tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90290947804521300972024-03-04T20:07:41.434-08:00RattleboxJanehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.comBlogger312125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-7365609814799145802008-10-08T04:20:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.802-07:00New blogHi folks - just a last word to say that I have a new blog here: <A href="http://rattlebox-rcfairy.blogspot.com/">Rattlebox</A>
<DIV id=tagsLocation class="tags"><BR/>Tags: <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/New+blog" target=_blank rel=tag>New blog</A></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-32739832677739400702008-10-01T08:16:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.802-07:00Bloody AOL<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>AOLUK are dumping all journals from the end of this month, bastards.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Anyone interested in continuing to read can from now onwards find Rattlebox in its new home here:</FONT> <A href="http://rattlebox-rcfairy.blogspot.com/"><STRONG>Click here: Rattlebox</STRONG></A><STRONG> </STRONG></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I don't know who reads this blog apart from 2 or 3 who occasionally comment - and your comments have been very much appreciated - but whether you are a commentator or lurker, you'll be welcome on my new blog so please Fave the link up and sign up for notifications.</FONT></P>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-12293137541886156562008-09-29T09:21:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.802-07:00Marooned :O)<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>A bloke, having split from his girlfriend, decided to take a holiday. He booked himself on a cruise and proceeded to have the time of his life, that is, until the ship sank.<BR/><BR/>He found himself on an island with no other people, no supplies, nothing, only bananas and coconuts. After about four months, he is lying on the beach one day when the most gorgeous woman he has ever seen rows up to the shore. <BR/><BR/>In disbelief, he asks, 'Where did you come from? How did you get here?' She replies, 'I rowed from the other side of the island. I landed here when my cruise ship sank.'<BR/><BR/>'Amazing,' he notes. 'You were really lucky to have a row boat wash up with you.' 'Oh, this thing?' explains the woman. 'I made the boat out of raw material I found on the island. The oars were whittled from gum tree branches. I wove the bottom from palm branches, and the sides and stern came<BR/>from a Eucalyptus tree.'<BR/><BR/>'But, where did you get the tools?'<BR/><BR/>'Oh, that was no problem,' replied the woman. 'On the south side of the island, a very unusual stratum of alluvial rock is exposed. I found if I fired it to a certain temperature in my kiln, it melted into ductile iron. I used that for tools and used the tools to make the hardware.'<BR/><BR/>The guy is stunned.<BR/><BR/>'Let's row over to my place,' she says. After a few minutes of rowing, she docks the boat at a small wharf. As the man looks to shore, he nearly falls off the boat. Before him is stone walk leading to an exquisite bungalow painted in blue and white.<BR/>While the woman ties up the rowboat with an expertly woven hemp rope, the man can only stare ahead, dumb struck. As they walk into the house, she says casually, 'It's not much but I call it home. Sit down, please. Would you like a drink?'<BR/><BR/>'No! No thank you,' he blurts out, still dazed. 'I can't take another drop of coconut juice.' 'It's not coconut juice,' winks the woman. 'I have a still. How would you like a Pina Colada?'<BR/><BR/>Trying to hide his continued amazement, the man accepts, and they sit down on her couch to talk. After they have exchanged their stories, the woman announces, 'I'm going to slip into something more comfortable. Would you like to take a shower and shave? There is a razor upstairs in the bathroom<BR/>cabinet.'<BR/><BR/>No longer questioning anything, the man goes into the bathroom. There, in the cabinet, a razor made from a piece of tortoise bone. Two shells honed to a hollow ground edge are fastened on to its end inside a swivel mechanism. <BR/><BR/>'This woman is amazing,' he muses. 'What next?'<BR/></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>When he returns, she greets him wearing nothing but vines, strategically positioned, and smelling faintly of gardenias. She beckons for him to sit down next to her.<BR/>'Tell me,' she begins suggestively, slithering closer to him, 'We've been out here for many months. You've been lonely. There's something I'm sure you really feel like doing right now, something you've been longing for?'</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR/><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>She stares into his eyes ..<BR/><BR/><BR/>He swallows excitedly and tears start to form in his eyes....................</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>'F*****g hell, don't tell me you've got Sky Sports?' <IMG style="WIDTH: 38px; HEIGHT: 38px" height=19 src="http://cdn-cf.aol.com/se/smi/0201d246b6/02" width=19/></FONT></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-10716200397406498192008-09-19T11:39:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.803-07:00Barmouth<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJdGTERmtpT36Qpr3zhFPlOAKV03dthDvSDcU7g2iVqr71903ELr_0jj7g5xUnbHshjGFJ4YYXJBNrhbBMGerCCLSl4e1s6gQueDWo9SXgRF1hwep5BIBMVnqVywpv9dfnn3IAOEoHKWE/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZUurd1-*-U2Fv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>What a fab day. We went to one of our very favourite places, Barmouth on the Welsh coast, for a picnic lunch and a good long walk on the beach. Barmouth has old fashioned charm, a treasury of everything anyone over 40 remembers of family seaside holidays. A gorgeous stone walled harbour sits at the mouth of the beautiful estuary among narrow streets of slate roofed stone houses at the foot of steep rocky hills covered in bracken and heather. Sand dunes, rock pools, swing boats on the beach, stalls covered in racks of buckets and spades and a <EM>very</EM> small funfair with very subdued music playing. And it's all set in the most lovely scenery. It's one of the best places in Britain to get some sun on your back and sand in your toes.</FONT></P>
<P><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw2SPQ2FTcb5k5KKBAJGeBuGHRlP64OW5aTEHzcQi4qaxQwPkZbVKPeCY3ZZQ3Y6mNOGJVy-9tI76OV7cSKFIOI5Y9LQRL-fUkMDVXkouSUkI3n0uf28YAE5ukFc83XvKmthEOjMYJU3Q/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZTavqTIz*vwEv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></P>
<P><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhncg3NFCpDWBKphl62Q_6SkpJW102viu80NpNTA-08mtH5XZAZp3N2GbtQUkL4I8gsg91d3ABmtaKVlj_45zlKRbQnxcL5K98gj8M_OcC_OnVw_4ql0K6_afqoDj-C7jIeeppbwHM64MU/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZdZgfsFvgXpdv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></P>
<P><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXabJ2I9zMrq7oM44uTnCGaXilsiVA4C5V13MzTWev_9l3-Rp-726JLI6g5QGaAMgwiibX3PtEBfTjekl6X6l4yjz2DfITlMihUHYdjuwGSDlozCbudRT9mLpWN66g7bZRRqMuWjJRBdw/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZUYvbwxqmMszv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></P>
<DIV id=metrics contentEditable=false style="DISPLAY: none; FILTER: alpha(opacity=0)"><A href="http://technorati.com/tag/aoljpictureUpload" target=_blank rel=tag>aoljpictureUpload</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/aoljpictureUpload_4" target=_blank rel=tag>aoljpictureUpload_4</A></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-58074827728679227822008-09-19T00:58:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.803-07:00A puzzle.<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Here's a conundrum. An older woman becomes pregnant for the 5th time just months after getting a very highly ;paid powerful job. She is an outspoken anti-abortion campaigner. She decides to have an amniocentesis test to discover whether the foetus is 'normal'. She discovers that it is not. The logical inference is that she can only have had the test so that if necessary she could prepare her family for a future with a disabled child. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>But then she doesn't tell her family and when the infant is born and her elder daughter worries that the baby looks as if it possibly has Down's Syndrome she tells her that they will have to wait and see. So the initial inference was wrong because she didn't use the time and knowledge to help her other children come to terms with having a disabled sibling, in fact she prevaricated even when the evidence was before their eyes.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>So, why did she have the test? Is it because she knew that two of every five amniocentesis tests lead to loss of the foetus? </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Welcome to the principles of America's potential Vice President.</FONT></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-83818855182498995812008-09-02T10:56:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.803-07:00Success?<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>6 years ago when we first moved to this house with its very large garden I wanted to buy a sit-on mower. My husband was most reluctant because he is an absolute innocent about anything mechanical and he worried about not being able to fix it when little things went wrong, and also because we didn't have a vehicle we could use to transport the thing to the dealers for repairs & servicing. As a result we've spent all these years first using a very large and heavy petrol mower which almost killed me off, and then using a Stihl petrol strimmer which we both found much more manageable, and surprisingly perhaps, even at 3 hours minimum, quicker than a mower.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>It took 6 years, but today our new superduper Countax lawn tractor was delivered. It was raining so I just took it for a short circular test drive around a tree and then into the garage. Where I crashed it into a ladder, grazed the cabinet freezer and finally crushed the cat's boxbed. Result!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Isn't this a fab photo of Grace, Constance and Felix looking like chicks in a nest!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX7NiZjJ6cZsa-dg4LF4SHXgF9Orrc8JqW0O0qOuQW4HYcjYTEegXjsB6vIqw9zGZ9I98GSeSJxoV3IsWIIOv9SxJmsPQHzvDrVHk1DCKbClY9Nr2xIJ_2FlclTmB8vY75IxNbmmFHj8I/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZaYFdIo0esz4v4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>My other news is that a mere 8 months after making my New Year resolution to go scuba diving I've actually booked it. One week cruising the Jordanian Red Sea to Aquaba and a tootle by Moses' burning bush and striking water from rocks country followed by a week scuba diving at the beginning of February next year.This will be not only a first scuba holiday but also a first for actually keeping a NY resolution. Then again, scuba holidays are more likely to be kept than my usual weight-loss/more tolerant of dimwits doomed hopes. There's my top tip for successful NY resolutions - make them a treat rather than a threat :O)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV id=metrics contentEditable=false style="DISPLAY: none; FILTER: alpha(opacity=0)"><A href="http://technorati.com/tag/aoljpictureUpload" target=_blank rel=tag>aoljpictureUpload</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/aoljpictureUpload_1" target=_blank rel=tag>aoljpictureUpload_1</A></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-73578794911601560412008-08-21T10:38:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.804-07:00Is teenage pregnancy as sad a misfortune as we think?<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Young women across the whole of the less economically developed world have children at very young ages as happened in the west before industrialisation (and equal opportunities) came into play. We don't condemn rural peasant cultures where marriage and motherhood commence shortly after puberty, and even if we wish it were not so, then generally we appreciate the reasons for it - shorter life expectancy, lack of state social welfare provision, lack of health care, lack of education, lack of alternative lifestyle choices etc.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Here in the west tho single teenage motherhood is viewed by those not involved as a bad thing even when there are no economic costs to society - generally because of the notion that very young mums are damaging their own potential life chances and consequently those of their infants.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>But as we all know, over the past couple of decades it has become harder not easier for people to climb out of the socio-economic position they have been born into. A young girl born poor has little chance of becoming not-poor whether she becomes a teenage mum or not. In fact, research has found that poor teenage mums have very similar earnings trajectories to similarly poor young women who wait until their mid or late 20s to begin a family. These days having a baby at 14/15/16/17/18 does not economically disadvantage either the mother or the child in comparison to older poor mums.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Given the increasing likelihood in western societies that a woman will at least partially raise her children alone isn't it economically sensible for a poor young girl to choose to have her children while she still has the financial and practical support of her family rather than wait until she has no choice than to go it entirely alone?</FONT></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-3428728817259830742008-08-21T01:20:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.804-07:00Hey hey good lookin............<DIV><FONT size=2><FONT color=#3333ff>We</FONT> <FONT color=#3333ff>women are beseiged from a very young age by media exhortations to improve our appearance to fit the cultural norm in the beauty stakes, but how important in terms of actual measureable life opportunities is the possession of good looks? </FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>A Queensland Mayor recently caused a stir by suggesting that as there are 5 men to every woman in his city, women who are 'beauty-disadvantaged' should consider moving to live in his town where their chances of getting a male partner would be improved. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>There's some sense in this suggestion in economic terms in that scarcity value can often overcome prejudice - if you dearly want a beer and all that is on offer is what my husband calls rat pee, then by and by as your thirst increases you will be glad to get rat pee and may well pay over the market rate for it too. So if women believe that their lack of physical attractiveness is a significant factor in being unable to find a dearly desired life partner then it makes sense for them to up their chances by going where they have scarcity value. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>On the other hand, 'beauty-disadvantaged' women may not be desperate enough to replace Roger the Rabbit with some man who clearly has had very limited experience of how to relate to women as people rather than as sexual outlets if the man voted in as Mayor is an example of the local type. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>There is also the consideration that, as mining is the main form of employment in this particular town, any women moving there would in effect be narrowing their income opportunities to the sole expediency of wedlock and would in all likelyhood reduce the city's per capita income and increase its welfare benefit bill. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>The Mayor's suggestion therefore seems based not on the best interests of his city residents but on the chauvinist notion that every man deserves and/or needs sole access to a woman. In terms of moral and practical economic principle any women who take up his suggestion would be exchanging their sexual availability for a life of economic dependancy. There's a name for that.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Female residents of this city are incandescent that their Mayor has turned women into no more than sexual objects and have responded by declaring that while in their town the odds are good the goods are decidedly odd.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>A different take* on the advantage of good looks compared to the disadvantage of less conventionally good looks draws the interesting conclusion that where all other factors are taken into account - age, education, length of employment, qualifications, number of hours worked, parental education and expectations, height and weight - people of both genders who are generally rated as good looking or beautiful earn more than those rated as average, and that those rated as average earn more than those considered 'homely'. They conclude that this disparity in earnings, given that all other things are equal, is the result of 'pure prejudice' on the part of employers.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Now anti-discrimination legislation has been ennacted in several states in the USA to prevent denying employment on the basis of 'height, weight and personal appearance' and proposed elsewhere on the basis of 'facial features, build and height' (Philippines). A Vermont Supreme Court in 1992 ruled that a chambermaid's lack of upper teeth qualified as a handicap protected under Vermont's Fair Employment Protection Act and the movement to include suboptimal physical appearance as a legally protected handicap is growing apace.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>As the evidence grows of the impact of physical appearance on life opportunities we may find ourselves approaching an era when being less physically attractive than the ideal type is a legally accepted handicap and covered by equal opportunities legislation across much of the world. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Given that physical appearance is primarily a matter of genetic inheritance - but that it can be 'improved' by medical procedures - how soon shall we see someone suing their parents for neglecting the proven best interests of any potential child when choosing their sexual partner or, in the UK, suing the NHS for failing to ameliorate their 'handicap'?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>* <FONT face=Arial><A title=http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Hamermesh/BeautyAER94.pdf href="http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Hamermesh/BeautyAER94.pdf">http://www.eco.utexas.edu/faculty/Hamermesh/BeautyAER94.pdf</A> </FONT></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-77805074179805113042008-08-20T10:50:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.805-07:00My outdoor lav - enjoy! :O)<P><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZdS2uZB288KfHoM3pLr73DsIthxwWpVbgV0X1ftXtrMIdIdDz9HkFDha3qvOHuofmPR0jWmoJoLstA2VKZtNj1-aSCBehNwchG5ayLqk67PRpbkiL5vhVe1OJjNaOihi2LIpQ1-rKsZI/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZVncyEyra*eCv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I had a cortisone jab in my left shoulder this morning. I could have typed reams - would my now duff left arm allow - describing in horrid detail the absolutely dire pain which both caused me to have this jab and resulted from submitting to it. I further embarrassed myself by silently sliding off my chair onto the floor in a dead faint, my GP following my downward trend to finish the job as I lay prostrate and semi-conscious in a crumpled heap. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Instead I thought I'd just post a pic of my outdoor lav as a piece of expressive art denoting my feelings of lost dignity. If my shoulder doesn't improve following this torment I may post a pic of the lavatory pan. Fingers crossed that isn't necessary.</FONT></P>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-18120348946326395942008-08-15T03:06:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.805-07:00Good Lord!<P><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2><BR/><SPAN class=date>August 8, 2008, 12:48 PM EDT</SPAN><BR/><BR/></FONT></FONT><SPAN class=bodytext><FONT face=Arial size=2>Members of the East Central Narcotics Task Force arrested a West Hartford man was arrested after a short chase in South Windsor Thursday evening.<BR/><BR/>According to police, Almighty Supremebeing Allah, 35, of 119 Elmhurst St. West Hartford refused to stop for a marked cruiser and was detained about a mile down the road after the initial stop.<BR/><BR/>He was charged with Reckless Driving, Disobeying an Officers Signal, Interfering with an Officer, Criminal Attempt/Sale of Cocaine Criminal Attempt/Possession of Cocaine.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN class=bodytext><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT color=#3333ff><FONT face="Comic Sans MS">Imo his parents should be arrested too.</FONT> </FONT></FONT></SPAN></P>
<P><SPAN class=bodytext><FONT face=Arial color=#3333ff size=2>I wonder how often he's heard 'Oh My God' screamed into his pillowed ear <g></FONT></SPAN></P>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-40882930734586188272008-08-13T10:36:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.805-07:00Georgia on my mind<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Georgia -what's it all about really?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I don't know.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I read a lot of reports so that I could attempt some level of informed opinion.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I read that the 2 secessionist regions are areas of land which have been Georgian since Georgia began. That the population there are mainly Russian passport holders who don't want to abide by Georgian democracy. That these people are Muslim. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>It made me think of the possible future English scenario, once we have been firmly put into our separate EU Regions for, say, Lancashire and Yorkshire to want to secede from England and set up their own mini-states. The similarities to the Georgian issue would be very close - those counties are English since England began, and, if it ever came to pass, it would be because of Muslim Pakistani passport holders demanding secession. If the Pakistani government or even the EU sent in tanks to help the secessionists then I suspect there would be an armed struggle.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I thought, right on Georgians, don't let them get away with it. If these Russians don't like being governed by Georgians whilst living in Georgia then they can simply walk across the border to Russia. Let them go, or let them abide by the democratic decision making process. Staying in Georgia and then trying to take Georgian land from the Georgian people isn't on.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Okay, Go Georgians! </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Then I read more. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I read about the USA wanting to put nuclear weapons and Early Warning systems in their bases in the Ukraine until Russia said that such an action would be taken as a declaration of war. Then I read about Georgia knocking at NATOs door for admittance and thought about how then Georgia's armed forces, bases, airfields etc would also be Nato bases, airfields and armed forces. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I imagined how we Brits would feel if Russia, China, or anyone else were to take over Eire's military installations and put troops, tanks and nuclear facilities so close to the British mainland. How would we feel if some ancient enemy tried to surround us with military forces? We wouldn't be happy bunnies. We might send troops right on back into the Republic in an attempt to take the whole of Ireland into British control again. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Unless of course all this was being done by the French in which case I'd get my little dog to yap at them and send them scurrying back to France.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Hmmm, so now I don't quite blame the Russians either.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Then I thought about the sheer aggression of the Russian attacks on Georgia and remembered that when the same thing happened in the Kosovo region of Serbia with (Albanian) Muslims wanting secession the Russians supported the Serbs. So, the Russian military action isn't one of principle.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Putin is an old Cold War warrior with old Cold War ways of thinking.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Bush is in the thrall of US armaments manufacturers and fancies himself as an armchair warlord.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>An oil pipeline goes through Georgia. Hmmm.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I have ended up little wiser after spending quite some time reading and thinking about all this. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>My sole secure conclusion is that I think the Gordian Knot is mispelled.</FONT></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-34261100297270466892008-08-09T04:31:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.806-07:00Stung by tears and by my local council<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Wasn't the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony simply superlative? How can London ever hope to match it? I expect to be mortally embarrassed in 2012. I also expect Seb Coe to explain the national humiliation by whining about having a virus as he did without fail every time he lost a race.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>But I must be getting awfully emotionally shallow. I watched the opening ceremony from start to finish and, I'm a bit ashamed to admit, several times found myself getting teary - even the firework 'feet' got me surreptitiously reaching for a tissue. I know that much of the symbolism was hypocritical in light of the realité; the representation of the Chinese ethnic minorities for example, and the mass participation dove of peace thing to say nothing about the 'green' theme thing but it seems to me that the Olymics is all about ideals and so actualité is somewhat beside that idealistic point. </FONT><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I sat there like a completely wet ninny watching the little lad who supposedly sang to keep up the morale of his classmates who were buried alongside him by the Szechuan earthquake and even tho I thought the story was probably nothing but Chinese national morale raising propaganda I still came over all sentimental. Sentimental and a bit Jewish momma - I kept thinking 'his/her mother must be <EM>so</EM> proud!'</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I must be sickening for something.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Something else sickening was the council man who came out yesterday to sort out the wasps nest in my lawn. Parked, walked across the grass, stuck his spray nozzle down it, one squeeze, done. £34 for less than 3 minutes thank you. He spent more time telling me that his son who lives 10 minutes away would have done it for half the price.</FONT></P>
<DIV id=tagsLocation class="tags"><BR/>Tags: <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/Olympics" target=_blank rel=tag>Olympics</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/wasps" target=_blank rel=tag>wasps</A></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-4793409318668567092008-08-07T11:05:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.806-07:00Not NICE at all<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>A body of whom I've written a piece before: NICE (the National Institute for Clinical Excellence) - now there's a misnomer if ever I heard one - today ruled that kidney cancer patients may not have drugs to prolong their lives because at £30K pa it costs too much. Never mind the millions spent to prolong the lives of infants born with no kidneys, no bowels or no stomachs, or the millions frittered on removing tattoos or pinning 8 year old ears back. Today someone whom I regard as a genuine stoic and hero made a post on her blog. Please read it and email your local MP urgently.</FONT></P>
<P><A href="http://journals.aol.co.uk/spriteverdixx/a-journey-of-another-kind..../entries/2008/08/07/shocked-and-disgusted....../985">Shocked and disgusted......</A></P>
<P> </P>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-5219073632573968872008-08-07T09:14:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.807-07:00Asses, Arses, and the Law.<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Yesterday a couple of blokes were standing on an open air train platform and having a cigarette while they quietly waited for their train. A woman, who had apparently done the same thing earlier in the week, decided to harangue them and told them to put their cigarettes out. It ended with one of them pushing her away and she fell off the platform and broke her wrist.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Well, that's not a very nice thing to happen to her and it's regrettable that she had a fall. On the other hand being loudly and aggressively harangued by some nosy intrusive busybody when you are doing no harm to anyone, and then having them do it to you again the next time they see you also isn't very nice. I'm not at all glad that she got hurt but you know what? I'm glad that for once one of these self-righteous anti-smoking fascists found that while she may have been within in her legal rights to hassle these men, on this occasion it wasn't entirely without cost.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>The Times Online says:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#333333 size=2>The men made obscene gestures as she walked past them shortly after 7am, a police source told The Times. “She turned round and told them to grow up, and they pushed her. She stumbled backwards and fell on to the track. We don’t think they meant to push her on there. They were as surprised as she was.” </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Another bit of news was about a Scotsman who, when his elderly wife who looked after him wouldn't hand over cash for him to go boozing, strangled her until she was dead. The Judge said that prison wasn't the right place for him. Presumably the Judge thinks that relatives, neighbours, or the female care assistants and frail inmates of residential homes for the elderly would be much better able to physically handle a murderously violent elderly alcoholic better than could burly prison guards and tough convicts. This murderer was 'punished' by being told not to go to the pub for 12 months. That's it, that's his only punishment. Meanwhile his poor wife lies cold in the ground and he's ticking off the days whenhe can go to the pub instead of sending next door's nipper to the Off Licence.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>So, based on the above, what punishment will the blokes who pushed the woman get do you think?</FONT></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-69123017000405355062008-08-07T08:36:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.807-07:00Lazy days of summer.<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I've had a busy day today, mostly owing to crops ripening. I've made and frozen 2 ice cream containers of rattatouille made from all organic home grown red onions, garlic, tomatoes, yellow and green courgettes, orange peppers and purple aubergines. Then I picked a backbreaking 10lbs of blackcurrants and made a litre of blackcurrant cordial and 4 pints of sorbet. My kitchen tops got so splattered with concentrated blackcurrant juice that they look like they have some dread disease and I doubt they will ever recover.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>In the garden Gyp discovered the most gross humungous caterpillar, exactly the length of my index finger and at least as fat. It was an unbelievably fast mover but I managed to get it onto my husbands cap brim long enough to take a pic. It's the caterpillar of that equally horrifying moth I found in the kitchen sink a month or so ago. Crap pic but I think it still conveys the horror.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2><IMG height=258 src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLJfDNmq6TyD6zrGaq3ciALJ2-xSA0-a7D1-NBpLatb7tagUZEIhOu42nrK0ba3XoTBPdHdcaIzw33Ipe1t95nZWi84S2pGTVWYFX5NIXjIPdPocWXWIrWpnfAd52dQZ8iUeUOLg8KQ10/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZYhNRobOoq1Uv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm" width=329/></FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>We also have a very busy underground nest of digger wasps. The local authority pest control man is coming out tomorrow to get rid of them as we have Grace and her little friend here from Sunday and the last thing I need is two tots with fat stung legs. £34.50 it's going to cost, isn't that disgraceful?</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP7Iwf3dk1tkDJvfaz2taDIkjA7VL3Vtx9ReyPKsMqA9kPdSJfmyZWEABsTOdcyPQR7rSjIOal3N3R_OrtOw_Ov49YlgxHQmGBw0Ao5Us8ZRX3Qh2bfTJK2GK1CFJAZPvT3QQHH24QPU8/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZZzNMB4svOABv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>We are inundated with teensy little frogs, some of them a hundred yards from their pond and one poor little thing we found drowned in the pets' courtyard water bowl.</FONT></P>
<DIV id=metrics contentEditable=false style="DISPLAY: none; FILTER: alpha(opacity=0)"><A href="http://technorati.com/tag/aoljpictureUpload" target=_blank rel=tag>aoljpictureUpload</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/aoljpictureUpload_1" target=_blank rel=tag>aoljpictureUpload_1</A></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-59583251061983158632008-08-04T04:00:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.808-07:00More summer visitors<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>As soon as Constance and her friend Esme had been collected </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWt7T4tu3cYlEUd_1_aYwuJgAoI7a0icQPtKtM3RV7O1i4aH_lsWC56rVRQXSGpVZ8XmMEGtCgyi2ZX_mL8K3Nq7bNfayLHlkcqPtov6J-kg95_nenzS3a38j7QswoTFTpCZNZ4a5vVwQ/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZYWjO7LxKYvQv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>by Felix and his Mum</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2vPffQriPEMimFgve3eHbit791-ryaZTKId6TwgiJDdZcnaQeTx9y-wfp2Th0FxchYFQ2FPCKAZH1YPSFlFs7EET141zGXVlARLHbJVyqwt2zTBEnLf551JU1XmYxvpKxKuoawHDd7Hw/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZeCWF0aJHEhUv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>our youngest granddaughter Imogen</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaFoGEUBDJXYME6h3yA2nd3-ZC9J2vc_NNS624KTLLb1V7V1OMdDJF4JBfxAIB-MZWfbYj6wGmIeiuKfi80rq7MQ5Lo07tjoK5hGAvxv5aR7JSLELqg-wlcBH-aOCUN5PqbExx9myY7XA/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZWnV5Xue0RBGv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/> </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>and her parents came for a long weekend and on Saturday we went to the Oswestry Show. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFmCf7qZYgFNDw22_N8QM5a1doW-3FhKxPxAb5l3jPsLEgsN7mCwbxAl43qLHPd3yLIADHn2e_ZmvzFqM2ZWPsBQHIXCohUnOEmJcB3ww3pb1nepTWRGcURwQFswQ3ki7ub4tjClvloYI/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZa71wZpadeFMv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/> </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Just after I took this photograph the cow blew a massive snort at Immy and she fell over backwards in shock. I almost fell over in shock myself.</FONT></P>
<P><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjav9oBHFu51Z8SIUF8WHXO_weEIXSJl-AkwKuNHl1NkopMYqJQ_EQZcyIARhvHhLuzaTVLrfiPTU7Bz4YqrJrMrEK3NTFEpMBnOqTWS5wUbUv6ZuhF7Gqug_F0MWvguG3nN8ILYi1CEng/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZUGUof1OEhDkv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Now we have a few days clear and then Grace and her friend Eleanor will be with us for a week. I'm definitely moving to the wrong side of the tracks in Nuneaton before next summer :O)</FONT></P>
<DIV id=metrics contentEditable=false style="DISPLAY: none; FILTER: alpha(opacity=0)"><A href="http://technorati.com/tag/aoljpictureUpload" target=_blank rel=tag>aoljpictureUpload</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/aoljpictureUpload_5" target=_blank rel=tag>aoljpictureUpload_5</A></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-4254528168267596712008-08-01T01:31:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.808-07:00Connie<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I've had Constance and her little friend staying for the week:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_bgG2hMUK4kfVvBlV5f6JfVW50fMNqAPvmtCJclt-Q2lgchytAe50AZIgG0ZOScNzcteeSVXTS9B0pHiIK_Og9_jqLnszIlkbJzaK651Lbh6XTrQaKgZ84t-c5XEGXi4msGKIn2BQK0Y/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZQNQa-zZusu1v4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>They came with us to get our dog and cat boostered up and asked why they had to have a jab when they weren't poorly. To stop them catching anything says I, forgetting how literal 6 year olds can be.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Later, back at home Connie told me the jab hadn't worked on the dog, because 'she can still catch sticks Granny'.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Later today Imogen comes for a long weekend and next Sunday Grace and her friend for a week. Sometimes I think I need a much smaller house. And coloured bedlinen.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV id=metrics contentEditable=false style="DISPLAY: none; FILTER: alpha(opacity=0)"><A href="http://technorati.com/tag/aoljpictureUpload" target=_blank rel=tag>aoljpictureUpload</A>, <A href="http://technorati.com/tag/aoljpictureUpload_1" target=_blank rel=tag>aoljpictureUpload_1</A></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-18660849714265644612008-07-25T11:25:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.809-07:00Detouring<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>We went out to lunch in Bishop's Castle today and took a detour onto some high heathland behind White Grit where we parked up and took an uphill walk on a rough and stony path through bracken to the high tops. There on sheep cropped grass which was spangled with harebells and tormentil we came across a 3000 year old Bronze Age stone circle on a hilltop. Leaning against those warm lichen encrusted stones I wished, as so often I do at these times, that I could be transported back to see what they had represented to their builders and what ceremonials they been used for and by whom. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>A few yards outside the circle was the site of a recent large fire which we supposed may have been lit during the Summer Solstice, Bishop's Castle being something of a bohemian habitation - Druidical bookshops, whole earthers, crystal healers, that sort of thing being more common there than Mace Grocers.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>From the stone circle we were able to see across to another height where there was an equally ancient barrow and we climbed again to walk around it. Then, making our way down by a different route, we came across a scruffy old van, side door wide open, sound system fairly ramped and a certain herbal fragrance in the air. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>In a high and wild place such as that, on a hot summers morning, well, I dragged my husband off the look at a nice big camper van en route home after lunch. Mind, at £40K+ onroad costs I think if I take to the travelling life it will have to be in a bender.</FONT></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-12580126320850306582008-07-24T09:11:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.809-07:00Sex Bomb!<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>What a dreadful shock for the poor wife of Max Mosley to see in that scurrilous rag The News Of The World that he'd been paying good money to have himself smacked on the bottom and shouted at by no less than five prostitutes at once. All those times when what she most wanted was to give him a damn good slap and telling off and now she discovers that not only would he have liked her more for doing it, but he'd have shelled out big bucks too. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>But my heart goes out even more to any Mosley children. Reading this stuff about your dad is weird enough even if your dad doesn't have a spooky embarrassing father of his own to live down as Mosley does. At least I suppose the Judge has said that there's no actual evidence that Max was acting out his dad's dream of being smacked by blonde female members of the Gestapo so there is, I suppose, a little comfort there BUT think on.....</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>the absolutely worst, most humiliating revelation of all, and one which will smash his children's (and grandchildren's) street cred down into oblivion's depths is that, after his caning, after the cries of 'Who's been a very naughty boy then?' had died down, Max and the five blonde dominatrix all sat down and had a nice cup of tea. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff><FONT size=2>How English, how laughably unsexy, how obvious that the public-school educated Judge would find in Mosley's favour. Brothers in arms - I should say so!</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-84145365875352067372008-07-17T09:44:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.810-07:00OI, where are MY royalties??<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>A few entries ago I mooted the potential of high decibel James Blunt as a Weapon of Mass Destruction (<A href="http://journals.aol.co.uk/rcfairy/Rattlebox/entries/2008/06/24/ban-this-ban-that-whats-the-world-coming-to/535">Click here: Ban this ban that, what's the world coming to????</A>). It would appear that the CIA really do spy on blogs because they have stolen my idea, tweaked it a bit to avoid my tort for theft of intellectual property rights, and put it into practice. Prisoners in Guantanamo Bay are being bombarded non-stop with David Gray's 'Babylon' at top volume. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I have just two observations on this 1) if the poor beggars are still holding out after this cruel torment then they <EM>must</EM> be innocent and 2) I appear to have missed my natural calling. Tho some of my kids wouldn't agree there.</FONT></P>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-70489908189545819202008-07-16T08:44:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.810-07:00Summer is a comin.......going, going, gone.<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Yesterday was summer! Okay, it's over now but it was great to have a hot day. A view from the back garden:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikOi1fumf_Qvwt3o4JfYYUKgGJhu16qqahkx_9VenKQ5tE_RY5p9kA-7EACMtglE12nvibNNEdC1Q8edZIUjrDA1RTf41hory0lNarJXMhjhTG0nnS3j3CRCEeLv0stBp8I4ImzQq8PDw/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZfSJvpaV3PDtv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>View from the courtyard gate:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiorIYOPrax_grMVf2s_V_8JDv58UVee0xijzV-B-A0RoCSu1yxOVptEITvfYTJnC1Jszusf3zZnlctlKdhlWIKMRci3g3iousCOVW9Gw6oc6904_2eUrfHA9KRYA-5bDMFoCntB9TA5Ak/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZYAo6Yhi0FENv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>We spent the morning working in the garden, in my case giving the orchard its first strim since December - absolutely knackering, especially the 4th time I went over it. The trees now look as if they're ankle deep in chaff. I'm thinking about burning it off. My hub is thinking about having me committed <g></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>But my morning slog was not so knackering that I couldn't find the energy for a long walk up in the hills behind Pystill Rhaydr in the early evening altho half way up I did wonder whether the rewards would be sufficient compensation for the pain in my calfs. Steep barely describes it, but once I was up there, fantastic. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8bYZSdYwLsT8TTydIBaJV5QjBezJzG0iLouUgvUhoaLm19_TvKh1ZmjZ3geSJRrtsQHNwBOkLCx_kZaobszoZRS2bNlm8eO5n11Yh3lJn19mujlAJbZZonJ4QJ3JO3a559HW_RmN7EWE/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZXWG4AiYnnizv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>There's absolutely nothing as wonderful as being in a beautiful place with not one soul nor one habitation nor one road in sight. Ravens, whitears, sheep and me. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Up near the top, miles from any farm I came across an old sheep dip. Work related structures fallen into disuetude as this sheep dip has always make me think of the lives of the men who used them, long gone from the hills and maybe lost at Mafeking, the Somme or in some Japanese prison camp:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><IMG src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFxobjmyJiB3yA8MiOtd60Iq531th9zZur3m8Mlm6tJHwOkWzHOrnFmtG03Xpiet_aZscrJEBRp8MO3idq26os-o3GXo7vV0GLhmFt5ZKWanVNvkqURqz2gD7cRFKNiyAWBINQim_zPhY/s1600-r/pic%3Fid=da10le-gk7qljQinqkJ*xr1ZZViyK2d6u7Ouv4xQp5Fd3Ig%3D%26size%3Dm"/></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Mind, when it comes to summers they had the best of it - ask any oldie! :O)</FONT></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-85760589387216786792008-07-16T08:03:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.810-07:00Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Expectant parents spend literally months reading endless published Baby Name lists and having fraught conversations about the forename they will give their infant. It's one of the ever-present banes of (other people's) pregnancy in my opinion but then I've never been very imaginative.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I've been reading a research paper written by economists S. Levitt and R. G. Fryer Jr. and expanded to a chapter in the very entertaining and fascinating 'Freakonomics' by Levitt and Dubner. The paper looks at the gulf between black and white culture in the USA. One very noticeable difference in cultural indicators is that black parents give their children names that are starkly different to those given to white children. (and of course vice versa). The paper: </FONT><A href="http://ideas.repec.org/a/tpr/qjecon/v119y2004i3p767-805.html"><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>The Causes and Consequences of Distinctively Black Names</FONT></A><FONT color=#3333ff size=2> is summarised below:</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>This research was based on an extremely large and detailed data source of data: birth registration information for every child born in California since 1961 - more than 16 million births. It included standard items like name, gender, race, birthweight, and the parents' marital status, as well as more telling factors: the parents' ZIP code (which indicates socioeconomic status and neighbourhood racial composition), their means of paying the hospital bill for the birth (again, an economic indicator), and their level of education.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>The California data establish just how differently black and white parents have named their children over the past 25 years or so - a side-effect maybe of the Black Power movement. The typical baby girl born in a black neighbourhood in 1970 was given a name that was twice as common among blacks than whites. By 1980, she received a name that was <EM>20 times</EM> more common among blacks than whites. (Boys' names moved in the same direction but less so - parents of all races apparently less adventurous with boys' names than girls'.) </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Today, more than 40% of the black girls born in California in a given year receive a name that not <EM>one</EM> of the roughly 100,000 baby white girls received that year. Even more remarkably, nearly 30% of the black girls are given a name that is unique among every baby, white <EM>and</EM> black, born that year in California!</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>The data offer a clear picture of which parents are most likely to give a child such a distinctively black name: unmarried, low-income, undereducated, teenage mothers from black neighbourhoods who themselves have distinctively black names. Giving a child a super-black name would seem to be a black parent's signal of solidarity with her community. White parents, meanwhile, often send as strong a signal in the opposite direction - more than 40% of the white babies are given names that are at least four times more common among whites than blacks. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>The California names data offer the opportunity, by subjecting this data to regression analysis, to tease out the effect of any one factor (in this case, a person's first name) on her future education, income, and health. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>The data show that, on average, a person with a distinctively black name - whether it is a woman named Precious or a man named DeShawn - does have a worse life outcome than a woman named Emma or a man named Jake.<EM> But it isn't the fault of his or her name</EM>. If two black girls, Uniqque Williams and Claire Williams, are born in the same neighbourhood and into the same family and economic circumstances, they would likely have similar life outcomes. But the kind of mother who names her daughter Claire doesn't tend to live in the same neighbourhoods or share economic circumstances with the kind of mother who names her daughter Uniqque. And that's why, on average, a girl named Claire will tend to earn more money and get more education than a girl named Uniqque. Parental income and educational level is the prime factor in the child's own eventual socioeconomic position. Uniqque's name is an indicator - <EM>but not a cause</EM> - of her life path.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>In my work I tend to see a lot of forenames of school age children. Generally, altho I've not compiled my very own data set so this is no more than an anecdotal observation: the children attending 'good' or 'excellent' schools as judged by Ofsted tend to have very different forenames to those attending 'satisfactory' or 'inadequate' schools. Jack and Harry, Olivia and Jessica even on those uncommon occasions where they attend the same school are not found in the same academic sets as Jayden and Chokota , Alexus and Madonna - but are most often not found in the same school. As Levitt and Fryer conclude, it's not the names themselves which account for the difference in life outcomes, but that the names they are given indicate their parents' life position - and parents socio-economic position is the foremost and principal determinant of the child's. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Having said that when we hear that someone is named Chokota I believe that we form prejudgements about them, about their abilities, habits and expectations - and those prejudgements themselves are an important limiting factor. (Unless of course it happens to be Chokota Beckham in which case we'll assume that they've had the best education money can provide.) The reverse, imo, is true when we hear a child is named Tristram or Miranda - our expectations of them are set by a prejudgement based on their forename only.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff><FONT size=2>So, imo, whatever our social class it's important that we give our children forenames that at the very least will not prejudice their life chances. Those interminable hours spent coming up with suggestions and arguing about whether baby is to be a John or a Jodrell actually <EM>are</EM> absolutely crucial.</FONT> </FONT></P>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-4019922655530130512008-07-12T09:45:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.811-07:00Population and some thoughts on abortion.<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>A poster on the GPN board has for years regularly proclaimed the dire need for stringent population controls to solve the world's problems and over the past few days I've been making discoveries about the most famous case, China, with its rigorously and forcibly enforced one child per family law.</FONT></DIV>
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<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>20 years ago ultrasound scanning came into widespread use in China and Asia generally and gave pregnant women a cheap and readily available means to discover the sex of their unborn foetus. The results, by the million, are now coming to maturity in Bangladesh, India, Taiwan and China. By choosing to abort females and give birth to males millions of Asian parents have propelled the region into a unique experiment in the social effects of gender imbalance.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>As a result of foetal gender selection the natural (universal non-selective) balance of about 105 male births to 100 female has grown to around 120 male births for every 100 female births in China. The imbalance is even higher in some locales; 136 males to 100 females on the island of Hainan, an increasingly prosperous tourist resort, and 135 males to 100 females in central China’s Hubei Province. According to the China Family Planning Association Lianyungan, a booming port, has the most extreme gender ratio for children under four - 163 boys for every 100 girls. There are currently 37 million more young men than young women in China. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Similar patterns can be found in Taiwan, with 119 boys to 100 girls; Singapore, 118 boys to 100 girls; South Korea, 112 boys to 100 girls; and parts of India, 120 boys to 100 girls.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>(China, India, and other nations have now outlawed the use of prenatal diagnostic techniques to select the sex of an unborn child but a suitably compensated ultrasound technician need only smile or frown at the expectant mother or father.)</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Many of these excess boys will be and are poor and rootless, a lumpenproletariat without the consolations of marriage and family. Prostitution, sex tourism, and homosexuality may ease their unfulfilled urges, but Asian societies are witnessing far more dramatic solutions. Chinese police statistics recorded 65,236 arrests for female trafficking in 1990–91 alone. Updated numbers are hard to come by, but it’s apparent that the problem remains severe. Mass sexual frustration is thus adding a potent ingredient to an increasingly volatile Chinese mix of problems that include surging economic growth, urbanization, drug abuse, and environmental pollution.</FONT></P>
<DIV style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN-LEFT: 8px"><A title=http://foreignpolicy.advertserve.com/servlet/click/zone?zid=4&cid=78&mid=116&pid=0&default=false&random=76130561&timestamp=20080712032445&test=false&referrer=http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3377&redirect=https://www.kable.com/pub/frnp/fpSubscriptionOffer.asp href="http://foreignpolicy.advertserve.com/servlet/click/zone?zid=4&cid=78&mid=116&pid=0&default=false&random=76130561&timestamp=20080712032445&test=false&referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.foreignpolicy.com%2Fstory%2Fcms.php%3Fstory_id%3D3377&redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.kable.com%2Fpub%2Ffrnp%2FfpSubscriptionOffer.asp" target=_top><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT></A><A title=http://foreignpolicy.advertserve.com/servlet/click/zone?zid=4&pid=0&lookup=true&position=1 href="http://foreignpolicy.advertserve.com/servlet/click/zone?zid=4&pid=0&lookup=true&position=1" target=_blank></A></DIV>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Beijing expects that it may have as many as 40+ million frustrated bachelors by 2020. The regime, always nervous about social control, fears that they might generate social and political instability. What are the chances hmm? Well, China watchers are already seeing signs of growing criminality; over the past decade, as the (post ultrasound) boys have hit adolescence, the country's youth crime rate has more than doubled.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>One might assume that China’s economic growth will solve the problem, as prosperity removes the traditional economic need for poor rural peasants to have sons who can work the land but the numbers don’t support that theory. Indeed, the steepest imbalance between male and female infants is found in the most prosperous regions, such as Hainan Island and Lianyungan. </FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>The long-term implications of the gender imbalance are largely guesswork because there is no real precedent for imbalances on such a scale. A Beijing powerstruggle between cautious old technocrats and aggressive young nationalists may be decided by mobs of rootless young men, demanding uniforms, rifles, and a chance to liberate Taiwan. A study undertaken under the aegis of the CIA suggested “in 2020 it may seem to China that it would be worth it to have a very bloody battle in which a lot of their young men could die in some glorious cause.”</FONT></P>
<P><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>In contrast a study in the USA into criminality and specifically the sudden drop in crime rates in the 1990s suggested that the legalisation of abortion in 1973 was a key factor. By 1980 1.6 million abortions were carried out annually - almost 1 abortion to each 2 live births. </FONT></P>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>The smaller birth cohort resulting from the legalisation of abortion means that when that cohort reaches the late teens and twenties, there will be fewer young males in their highest-crime years, and thus less crime. As each year cohort reaches adolescence and adulthood and older cohorts mature beyond the most usual age for criminal behaviour (18 - 24) the crime rates will drop year on year - and that's what has happened in the USA ever since 1992 when the first post-Roe v Wade legalisation of abortion cohort reached the age of 18/19. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>As interesting is the possibility that children born since abortion became legal in the USA may on average have lower subsequent rates of criminality for either of two reasons. First, women who have abortions are those most at risk of raising children likely to engage in criminal activity; socially immature teenagers and the economically disadvantaged are all substantially more likely to abort and recent studies have found children born to these mothers to be at higher risk for committing crime in adolescence. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Secondly, the 5 states which legalised abortion in 1970, <EM>before</EM> Roe v Wade saw drops in crime <EM>before</EM> the other 45 states. States with higher rates of abortion have had a 30% drop in crime relative to low abortion-rate states since 1985. The analysis and comparison of statistical data suggests that around 50% of the drop in US crime rate between 1991 and 1997 can be accounted fro by the legalisation of abortion: v</FONT><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>irtually all of the crime decrease can be attributed to reductions in crime among the cohort born after abortion was legalised - there is no change in crime amongst older cohorts born before Roe v Wade.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>These research outcomes pointing as they do to particular conclusions pose some difficult ethical questions and I'd be very glad to have your considered comments.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Links to research available if required. :O)</FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-9095823610750339672008-07-03T08:36:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.811-07:00Having a breakdown :O(<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>This morning my pc monitor went kaput - black screen and no amount of rebooting helped. I was totally thrown for a few minutes and even called a local repairman to see if he could instantly come out but he was ill.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>After a few minutes I realised that what I thought at the outset was doubtless correct - the monitor had just packed up, I'd not caused it and I couldn't repair it. I'm fortunate that I can go buy a new one and I did, I got a 19" Belnea from Staples for £99.99. Getting it fixed up to my pc was a pain because it means lugging the desk out to get at the back and then there are all those sodding wires to deal with but I did it and voila the screen display was perfick.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Then I kept getting booted. I pulled the desk out again and checked all the things pushed in the back (pardon the technospeak here), checked my phone line and filter were properly plugged in but I eventually went to Live Help. Who were not actually awfully helpful apart from telling me there is no server problem. So I went to the Tech boards and yes, someone else was having exactly the same problem with being booted off aol. Now however, a couple of hours later all seems well.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>The thing is my tummy is still churning 6 hours later, couldn't eat any lunch, and I'm as anxious as hell in case my husband can't fulfill his contract and submit his work when he gets home tomorrow. I've already worked out that he can simply stick his document on his key fob thing and pop along the road to an online neighbour and send it on from there, but this anxiety just won't go away.</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>I've had this sort of thing before when I was much younger but it was usually associated with money worries or washing machine breakdowns and therefore rational. This now seems irrational - there was a hardware problem and I sorted it, there was a software problem but now it seems ok and in any event I have a good fallback plan. So why am I still so bloody anxious, what's up with me?</FONT></DIV>
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<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Polite answers on a postcard please :O)</FONT></DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9029094780452130097.post-20134390568116699402008-07-02T04:38:00.000-07:002008-10-15T06:46:13.811-07:00Isn't this a good idea!<DIV><FONT color=#3333ff size=2>Instead of Police Record checks and CRB checks which are based on the demeaning notion that we are all possibly ex cons, wouldn't it be great if we in the UK had access to something like this?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/LocateInmate.jsp">Federal Bureau of Prisons - Inmate Locator</A> </DIV>Janehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12243498106528638696noreply@blogger.com0