and replaced with a guy who is in bed in some kind of way with the contractors, so hardly independent.  Indications are that it will get the OK to proceed, but in my opinion is definitely not value for money.
I think the money would be better spent across the whole rail network, not just improving the 2 or 3 hour journey from London to Birmingham.
I think we should copy the Europeans who have double decker carriages, impossible with the bridge height in the UK, but why not start raising them?  Every time a new one is repaired/replaced then we move one stop nearer.  Could be some that are of historical importance, in which case we have to go round them or dig deeper.  This would increase capacity (possibly double it) and let the normal technology advances speed up the journey times.

Sounds easy.

A Bit Hamstrung.

I picked up a hamstring tweak last week, a result (I think) of an older injury from a couple of years back where I had to stop running for a few weeks.  That time, I went to a physio who took my money but essentially didn't do anything to speed up the repair except to advise it would take a few weeks to sort out.  This time, it doesn't feel quite as bad, so I went out early on Monday to test it, and ended up with it feeling as bad as last time, so that was a cock-up.  I'm now back to cycling only, but even that was a bit painful this morning.  I won't trouble the physio again though, he can advise those with a bit more money.

Money Talk

Gary Lineker thinks the BBC van be funded by voluntary subscriptions.  Therein speaks a man who has too much money.  I'm not sure that philosophy will reach many working class families.  Nice thought though, or perhaps he's going to pay for much of it himself?  He's taken a lot from it.

Don't know what happened there, I found myself reading the football transfer live update page.  Evidently there's a lot happening today, most of it involving rather large sums of money.  Not my cup of tea.

Wait, Just, One, Moment.

The latest 50p coin commemorating Brexit on 31st Jan has come in for some stick from linguists who object to a missing comma.  It looks Ok to me, and I like to think I know my commas.  Evidently they think there is a comma missing in a list, but before 'and', whereas I (and the coin's author obviously) think that it's not required.  I don't think we should lose too much sleep about it.

In other news, the coronavirus gathers more headlines as predicted.  Let's hope they sort it out sooner rather than later.

Coming to a Town Near You!

The coronavirus is suddenly big news.  It started in a sleepy Chinese city, and now occupies headlines in almost all newspapers.  If it gets worse i.e. spreads to other countries, we can expect much bigger headlines.
I'm not sure it really deserves that much attention, it seems to be a fairly isolated outbreak but I remember the sars virus started in much the same way so I guess we should be careful.
..and do those face masks really work?  They seem to be normal dress in Japanese cites, and are now widely seen in the press photographs of China, although they will make sure we see the most 'scary' ones.

Tree-mendous work.

The World Economic Forum is proposing that we plant 1 trillion trees by 2050 to replace those lost by logging and other means.  1 trillion sounds like a lot of trees, but I suppose that over 30 years and across the world it's not such a daunting job.
I did my bit for the environment at the weekend by planting about 30 saplings in an area of grass.  I did similar last year so I can sleep easily on the aeroplane.  I have a few more year old saplings coming on, so they will be going into the field in a couple of years.  The thing about trees is that the grower rarely sees the benefit, so unless big landowners are incentivised to plant them, it will rely on small scale planters like me plus the odd rich landowner who is a bit concerned about the planet.

However, I planted a row of lime trees down my drive about 25 years ago and they look great in spring and summer so you can get benefits in a lifetime (if you live long enough).

p.s. just did a quick calculation on the trillion trees - that's 63 per minute over 30 years.  I had better get digging.

Independence at a Price.

I can see there being some big discussions regarding the future of the BBC, specifically it's funding model.  The current 'everybody pays' method is looking more and more outdated as the monthly pay-as-you-go services increase in popularity.  I have no idea what it could be replaced with, I will leave it to the young creative types in a brain storming room, but it looks like our politicians want to make changes.
As long as they find a way to preserve the 'independence' of the BBC, that's ok with me, although I'm not too hopeful of that, and I can see it gradually becoming more and more commercial over a period of time.  It's my internet 'go to' news channel and I would miss that.

Words Don't Come Easy To me..

It is a fact that the English language has evolved over a long period of time and that words gradually become 'normal' when at first they seem very foreign.
In the internet age, it appears to have accelerated and there seems to be more and more new words being created (or at least I get to hear about them more) - maybe a result of social media and the ability to spread news/lies (delete as appropriate).   The internet itself has countless new words associated with it - I guess that 'internet' is reasonably new.
I am not too familiar with some definitions, having to guess if I see them written down - woke and meme spring to mind.
Another one is 'wellness', which is such a mess of a word I refuse to use it.  According to the aforementioned internet, this first appeared in the late 60s and has increased in use considerably since the mid 80s, which probably bears my 'internet age; theory out.  Amazingly enough when I use the same search facility I see that meme has been around since well before the 1800s!  I'm obviously a bit behind the times.
An advertised job needs a 'Head of Integrated Wellness'.  Nice title.

You Can Leave Now.

I never stop being surprised/annoyed/dismayed at the antics of our UK media when it comes to filling column inches with celebrity 'news'.  In the latest splurge of rubbish, it concerns the announcement of Prince Harry and Meghan stepping back from official royal duties and basically hiding away somewhere in Canada.  This has prompted huge amount of comment - most of which appears to be conjecture; from 'anonymous sources'; 'a friend of..'; as well as complete fabrication.
Whether this sells papers or brings extra viewers is surely unlikely, although the fact that I am moved to write about the writing means it stuck somewhere although I can assure you no money changed hands to arrive at my conclusions.
It has been headlines on the main TV channels for the last few days, and most newspapers have been leading with extravagant headlines regarding their relationship with other royals, their future plans and any other space filling information.
All in all, a load of tosh.

Just Imagine That!

Imagination -  Discuss.

It seems to me that some people have better imaginations than others.  But is this really the case?
By 'Imagination', I mean they can make things up, picture new things or 'the ability of the mind to be creative or resourceful' according to one online dictionary.
Are these imaginative people the 'arty' types that make good musicians, artists etc?
I have read that a good imagination needs certain areas of the brain to perform better than others, but I'm not sure that turning to science gives us the full picture.
Personally, I can safely say that I have little imagination, but without seeming to be too vain I am a good 'problem' which involves a lot of creative thinking to get the right outcome.  It's just that I'm not able to 'switch on' imagination without some sort of stimulus e.g. something needs sorting out.
Many musicians have written their best songs whilst under the influence of drink or drugs, so it could be that they too need some sort of stimulus to get something new out of their system.

Anyway, I imagine my lunchbreak is now over, and I haven't even had a drink.