Deke

October 2009

( Monthly archive )

So THAT'S what an Indian summer is.

Wednesday, 28. October 2009, 23:59:15

This time last year it was snowing.

This year we're basking in really nice warm weather with quite a lot of sun, in fact yesterday I was sitting outside in an open air cafe near the beach on Hayling Island. They would normally have shut for the season nearly a month ago, this time they were so busy they ran out of eggs.

Before I'd ordered my ommelette I might add.

Last time I tried to order an ommelette I was in a pub, and their gas wasn't working so they had plenty of eggs, they just couldn't cook them. I'd cook one myself but I can't seem to make a decent ommelette to save my life. Mine come out thick black on the bottom, and all runny on top. A bit like an upside down beetle really.

But I digress.

Apparently the reason for our good weather is low pressure out in the Atlantic dragging warm weather up from the south. As far south as India in fact. All these years I've been assuming that Indian Summer was something to do with the indigenous peoples of North America.

And all these years I've been wrong.

21 comments

Tricky chap, Johnny Retrospective.

Monday, 12. October 2009, 18:51:42

Apologies to anyone who hasn't seen the original 'Fall & Rise of Reggie Perrin' for the title of today's blog, but all those who did will know where this is going...

Today hundreds of members of parliament woke up to demands that they repay overpaid expenses. They weren't surprised (Well mostly...), but they also knew that up to this moment they hadn't overclaimed their expenses. Confused? You will be.

Following the previous overclaimed expenses scandal parliament decided that it was time for a clean-up to prevent it ever happening again. They gave the job to one man, Sir Thomas Legg. Unusually, they decided to make it retrospective. As a result MPs who did nothing outside of the rules when they put in their claims, woke up today to find out that they now had breached the rules.

This worries me on so many fronts I could use them as a firewall. For a start it muddies the field. MPs who did nothing wrong will be lumped in with those who decidedly did bend the rules because all we'll know is that they've received a reclaim letter, and of course they'll all protest their innocence, innocent or not.

It also punishes those whose only crime was to use their expenses to pay people a fair rate of pay. A number have been caught out by paying good money for good gardeners. This is the kind of thing that for some reason got up the public's noses, so it's been stamped on and now you're only allowed to pay your gardeners low wages. All those who didn't (Like the Prime Minister and the Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberals) have been asked to fund their own generosity, not just in the future, but back dated.

Back dated to when though? I've not actually seen or heard a date for this. The rules were actually relaxed to allow MPs to overclaim in the late 80s by Margaret Thatcher's government, so really the backdating should apply to then, but I have a feeling that if Mrs. Thatcher was about to get a reclaim letter we'd have heard about it by now, so what arbitary date has been used, and why? I think we should be told...

But what worries me most is the precedent which this retrospective cleanup sets. I'm sure all parties will deny it's ever going to happen, but how long will it be before retrospective legislation is passed that effects all of us?

1 comment

The dark side of the moon.

Friday, 9. October 2009, 19:19:02

water, Cruithne, orbit, nasa ...

Back in the 60s I wrote a chirpy little pop tune called Dark Side Of The Moon. You can imagine how possed iff I was when Pink Floyd pinched my title for their new album, particularly since they didn't put my song, or indeed any song of that title, on it.

Well my chagrin was as nothing compared with NASA today.

When man first landed on the moon he celebrated by dropping the lunar lander back onto it as he left.

Much to everyone's surprise the moon reverberated for half an hour afterwards.

Today they repeated the experiment on a far greater scale, and the moon again proved to be a bit contrary. It reacted by doing nothing. No dust, no reverberations, no nothing, and in particular, no water. Now me, I would have imagined that they would have covered the water thing while they were actually on the moon, and I'm not too surprised that the moon was unwilling to see itself declared as wet. Travel Agents would have started selling holidays carrying the tagline 'Swim in the Sea of Tranquility!', and no one wants that.

I suspect they've got the wrong moon. Earth has a second moon, it's rather small but it's there all the same traveling under the moniker of Cruithne, and it's really an asteroid traveling the same orbit around the sun as Earth, but it is more likely to contain water than the big one.

Actually there are currently 6 other moons sharing Earth's bit of space. If the universe is really so big you'd think they could move over a bit. What with all this and the giant ring they've just spotted around Saturn... I think I'm suffering from future shock.

See you on the dark side of the moon.

3 comments

Big government, little government...

Monday, 5. October 2009, 21:36:30

large, politics, george brown, government ...

I heard quite a bit about little government during the US election, and now during the UK's annual party shindigs I'm hearing a lot more. Everyone, we're led to believe, wants small government.

No they don't.

Certainly everyone thinks they want small government. They don't want these people interfering in their lives, and small government will obviously cost less so our taxes can come down (Yeah, right). In reality 'The government should do/have done something' is one of the most frequent phrases seen on news and documentary programmes. It seems that we all want small government until it affects us, then we think it should be slightly bigger so it could have "Done something."

I have, just lately, noticed a variation in this. None labourites are now inclined to say "George Brown should have done something". This is because polls show that Brown is less popular than his party, so they are aiming all their allegations of mismanagement at the man himself. Come the revolution all spin-doctors will be put up against the wall if I have any say in it...

Meanwhile, I kid you not, there has been a tragic, and surely preventable, loss of life in Scotland where two young girls have committed suicide by jumping off a bridge into the river below. Someone from vox-pop has just said on the radio "Someone should have done something. What are the government doing?"

I rest my case.

2 comments

The pink laptop returns.

Sunday, 4. October 2009, 22:46:40

Linux, xp, mandriva, windows ...

Any other Linux users out there having problems with Opera 10? Since upgrading I've not been able to fire up Opera, even by going to the file and clicking on the actual program. I know the XP version works, and I quite like it, trouble is the only thing I like about XP itself is that it's not Vista.

Why couldn't they have just kept on upgrading Windows 98? That's what I want to know.

It's a little strange to see how well programs that started life as Linux counterparts of expensive Windows programs are now running on Windows. I wish ports the other way worked so well. I guess the problem is the number of different versions of Linux there are. Windows programmers only have to work on maybe 3 or 4 variations, Linux has splintered into 3 figures, most of which will never really get the support they need. In fact Opera is one of the best at various distribution support.

Well, except when it doesn't work!!!