30/05/2009 by admin.

Wolfram|Alpha

Have you discovered this new search engine? One thing is fun. Type in the birthdays (in full) of your friends and relations and see how many were born on the same day of the week. It may not prove anything but it is fun. My own family and circle of friends has a predominance of people  born on Wednesday. Are we supposed to be “full of woe”? That’s a lot of rubbish for a start.  You can also ask this engine, on a more serious and practical note, mathematical and statistical questions if you can’t cope with them via Excel. Try it!

Posted in Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »

28/05/2009 by admin.

I am sure that it would be valuable to bring forward the next Census to the autumn of 2010. Many disputes currently being befuddled by the absence of good statistics, for instance on the ethnic make-up and country of origin of the population, the dispersal of those recently granted British citizenship, the presence of non-British EU citizens in the working population , and so on are the subject of much argument but little light. Particularly if we really are going to have constitutional change very soon and a reorganisation of Parliamentary seat boundaries why do we wait for 2011?

Posted in Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »

24/05/2009 by admin.

Just returned from a sunbathing spell in the garden because I got too hot! Only the second time this year that I returned from outdoors to cool down. We are promised long hot summer  days, presumably to begin about Thursday next week. We don’t possess a barbecue; we can eat outdoors but cook in the kitchen quite comfortably. And get in easily if it rains.We sometimes enjoy a barbecue at our daughter’s house. She has a rather larger garden and patio not to say a state-of-the-art barbecue, so we have just what we want.

But… maybe if the summer is as promised we should change our minds but then I’ll have to cook I suppose. a task which my wife jealously guards to herself at present.

Posted in Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »

22/05/2009 by admin.

Thias is not political! I rather like the handsome duck island that one MP charged to expenses and, though he is branded as a heinous criminal now, I think it was probably a rather better buy than sixteen pairs of bedsheets, curing the dry rot in someone else’s house or a dozen cheap champagne flutes.

I wasn’t familiar with duck islands until our local park acquired one (I hope it cost rather less than £1760 though knowing local authorities maybe not but who cares). Our own duck island is a thing of beauty and I don’t blame anyone for buying one if they can afford it or if their expenses will stand it. I didn’t notice, however, any MPs claiming for opera tickets, watercolours or anything else of  beauty though I think there was one claim for a piano. One hopes that those claiming for sound systems or DVD players used them well - to play rather good jazz or classical music or to watch things other than The Sound of Music.

Pehaps a new category ought to be introduced into a new allowance system; a modest sum for cultural recreation. I’m sure a new generation of MPs would be all the better for it. Duck Islands would be allowed as well as Miles Davis  and Chet Baker  Beethoven and Britten CDs or early 20th century watercolours (provided I could sell them mine).

Posted in Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »

19/05/2009 by admin.

Yesterday my youngest grandchild, aged 17, passed his driving test (first time). Quite an emotional moment for us since it doesn’t seem all that long ago since we held him in our arms for the first time and wondered what characteristics he would inherit - in the event, physically not many of mine because he is over 6 feet, lean, has a golf handicap of 6 and is good at football and cricket.  Maybe some of my wife’s who. in her time, was a good tennis and badminton player. One thing he did inherit is a love of music though he has long ago surpassed any technical knowledge I may have. so much so that he was offered scholarships by three leading music conservatoires. Sorry to boast.

Milestone events like this make me feel old until I realise that I am so lucky to have survived to the end of my seventh decade more or less intact, with my mind, I hope, as sharp as ever it was (notice the limiting statement) and still enjoying all life has to offer. Every day I try to learn something more, maybe quite trivial but enough to keep the brain cells active. I am even, like some of my colleagues, investigating the possibilty of doing another degree in something quite different to my original one. Perhaps more of this anon.

Posted in Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »

18/05/2009 by admin.

The political world has suddenly become surreal with the friends of the Speaker appearing on Today to defend him in a rich Glaswegian accent. Someone is going to get bottled soon! Or head butted. This not a political comment at all; after all no one can take politics seriously after this (though I do try in my political blog).

Posted in Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »

16/05/2009 by admin.

The only verse (excluding some posh poetry learnt in English and French at school and engraved on my personality) that seems to stick in my mind nowadays is either nonsense verse or indecent rhymes. Thus going through my mind and not including the ultra-indecent (mostly rugby songs though I never played the game):

“ I saw a lamb upon a tree/ I stared at it, it stared at me/I stood quite still/ So did the lamb/And neither of us cared a damn” or words to that effect.

“Hush, hush/nobody cares/Christopher Robin/has/fallen/down/stairs”

Or, politely indecent

“A certain young man called Rex/Had a diminutive organ of sex/When charged with exposure/he said with composure/De minimis non curat lex”

Or the incomparable E.J.Thribb

“Somerset/that/is a strange/Name and /yet,W. Yorkshire/Maugham would/hardly sound right”

Oh there are thousnds of ‘em but I promise not to list any more unless you reply with your favourites.

Posted in Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »

15/05/2009 by admin.

In case - just in case - you wish to register on this site please leave your details including profile. Otherwise anonymous users with no profile or biographical details will be deleted. If you register please contribute. This does not apply to existing administrators and authors with authorised passwords nor to Research Network members who register with their recorded email address and/or name. If you do not come into one of these categories your registration will be deleted unless you give a valid email address and leave some brief details in addition.

Posted in Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »

14/05/2009 by admin.

Those of you who want to read my thoughts on the current political scene may ask for my other blog address - a prize for the first person who does so! On the other hand I can’t help observing - in spite of my self-denying ordinance not to talk politics in this blog - that as a result of the MPs allowances scandal many people are becoming seriously opposed to democratic politics. Of course it could be that these particular bloggers were already destructive cynics, anarchists, serious communists or fascists before the scandals and that they are now a little less afraid to crawl out of the woodwork. I’m afraid UKIP and the BNP (not, of course that I would dream of associating them)  may do very well in the European Parliament elections. If you are a democratic political activist fight to prevent this with all your might.

Posted in Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »

13/05/2009 by admin.

This just about describes the state of my garden at present with acknowledgements to  Gerard Manley Hopkins’s most famous poem. It’s cold, wet and windy today so not conducive to gardening. Where oh where are the long hot summer days we are promised? I might then still not feel like gardening but can be coaxed into it by leaving a cold lager in the garage fridge and gradually working my way to it from the end of the garden, picking up weeds and tidying up as I go (it can take the whole afternoon if there’s more than one lager).

Posted in Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »