Things that really .. really piss me off: part III

Reality TV and soap operas.

'Nuff said...

Doin' the iPod Shuffle!

Got my brand-spanking new iPod Shuffle today! Wah-hey!

It is indeed the most tiny little thing, ever, bar non .. except for things that are smaller .. but aren't actually as good.

I'll shut up now.

Anyway, everyone who's seen it exclaims: 'Is that it?!'

Well, yeah! What the hell do you want? A portable music player the size of a golf bag?

So, I can now go out and listen to my music while I'm jogging / cycling and either, 1) fall over and crush the damn thing, or 2) fall over and cover the damn thing in mud, or a combination of points 1 & 2.

The simplicity is sublime and the quality is flawless.

I am suitably impressed...

When technology, economics, health and new markets collide

Technology has been instrumental in the shaping of human evolution. Of that, there is no doubt.

From the first wheel right up to the mobile phone. Technology, either directly or indirectly shapes, influences our everyday life.

But because of the ubiquity of technology, and because such a substantial part of technology is older than we are, our perception is that these things aren't really a part of technology per se, but are just stuff that got invented.

We see technology as printed circuit boards, wires, advanced metal alloys and genetics. When in actual fact, technology is everything from the bricks and wood your house is built from, right up to your mobile phone and the close covering your feet, your arse and your back.

Technology can either enable; in the case of computers, or disable; in the case of machines and devices of war.

In some parts of the world, there is a dearth of technology that could otherwise open up a world of opportunities. And there are those who would hope to bridge the digital divide, such as Computer Aid International which charges itself with the task of taking technology to those that feel the draft blowing through this chasm of devision most acutely.

Recently, technology helped survivors and relatives find loved ones who fell victim to the Tsunami is Asia. A simple wireless network enabled people to get in touch and then stay in touch. Also, organizations such as Télécoms sans Frontier provided satellite phones to allow survivors to speak to relatives from all over the world.

In recent news, Motorola are developing low-cost mobile phones for developing countries:

"Motorola will enter emerging markets with ultra low-cost mobile phones aimed at 3 billion consumers who cannot yet afford to make wireless calls, the U.S.-based handset maker said Monday."

But while some might interpret this as some kind of mildly philanthropic gesture, it's just pure money making -- build 'em cheap and stack 'em high.

"Some 80 percent of the world's population has mobile phone coverage, but only 25 percent have a mobile phone. That is 3 billion people who have coverage but cannot afford mobile communications," said Ben Soppitt, project manager of the emerging-market handset program at the GSM Association.

So the drive into developing countries is more about getting a solid return on the investment in the vast telecommunications network infrastructure.

But I have a number of concerns, and they are the self same concerns that being debated right here in Britain.

Here in Britain, we have one of the more robust telecommunication infrastructures in the world, and that isn't by virtue of our geographically relatively small size; we have some pretty inhospitable and truly inaccessible landscape that creates problems for a number of utility providers.

So while the whole of British isles could quite easily fit into the American state of Florida, we have some notoriously shit places that make for some interesting black spots.

So, network coverage for the mobile phone services providers becomes a problem. And, to compound problems further, while network coverage could be good in the likes of Lincolnshire that is a flat as a fart in every direction for miles on end, usage contention in towns causes network saturation.

More phone masts are needed.

That's when the fun really begins because no one wants a mast on their doorstep. Worse still, there is conflicting bodies of research over the effects of these masts and what they're likely to do to people living in close proximity.

Even worse still .. the mobile phones themselves have been demonstrated to cause harmful effects on the human brain, and even more so on children who have thinner skulls, so are more likely to suffer from even momentary use of a mobile phone.

It's worth noting that even before all of this nonsense came to light, after using a mobile phone, I would suddenly become nauseous, disorientated, feel a sudden and localized warmth on whichever side of my head that I held the phone against and have problems swallowing as a result of sore and swollen throat, similar to the sensation of crying.

All of a sudden, in the absence of any satisfactory resolution to any of this, developing countries will be given the chance to embrace this new enabling technology and enable their population to communicate on a scale hitherto unheard of in those countries.

My question is: what amount of effort will be made by the service providers and the manufacturers of this equipment to resolve these issues before the technology becomes so widely used that any remedial efforts proposed would be disregarded on the grounds of such actions being prohibitively expensive?

And what happens if people in these countries develop illnesses as a result of exposure to ultimately poor quality and poorly maintained infrastructure?

On top of the litany of other illnesses that are commonplace in places such as Africa and Asia, do we expect to see any additional medical aid provided for yet another entirely avoidable and preventable problem?

Discuss...

Money for nuthin'

Some people just have more cheek than a barrel full of arse holes. I kid you not.

Recently, I paid a visit to a solicitor to discuss some debt collection. A former client skipped off owing me nearly £3,000

So, I meet with the solicitor on the recommendation of my local Chamber of Commerce. As with nearly all debt collection agencies these days, they operate on a no win, no fee basis.

I like to play stupid with certain people. When I get that prickly feeling, I like to let them feel in control and give them just enough room to bullshit me and then just enough rope to hang themselves with.

With this in mind, I posed a very simple question: "So, how much will this cost?"

The guy shifted in his seat furtively, he crossed his legs and was desperately trying to keep his hands firmly clasped on his lap. Don't like that.

£200 pounds, apparently. That covers court fees.

Doesn’t sound all that no-fee to me! Where did that bit go to? Looks like I'm going to be throwing good money after bad.

I smiled politely and said that I'd get back to them if I wanted to take matters further.

As with all solicitors, your first consultation -- which will typically last about half an hour -- is free.

Anyway, over the following weeks, I kept getting the odd nagging letter from them about taking matters further and whether I was wanting to chase up the money. I duly ignored all of their correspondence .. until about two weeks ago.

This particular letter had their name stamped on it, but my name and address was hand-written, and the letter just .. felt different.

So I opened it. It was invoice.

For what? I wondered.

Apparently, I owed them £25.85

The red mist descended like a thundercloud and I was in high gear on the dark side of the moon.

I asked what the invoice was for, specifically. There was no clear indication of what service they'd rendered, which was a concern.

So I called them.

It seems they had performed a look up of me and my company.

I politely but forcefully informed them that I would pay not one penny for such a thing and that I would be taking matters further.

I made it clear that at no point did I once give the green light to the debt collection and that I felt that their actions were both duplicitous and fraudulent.

Further more, I would be speaking with their ombudsmen and that I would be lodging a complaint with the Chamber of Commerce.

Suffice to say, my reaction was a little more organized than they'd expected and this morning I got a rambling letter that only on the very last two-line paragraph on the second page of a two page letter do they indirectly inform me that they have decided to wave the fee.

How kind of them. Don't you think?

On the other hand...

I'm left-handed. Sometimes, it's a bind, other times, being left-handed has it's advantages.

So, by way of a lunch-time read, here's some interesting left-handed facts:

[Note: these aren't my notes, they're from some American woman, thus the conflicting vernacular]

Left vs. Right -- Why?
Estimates of the number of sinistrals in the population at large are difficult to arrive at, due to the unfounded antipathy of the righthanded majority towards lefthandedness throughout history.

Sources as to why this is the case are hazy, but there are a number of indications that it stems from misogyny through the historical association of the left side of the body with femaleness.

Eastern statues of deities that are half-female and half-male always show the left side as female, and this may explain the spurious story of the Amazons, warrior women who removed their right breast the better to pull a bow.

To late era historians, these statues suggested this myth, based solely on the fact that a statue half-male and half-female would have as its most glaring characteristic a missing right breast.

Other correspondences surface in the study of medieval coats of arms, where a bar slanting to the left signified bastardy -- someone who reckoned their lineage through their mother. This bar was also called a bar sinister.

The word "sinister" is almost verbatim the latin word for left-handed. (Dexter meant right-handed.) Through religious antipathy to the left hand, the modern meanings of these words as "evil" and "able" became more common.

This has the amusing result of illuminating the meaning of the word ambidextrous -- "right handed on both sides." Even other languages suffered from this -- the word left is from an old saxon word "lyft," meaning worthless. In French, left is "gauche," also meaning clumsy.

Growing Up Lefthanded
Many people in earlier times (thankfully no longer) often tried to "cure" left-handedness in children by forcing them to write right-handed, a practice which certainly did render the majority of lefthanders "gauche," or clumsy!

This is a disastrous practice, one that can induce dyslexia, stuttering, and other forms of motor difficulties in the child who is unlucky enough to endure it, not to mention terrible frustration and hatred of school and schoolwork.

Handedness is a result of complex cognitive factors and originates in the physical structure of the brain, so changing it by mere force accomplishes nothing but to damage the child cognitively and make them despise going to school. This will impact his or her academic development and is the real reason behind the claims that lefthanders were clumsy and rebellious in school.

I am aware that some cultures prefer righthandedness, but I must strongly urge you not to interfere with your child's handedness, as disastrous learning disabilities can result. Click here to read of one lefthander's story that, had it not been for his indomitable willpower and intelligence, could have had a much more disastrous ending.

Asking the question "Were you forced to become righthanded?" on the Usenet newsgroup alt.lefthanders will elicit similarly horrible tales of abuse and punishment.

As well as being a dangerous practice, it is also predicated on a baseless prejudice. Indeed, when left to write with the hand we prefer, lefthanders are often found among the highest ranks of artists and scientists, far out of proportion to our numbers in the population at large.

Lefthanders in school tend to be both bright and unconventional, so take your lefthanded child as a gift and not as a deviation to be cured.

The only real problems that a lefthanded child are likely to encounter in school revolve around learning to write. This is not a problem with lefthandedness, but simply due to the fact that most teachers are righthanded and have no clue how to teach a lefthanded child to write longhand properly.

The best way to do it is to hold the tablet tilted 90-degrees to the right -- place it such that the top of the tablet is on the child's right side, completely tilted. The child then writes "down" toward their body, conveniently keeping their hand from smudging the ink or pencil as they do so.

Problems will still crop up as it is very difficult to find lefthanded desks in most schools and this causes a southpaw child's arm to cramp up painfully after writing for any length of time. This problem doesn't really go away until you hit college, when you can appropriate the desk next to you and thumb your nose at anyone who complains.

Basically, don't freak out too much if your child hooks his or her hand while writing. Penmanship is after all a product-oriented art: as long as the result is clear and legible, you don't get points for form.

However, if your lefthanded child has a difficult time writing longhand, the best thing to do is introduce them to the keyboard. I have heard of several children who did poorly in school regards turning in assignments only because writing them out was literally an ordeal. Once introduced to the keyboard, or shown how to write by a lefthander, their grades *skyrocketed*.

I know that until I was lucky enough to begin using a typewriter, my own writings were sporadic and infrequent. Since that discovery, I have completed over 400 pages of written work and am presently shopping around several stories to various magazines!

Be prepared, though -- many teachers will attempt to "correct" this and render your child's penmanship almost illegible; this inability of most teachers to teach left-handed children to write properly is the reason behind the traditionally abysmal left-hander's penmanship, though there are exceptions to this rule. And a dislike of writing can impact your child's academic development seriously.

WARNING!
PLEASE If you suspect that your child's teacher is pressuring him or her to write in a manner that is uncomfortable or to switch hands, bring this to the attention of the school principal as this practice can induce learning disabilities, as well as a good deal of pointless frustration and hatred of school and schoolwork.

If your child's teacher is wasting time forcing your child to do something pointless, he or she is not teaching your child how to add, subtract, read or any of the other things a child is supposed to be taught in school and will forever imprint upon your child that schoolwork and learning is ALWAYS accompanied by pointless, tearful frustration!

Facts and Myths About Lefthandedness
Some advantages based in cognitive science accrue to being left-handed. The corpus callosum, the bridge between the two halves of the brain, is statistically more likely to be thicker (I've heard the figure "11% thicker" quoted but have not tracked it down so far) in left-handers than their right-handed kin, resulting in efficient information transfer and redundancy in the brain.

Skills that are normally found in one or the other side of the brain can be found in the opposite side or on both sides for left-handers. For example, while language skills are located on the left side of the brain over the ear in right-handed males, they can often be found on the right side or even on both sides for left-handers (and also for women; especially for left-handed women such as myself, they can be located anywhere). This results in a greater recovery rate for left-handers from stroke and other head or brain injuries.

There are a number of interesting biases that people have noticed, and some may be urban legend. The first is that men are more likely to be left handed than women -- I've heard figures of 20% of men and 8% of women, so this appears to be unevenly split according to gender. Certainly the cognitive differences associated with handedness are also unevenly split with respect to gender.

Another uneven split occurs when examining the homosexual population compared to the hetero one; lefthandedness, according to urban myth, has as high as a 50% incidence in the gay population!

While I have not taken hard data on this and have seen no explicit research, it *is* common knowledge among gay/les/bi people that lefthandedness is very common among them and their kin. If lefthandedness is indeed related causally to the size of the corpus callosum, this impacts the search for a genetic component to homosexuality greatly.

Something as complex as the size of a major brain component is a polygenic trait -- caused by the interaction of possibly hundreds of genes. If it is related in any way to homosexuality, this indicates that that is also complex and polygenic and the current facile search for a "gay gene" is doomed to failure. As well, the search for a lefthanded gene is rendered impossible, far beyond the facile and simpleminded search for one dominant-recessive genetic pair.

Other older but still somewhat durable myths are those that accuse lefthanders of being rebellious, unstable, clumsy, or unintelligent -- ALL are directly connected to the attempts throughout the years to "convert" us to righthanders.

As stated above, lefthanders tend to be among the upper levels of society as far as intellectual, musical, and artistic accomplishment is concerned, well out of proportion to our percentage in the population at large (almost all my math, art, and science classes in college were close to or well over 50% lefthanded, despite our low numbers in the world) when we are allowed to use the hand we prefer.

Forcing a child to use their nondominant hand will result in surreptitious attempts to use the proper hand -- thus "rebellious." Punishing a child for behaving as they are meant to in using their left hand will also result in tears of frustration -- hence "unstable." Handwriting will be nearly illegible -- "clumsy." And after years of this frustration and persecution, a lefthander may turn away from school and learning altogether -- "unintelligent."

Another myth recently dusted off and brought out by Stanley Coren (see references list) is that of the increased mortality of lefthanders. Such a claim is "proved" by studying the percentage of lefthanders in each age group. As the age of the respondents increased, the percentage of lefthanders decreased, and it was concluded that sinistrals die younger than righthanders.

This has been attributed to everything from depressive personalities resulting in suicide to increased rates of accidents through having to use righthanded implements to, as Coren claims, a faulty immune system. The true cause of the decrease in the percentage of sinistrals is quite transparent -- older people were more likely to have been "converted" to righthanders while in school.

Other scientists have also attempted to study Coren's data and reach his conclusions, but to date his results have never been reproduced.

Southpaws thrash righties: study
By Robin Lettice
Published Friday 10th December 2004 16:53 GMT

Researchers have suggested that left-handed people are better at surviving fights to the death.

Charlotte Faurie and Michel Raymond of the University of Montpellier in France found that the greater the homicide rate in unindustrialised cultures, the higher the proportion of left handed people.

Industrialised cultures were excluded from the survey due to a lack of data and, according to the researchers, because some weapons, such as guns, used in such societies would provide no advantage for either left or right handed people.

Among the Dioula of Burkina Faso, the homicide rate is 0.013 per 1,000 and 3.4 per cent of the population is left-handed. However, among the Eipo of Indonesia, there are three murders for every 1,000 people and 27 per cent are left handed. Faurie and Raymond suggested that the cause for this is that left-handers are more likely to survive hand-to-hand combat.

Left handed competitors tend to do better than right handed ones in sports such as tennis.

It is thought that this is because right-handed people are not used to facing lefties because there are fewer of them, while left-handed people play against righties most of the time. "Because of the advantage in sports we thought there could be a similar advantage in fights," Faurie told New Scientist.

In many cultures, winning a lot of fights will enhance your status and, the theory is, in prehistory this may have increased your reproductive success, thereby explaining the greater number of left-handed people in more violent societies.

However, some scientists are unconvinced that there is a link. Chris McManus at University College London, who has researched handedness, said, "I don't think it is anything as simple as this."

He says that the sample data used is too limited to provide evidence of a link between handedness and fighting ability, and that data from industrialised cultures should have been included.

He believes that left handed people may have an advantage due to their brains being structured differently. "It may be that sometimes their brains assemble themselves in combinations that work better for certain tasks," he says.

Left handed people are more likely to have certain health problems, including immune disorders, and thus logically the trait should have been removed by natural selection. The fact that there are still lefties in the population either suggests that being left-handed provides some survival advantage, or is a product of left-handedness not being governed by simple inheritance principles. For instance, there is only a 76 per cent chance that indentical twins, who have identical genes, will both use the same writing hand.

It is not known at this time whether being ambidexterous offers a significant advantage in combat. ®

A flight of fancy...

There I was, sauntering along on my bike, looking out across the fields of early wheat beginning to offer an ear to the soothing glow of the winter sun.

A crow flew over head and then down into the field. Slowly and gently he landed with deft finesse in mid stride, folding his wings in behind him.

To him, he'd arrived after a simple journey, one of many. A multitude of effortless flights. Commonplace.

It was then that a thought occurred to me, I envy only one thing; the ability to fly.

What do you envy?

Things that really .. really piss me off: part II

Old people who think by virtue of simply being old entitles them to just do what the fuck they like!

This is not an attack on all old people, only the cantankerous, miserable, canniving, arragant, conceited old bastard variety that I seem to meet all of the fucking time!

I was a better person than most of the miserable old bastards the day I was born, and they've had a forty-year head start on me.

They know nothing of simple courteous salutations, budging a single inch to let you get by either on a road on bike or in a car or on foot on a pavement.

They think that they can just queue-barge like a bunch of piss-heads outside a nightclub.

The moment they sense even the slightest descent, regardless of whether you're right or wrong, they will reach out with their grey, gnarled old hands for that well-worn stick of wisdom-through-age to beat you with.

And if you persist, then they'll tell you about how they fought a war so that you could wear your hair long, drink too much and listen to silly music.

They play stupid when it suits them to and then come over all smart and holier-than-thou when they sense they're getting less than what they see as their fare share.

That really pisses me off!

The funny thing is...

Red Nose Day will be upon us again very shortly, and it will again be time to dig deep and make the lives of those less fortunate than you that little bit better.

But could recent events in Asia wipe the smile off the faces of the organizers?

The British public have made their generosity felt in a pretty big way, but that isn't to overlook the generosity of the global community.

But for the likes of Red Nose Day, there could well be the problem of 'compassion fatigue' to overcome, as well as a possible donation short-fall.

I watched one of the trailers for Red Nose Day on BBC2 this evening, and Billy Conelly dealt with the issue of compassion fatigue in a very simplistic and practical way. First of all, it's a shit idea. It's just stupid.

You're no more likely to become tired of compassion than you are of love. When do you hear people moaning about being tired of loving someone?

I get the idea that he would have liked to have been a little more forthright. No doubt in his usual, inimitable style, coloured with a variety of warm expletives.

I think that compassion fatigue is a blousy euphemism for the scourge of our time: apathy & indifference.

So let's hope that when people thrust their hands into their pockets to pull out a tissue or a handkerchief to wipe away the tears of laughter, they pull out some loose change, or maybe even a fiver or two and put it to a good cause...

Public service announcement

Don't drink and 'blog. And definately don't 'blog when bored.

It's like learning to juggle with knives: you'll either hurt yourself or someone else.

Here endeth the lesson...

science-fiction or science-fact?

Just when does science not only meet fiction, but become more extraordinary than science-fiction?

You might want to read this article and decide for yourself:

"One of these new technologies was a humble-looking black box known was a Random Event Generator (REG). This used computer technology to generate two numbers - a one and a zero - in a totally random sequence, rather like an electronic coin-flipper.

The pattern of ones and noughts - 'heads' and 'tails' as it were - could then be printed out as a graph. The laws of chance dictate that the generators should churn out equal numbers of ones and zeros - which would be represented by a nearly flat line on the graph. Any deviation from this equal number shows up as a gently rising curve.

During the late 1970s, Prof Jahn decided to investigate whether the power of human thought alone could interfere in some way with the machine's usual readings. He hauled strangers off the street and asked them to concentrate their minds on his number generator. In effect, he was asking them to try to make it flip more heads than tails.

It was a preposterous idea at the time. The results, however, were stunning and have never been satisfactorily explained.

Again and again, entirely ordinary people proved that their minds could influence the machine and produce significant fluctuations on the graph, 'forcing it' to produce unequal numbers of 'heads' or 'tails'.

According to all of the known laws of science, this should not have happened - but it did. And it kept on happening."

Thought of the day

"Those who are ready to sacrifice freedom for security ultimately will lose both."
~ Abraham Lincoln (1805 - 1865)

Things that really .. really piss me off: part I

People that slurp when they eat & drink.

Man, that is so fucking annoying!

There's just no need for it. It's just beyond bad manners and it's the work of someone with atrocious aural motor function.

That really pisses me off!

The sound of violence

"There's so much comedy on television. Does that cause comedy in the streets?"

Dick Cavett, Mocking the TV-violence debate

That got me thinking: does violence on television, video games and cinema influence people to commit violent crimes?

Now, while courting controversy isn't a problem for me, this is a massively subjective and highly contentious area for the weary traveller to go wandering into.

I think that there are just too many parties involved here, all with their own agenda who would otherwise hope to obfuscate the arguments for and against with towering walls of statistics and case studies et cetera.

So, given that I've now got some smart people darkening the door of my 'Blog, I will leave this article deliberately open-ended in the hope that you guys will bring the arguments and I'll bring the beer and sit and watch you all fight in a big heap.

Points will be awarded for evidence supporting your claims .. oh, and creative use of derisory and dismissive asides, withering sarcasm and just general conceit and smugness.

Points will be deducted for biting, hitting below the belt, playing the race card, bringing gender issues into the mix, excessive use of expletives and spitting.

People, don't let me down...

It's a whole different ball game

A Welsh rugby fan cut off his own testicles to celebrate Wales beating England at rugby, the Daily Mirror has reported.

Geoff Huish, 26, was so convinced England would win Saturday's match he told fellow drinkers at a social club, "If Wales win I'll cut my balls off", the paper said on Tuesday.

Friends at the club in Caerphilly, south Wales, thought he was joking.

But after the game Huish went home, severed his testicles with a knife, and walked 200 metres back to the bar with the testicles to show the shocked drinkers what he had done.

My personal favourite observation was: "He lifted the kilt up to show everyone what he had done. There was blood everywhere, it was terrible. That's when he collapsed."

Huish was taken to hospital where he remained in a seriously ill condition, the paper said. Apparantly, the police told the paper he had a history of mental problems.

Really?

Bringing sense and sobriety to the whole sorry saga, Dr Ian Banks, of the Men's Health Forum said: "This is a horrific injury. There are so many veins down there, I'm surprised he didn't bleed to death."

And just in case you cared, Wales beat England 11-9 at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. It was their first home win in 12 years...

All about me

I'm not a diarist, so you're not going to get any deeply dull insights into my otherwise curiously prosaic life, often punctuated by moments of violent social diversions of the female / verbal / satirical / odd kind.

So, this is about all you're ever going to get to know about me...

Male, six foot seven, hazel eyes, brown hair and am presently a shade under seventeen stone.

I jog six miles one day and cycle seven the next.

Love food, hate marzipan .. it's the devils toe jam.

Son of a miner and a seamstress.

Have been described as a typical Aquarian. Often said with scathing sideways glances by various ex girlfriends.

Don't smoke. Never tried.

Don't do drugs. Never tried.

Drink sociably. Occasionally to excess.

I have a phobia of medical needles and syringes.

No, not the half-arsed fear of spiders sort of phobia. I mean the kind where it takes two shocked male doctors, three hysterical female nurses, a bed end, my mother and the sad but unavoidable loss of a chair to get a thimble-full of blood out my right arm.

I don't really get ill. I've never had any of the childhood illnesses and while being involved in four separate food poisoning outbreaks, all I had was bad wind.

I have a strange affinity with almost all animals and children under the age of five which most people find mystifying.

I'm harassable, while honourable.

I'm obtuse and stubborn, while reliable and aloof.

I can be conceited, but only when I'm right.

I hate soap operas, and I find reality television to be lamentable.

I'm an avid watcher of both films and people. Both eminently entertaining and rewarding.

My musical tastes can only be best described as eclectic. I utterly loathe Reggae, but that doesn't count as music, anyway.

I find racism, sexism and vegetarianism to be equally unfathomable.

I'm extremely manipulative, but not that you'd know.

I search out new ways of thinking, continually looking for ways of breaking the theories I devise.

I was never christened and I was born out of wedlock. And no, my parents weren't hippies, they were just too busy doing other stuff. Plus, the thinking was that I should have the choice when it comes to which faith I would lay down with.

I'm often described as being a: 'complete bastard.'

But I like to think I make being a bastard look good...

I hope I'm old before I die...

Youth is wasted on the young. I'm sure most people beyond the age of thirty-five would agree with that statement.

A friend of one of my relatives is just such a ‘yoof’. But unfortunately for him, his own youth his wasted on him.

He is in a mad rush to get all grow’d up so he can do grow’d up stuff.

Once he gets to where he wants, he’ll wish he’d taken his time about the getting there.

And the saddest thing about this whole thing is, he’s a smart kid, but he needs to be seen as the guy making all of the first moves. Which invariably means making all of the biggest mistakes before anyone else.

By the time he’s got there, he won’t have the sense left in him to know how to regret making the mistakes he’ll make along the way.

Maybe it’s as well that way...

Thought of the day

"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
~ Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Changes...

Just like to say a continued thank you to all those that take the time to read this 'Blog, and an even bigger thanks to those that make a comment.

I appreciate your valuable time, and getting feedback makes all of the effort I've put into this 'Blog -- such that it is -- worth while.

Please, please, please do not .. I say DO NOT feel intimidated. If you disagree with something I say, make it known.

Also...

I've been making some more changes to the 'Blog over the weekend, most of the changes are quite subtle, but just enough to make the place more my own.

So, if you have any thoughts at all, let them be known or forever hold your peace...

A matter of life or death

There is an imbalance. It's an imbalance that bothers me a great deal.

I am a firm believer in the judicious use of the death penalty.

Let me start by offering up a number of reasons why some believe the death penalty is wrong:

It's barbaric and we're better than that

Are we?

Some clearly aren't, or people wouldn't be murdering each other in such numbers.

In many cases, the legal cost of sentencing -- and then latterly executing -- someone is overly expensive

Expense is a relative issue.

Abandoning a method of punishment because of the short-comings of the legal infrastructure is hardly a wise course of action.

But if it's the issue of expense that you find fault with, we'll be coming back to that in a moment.

There has to be a better way of dealing with murderers

I hear this yawn-inducing argument more than any other.

If there were, then the illusive saviour of penal reform has thus far eluded the best minds for hundreds of years.

There is no better way to deal with murderers. There are only degrees of more expensive ways of perpetual incarceration.

The death penalty isn’t a deterrent. In fact, in some of the states of America where the death penalty is permitted, the murder rates are often above the national average

There are two kinds of thinking are at work in the mind of killer. The first kind is the most common kind; the kind that don’t really think at all. The second kind is the worst of all; the kind that thinks the whole thing through from beginning to end.

The death penalty as a deterrent in either case is neither use nor ornament. But in my mind, that is to underestimate the reason for their execution. These people are worthless and their lives are an insult to the relatives of their victims.

The second point is -- superficially -- a good point indeed. But as the progressive-thinker would hope to have you believe that the death penalty somehow encourages murder -- which is just plain stupid, and is quite frankly insulting -- the death penalty is most likely a reaction to the rate of murder within those states, surely?

People do not knowingly commit a crime so heinous as murder in the knowledge that they might gag / fry / swing for it?

Again, a convenient smoke screen for statistical anomalies that owe more to social conditions and maybe even general education and upbringing than anything else.

Surely rehabilitation programs are the way forward, here?

Err, no.

And I'll give you a good reason why:

The systematic application of remedies to effect a cure: care, regimen, therapy, treatment. Informal rehab. See health/sickness, help/harm/harmless.

In politics, the restoration to favor of a political leader whose views or actions were formerly considered unacceptable. (Compare nonperson.)

Note how that in both cases of the dictionary definition of the word: 'rehabilitation', both allude to a point where something is returned to a previous state.

So, let's assume that there is a default state to human behaviour. Such a default state is entirely subject to the whims and fancy of the upbringing of the individual.

Where I live in Britain, there is an entire generation of kids who have literally zero grasp or understanding of simple right & wrong.

I am not dipping into hyperbole, I'm being quite serious. An entire generation of kids who simply have no clue of what is right and wrong.

Please, someone tell me how we rehabilitate these people?

Now, I’ll be the first to admit that this is not me issuing some kind of blanket assessment of everyone. But for the kind of murderers that I’m thinking of, there is no practical, workable route to reform or rehabilitation.

The progressive-thinker will throw up any number of examples of rehabilitation programs that have been a relative success. Yes, that was a deliberate emphasis.

First off, let's be clear, here: there is no route to rehabilitating someone who has been imprisoned for life with no option of parole. After all, what would the point be? But I'll be generous.

The examples that I've read about consist of twenty or so prisoners finding their collective way into the kitchens of some hotel or old folks home.

So that would be twenty prisoners from a typical prison population of around two-thousand?

Even by my meagre grasp of math's, that's just a single percent. And that's from a selection of prisoners who're considered the most eligible.

Now, I know that there are other contributory factors here, such as potential employers, resources available to pilot such programs. But even factoring all of this in, I doubt the figure would creep above even five percent.

OK. Now my turn.

Let's flip this discussion on its head and give the progressive-thinkers something to consider.

Hospitals. As a good example, America have no publicly-funded healthcare system. So, almost everyone must pay. Money is a consideration.

Now, for someone like me, that is a horrifying prospect. The thought that my life might literally be at the mercy of a flip of coin fills me with dread. But the sad thing is, even here in Britain, we do not have an inexhaustible supply of money to keep the National Health Service ticking over.

So, as a result, there are often intensive care bed shortages, staff shortages and a whole host of other funding and / or resourcing issues that mean you're not likely to get that tumorous growth removed from the back of your eye before the damned thing creeps, inexorably into your brain.

So we have a situation were peoples' lives are held in the balance by the colour of the ink on the hospital bank balance.

The bottom line here is, the preservation of life can only be adhered to so long as adequate funds and resources are available.

Now, just to clarify the nagging grievance moving from the back of your mind right up to the tip of your tongue, or maybe even the tips of your fingers, let me be clear about who I'm referring to when I say murderer.

We have a population of prisoners who are murderers. In line with my life philosophy, you have only three kinds of killer: those who kill for either pleasure, profit or self-perpetuation.

The latter is probably a little more ambiguous and therefor deserves more leniency depending on the nature of the murder. But the other two are much more cut & dried. To kill for either pleasure, profit, or for pleasure and profit is abhorrently wrong.

In the cases of those that kill someone to feed a habit, or rape and murder someone for some sexual gratification, in my mind, death is the only alternative.

So, if the progressive-thinker is more than happy to set aside their principles when hospital cash boxes run dry, why do they still protest when we discuss putting murders out of our misery?

After all, these people will never be productive within the remit of society, they will never pay taxes, or be the happy consumer and buy goods.

In the end, they will simply absorb funds that could be re-directed elsewhere to keep hospitals open and people alive.

If economics really is a consideration, why is the death penalty frowned up while people die in hospitals every day the world over because there isn't enough money and resources to keep them alive?

If the question really is life or death and economics is part of the equation, then there is only one logical answer...

A drop of wisdom for the thirsty fool in all of us

I've always been the kind to doubt first, ask questions later. Especially when it comes to so-called 'received wisdom'.

Take for instance the saying that wisdom comes with age. To me, this is to assume that most people are of a reasonable level of intelligence and therefore, mentally equipped to make use of life's successes and failures alike.

Suffice to say, this is making a huge, broad-sweeping assumption, and if my observations and experiences are anything to go, also quite wrong.

Instead, consider following:

Wisdom does not come with age, or long life. Age merely makes wisdom achievable.

If you live a long but meritless life, then age without wisdom is but a tall, almost empty glass.

Therefore, wisdom is a relatively tall glass very nearly full...

Running to stand still?

The media seems to have a fickle eye.

Always focused closely on the current and the topical and rarely on the historic and the fair.

Remember the olympic games in Athens? Remember ‘brave’ Paula Radcliffe and how she fell by the wayside in tears during the marathon event?

It’s hard to be critical of Paula, and rightly so. But she gets paid an enormous amount of money to run in various events up and down the world. In most cases, she isn’t even required to complete the course. She’s awarded an appearance fee.

So she simply has to arrive and give it a go.

There’s no doubting the effort, the years of training and sacrifice that Paula has had to endure to get to the top of her profession, but lets choose instead to look at things in a broader, less media-oriented way and see the bigger picture.

Enter the amazing Jane Tomlinson:

“Since being told she was suffering from incurable cancer in 2000, Jane Tomlinson has inspired a Nation, by running in a phenomenal variety of races, including the London Marathon, London Triathlon, Great North Run, Gatorade 1/2 Ironman Triathlon and cycling on a tandem bike from Land’s End to John O’Groats and Rome to Leeds.

In September 2004 she took part in the Nice 3/4 Ironman, completing the bike and swim, but unfortunately was timed out and was therefore not allowed to take part in the run.

Unfazed, she travelled to Panama City Beach in Florida in November 2004, where she successfully completed a full Ironman in 15 hours, 48 minutes.

Her fundraising efforts through Jane’s Appeal have now passed the £1 million mark following these magnificent efforts, and those of her supporters.”

Now, I don’t think much needs to be said about pure drive and determination. Few humans have ever endured such Herculean tasks, most of them being at the peak of health and certainly more physical wherewithal.

What makes me even more proud is that Jane is from Yorskshire, my home county in England, which in itself offers some explanation of her grit and desire, such is the stuff us folks are made of.

But does Jane get a mention in the news? Rarely.

This really is a terrible shame. If several middle-aged woman making a semi-nude calendar -- again, from Yorkshire -- is worthy of a movie, then so is the life and times of Jane Tomlinson.

Unfortunately for Jane, her family, husband and children, she has fewer days ahead of her than she has put behind her, but she is more fortunate than many more who have lived a longer life with far fewer memories.

I’m sure that Jane will take with her an amazing life, one that has touched many others. And with the money that she has raised, she will continue to touch the lives of others for the better for a long time to come.

Let us hope the we are all able to see with newer eyes what can be achieved when need becomes must...