The Waller Blog

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March to September 2006

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Everything has a downside

We would all like to save the environment; but sometimes it costs more to save something than the benefit obtained.

• It is so cheap to go by air with such a great cause of pollution; and costs as much or more to holiday in the UK.
• You could have hot water instantly from your tap instead of letting the tap run for several seconds; but this means a ring-main round every tap in the house and a little pump to drive the hot water around.
• It must cost more to collect and reprocess the recyclables, cans, plastic, paper, glass, than the value of the stuff; and every household has to spend time worrying about it.
• Nuclear power is more eco-friendly than coal produced power; but there is a small risk of something going wrong.
• It would be more eco-friendly to produce your own heat and power with a wind-turbine, solarvoltaic panels or solar water heating, a heat pump, or Micro-Combined Heat and Power; but all these things are expensive.
• Wind farms sound good when you are sitting in an office in London, but they are a visual intrusion for everyone within several miles of where they are sited.
• The government want us all to insulate the cavity walls of our houses; the architects say that cavity walls have a purpose, to keep the damp out.
• The police do a good job clearing up the mess after a motorway accident; but why must both carriageways be kept closed for hours.
• Cable and satellite TV users get 70 or more channels, but whenever you switch channels you get three minutes of advertising.

I hate animation on websites

www.telegraph.co.uk/ is a splendid site and I do not have ride up to the shops to bring home another tree to see the news, but gosh how I hate the moving images on the advertising. What do I have to do to still this nonsense.

And no, I do not know that the advertiser is selling. My brain is concentrated on blanking it out.

There are certainly three things that can move - scrolling 'marquee' text, .gifs, and flash. It is difficult to stop all three. Flash is the most tiresome but is probably a PC option to cripple.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/uk/ is similar, and has similar annoying flashy things.

Unaddressed mail
Customers who want to opt out of receiving unaddressed material from Royal Mail can either ring: 08457 740740, go to email: optout@royalmail.com, or write to: Door to Door Opt Out, Royal Mail, Kingsmead House, Oxpens Road, Oxford, OX1 1RX. Unaddressed mail from the Government or from the local council will not be stopped.

Those who wish to avoid receiving addressed junk mail can contact the Mail Preference Service by calling 0845 703 4599. or www.mpsonline.org.uk

If you are in business you can check whether people you are cold-calling are registered at: www.numbercheck.co.uk/

I gather the problem is going to get worse; there used to be a limit of three items per week. In order to get more revenue, there is now no limit.

Changing the Date Format

But as half the nation is still on Fahrenheit, miles, pounds, and gallons this is only part of the problem.

25 August 2006

Blackberry Addiction
No it's not a fruit this time. It's a handheld mobile phone with a decent display and a full alpha keyboard. Get one and you will never be restricted from checking your Email, or sending crisp messages to associates and friends. And they will all send messages back. Its exciting. So at breakfast lunch and tea, during the commercials on TV, or when you get up in the middle of the night to have a pee, you just have a quick check to see what people have sent you. It's called Blackberry Addiction and a lot of people catch it. To help you, one hotel offers to put your blackberry in the hotel safe and let you have it just once a day.

Is this the same as the passion everyone has for swopping text messages on their mobiles. Have we all given up talking to actual people.

On an associated point, was homan speech develped just for gossip, not for conveying facts?

22 August 2006

Cat Safety Screen
What they really need here is a cat safety screen from my friends at PetershamProducts.co.uk It is my favourite picture, by Jane Swanborough on the Isles of Scilly, showing the harbour at St Mary's. The cat who has no name looks so completely relaxed. Maybe the bird feather has something to do with it.

16 August 2006

Do you own a tie?
Why is it no one, except perhaps President Bush, wears a tie these days? Is it just the hot weather. Or are we dumbing down to the lowest denominator. You see leading politicians with collar open. Go to church on Sunday and people are in T-Shirts. We went to quite a posh restaurant and the girls looked smart, but the men looked as if they had all come straight off the beach. Brace up men. Get smart.

What does your lawn look like?
With practically no rain for the last two months, just 1.4ins for June and July, most lawns round here are suffering. Only lawns with weeds are green at all. My house was built on the site of a nursery and the line of the greenhouse walls can be clearly seen. Down on the Greensward you can clearly see where the WW2 blockhouses were sited. When it rains perhaps it will all recover.

There is a man round here who will guarantee a perfect lawn. He will weed. feed, cut, trim, and scarify, an all-the-year-round task. But it will cost you.

People seem to like stripes. Some contractors have mowers that will do this, Priced that way they should charge, say, one pound per stripe.

6 August 2006

Worthing Triathlon 6 August
Held on Goring beach each year: sea swim 1.5km - bike 43km - run 10km. 260 competitors. Won this year by a Frenchman, with other places from Oxford and Sevenoaks. A lot of local entrants further down the list and a big crowd of supporters even at 7am for the start. A dry day with flat calm, sea temporature 17 C. Ideal weather. Excellent. www.rawenergypursuits.co.uk

3 August 2006

The kangaroo urban myth
With my name being what it is, the Wallaby is an important mammal. Its brother, the kangaroo was first discovered in Australia by Captain Cook. He brought back its skin and asked painter George Stubbs to make a picture from it. He inflated the skin, and this is the finished picture at Parham House. The name kangaroo was said to be aboriginal for "I do not know its name", but now we find that several other animals are said to mean this as well, so kangaroo is indeed its name in its own right.

Seven Man-Made Wonders
A splendid 11 part BBC2 series started 27 July with South West England, and on 3 August for the West Midlands. No show on 10 August, but perhaps they will tell us soon what area is coming next. http://www.bbc.co.uk/england/sevenwonders/

Broadband, Phone, TV, WiFi
Now everyone is competing to sell me services, and 70,000 households a week are signing up for broadband, the BBC2 TV programme last evening tells me that this is becoming just another utility, like gas and electricity. BT seem to be concentrating on WiFi and value for money. Talk-Talk seems be overloaded with customers and have delays in delivery. Sky have a service via satellite which I do not quite understand. And there are dozens of others. I am happy with NTL TV+Broadband and BT phone. Perhaps I ought to switch again?

Emma the Schnauzer
Emma has just been trimmed. We think she looks much smarter.

Before

After

The Human Brain
The human brain can sort out many things. Here are a set of visual challenges to see how good you are.
www.waller.co.uk/HumanBrain/HumanBrain.htm

Tea Tree Oil
The tea tree, which grows in Australia, is not a lot to do with the tea which you drink which grows on a bush. Leaves from the tea tree can indeed be used to make a refeshing drink, but the chief thing from the leaves is an oil that seems to cure everything, cuts, bruises, acne, fungus, symptoms of HIV you name it. It has a fairly strong scent. People tell me it is not snake oil; full of vain promises. It does indeed work. Available at your friendly neighbourhood pharmacy.
www.vitacost.com/science/hn/Herb/Tea_Tree.htm

Golf Jargon
Because Hoylake is over this year, well done Tiger Woods, lets get these golfing jargon terms down ready for next time.

Par - the standard strokes for a hole
Birdie - one under par
Eagle - two under par
Albatross - three under par
Bogie - one over par
Brassie - antique 2-wood
Cleek - antique 1-iron or 4-wood
Mashie - antique 5-iron
Mashie Niblick - antique 7-iron
Niblick - antique 9 iron
Mulligan - second shot allowed free after a miss-hit

20 July 2006

Get your car tax disc on line
I hate to say this about a government website, particularly when they are extracting money from me, but www.direct.gov.uk/taxdisc really works quite well.

Instead of posting a mountain of papers off to Swansea or wherever, or queuing for hours at one of the few post offices that do taxdiscs, just fill in a short form on line. The system will check the database that you have the MOT test on the car, and check from another database that you have valid insurance, and the tax disc for the car windscreen duly arrives 5 days later.

There really are some useful websites out there.

Mind you, I read today that the Audit Office says there is only a one in twenty chance of you being caught for having no tax disc.

22 June 2006

Happy Birthday Casper
Casper is eight today. This is a special birthday photo of him with the Spalding's new dog Emma.
Many happy returns.

A local artist we admire
Brenda Brooks paints some splendid local pictures, currently on display at Whibley's in Warwick Street, Worthing as well as at some exhibitions. We chose this one because of the dog. Why not?
www.brendabrooksart.co.uk/

Bill Ward famous pin-ups
Bill Ward is famous for these cartoon pin-ups.
More on    Gallery1/2   Gallery3/4

And here is another fun link you might try www.original-cards.com/

Competitions on TV
Question: What is the French for Little?

Later: I read (Mail on Sunday 17 Sept 06) that 200,000 people do phone for these 'competitions', only half get a chance to even lodge their answer, and ITV made £20M profit last year on this. There is growing awareness that this is a scam and should be stopped. In addition we hear that two million people voted for 'How do you solve a problem like Maria' on Satuday evening. At maybe £1 a call.

Animal Picture Gallery
I had forgotton this one though it is on my website. Go ahead and cheer yourself up this morning!
www.waller.co.uk/fun/animals

Passport Photos
Why do the UK Passport Office insist on having such miserable photos on passports. These are the ones that I have on file. Guess which one they used.

1 August 2006

Passport Photos Comment
Nice blog! Very grownup (unlike many others). Nice clean look to it, too. I figured they would choose Passport-photo No.3 — it would be the same in the US, only we do not get a chance to provide a selection.
ktinkel

Levels of Management

I liked this one. Which government body is similar to this?

It comes from sublimedirectory which is well worth a visit every day.

A new pair of shoes
My beautiful Nike air-cushion trainers finally broke up, sprung a leak, came to pieces. They cost £89 two years ago. I have worn them every day, walking about three miles with the dog. Thats over 1000 miles a year. And over two years, that's 7 million steps. Looked at another way, that's 5p per mile cost in shoe leather. Have I had my money's worth? The next question, will my smart new comfortable pair of trainers costing only £22 do as well?  

Speeding On Sunday September 4th 2005 I exceeded the speed limit on the A24, my fourth such offence. And on April 4th 2006 I went by train to the court in Horsham to be disqualified for six months, plus fine £60 plus costs £130. Then a fee of £50 to get my licence back, and insurance premiums doubled to £700. I had to ask for the photos, probably part of my costs bill. But my balding head clearly shows and I could not insist that my wife was driving. Even if she agreed. Which she didn't. The A24 is a profitable stretch of road for the speed-trappers. The speed limit changes up or down about every mile all the way past Horsham down to Worthing. So now it is boots, bike, or bus for me. What a bore. But from October 4th I can start totting up again.

There are 6000 speed cameras in the UK. This number is increasing. There were 2 million speed offences in 2005, compares with a total of 13.5 total motoring offences including parking. Five million motorists have points on the licences. There are 27 million cars in the UK. You can insure with www.stayontheroad.com to cover the cost of getting about if you are disqualified.

Also try:www.sussexsafetycameras.gov.uk/
and
www.e-database.co.uk/ and select Speeding
pepipoo.com/

The case for speed cameras destroyed in a flash
By David Millward, Transport Correspondent
www.telegraph.co.uk/ 29 Sept 2006

A review of the Government's speed cameras policy was demanded yesterday after official statistics showed that only five per cent of crashes are caused by drivers breaking the speed limit. Drivers who let their attention wander cause more than six times as many accidents.

Speed cameras under attack campaigners seized on the figures and demanded: "In that case, why are there so many cameras?"

Paul Smith, of Safe Speed, which has led the campaign, said the Government's case for continuing to install cameras had been destroyed. Even those statistics are flawed, because they could include a joy-rider who is going at 100mph and no camera will ever stop him," he said. "They are spinning like tops to justify the camera programme."

Motoring groups called for a broader approach to road safety and a revaluation of the £95 million camera project. Edmund King, the chief executive of the RAC Foundation, said: "The figures suggest that all drivers need to concentrate more on the road rather than on their phones, passengers, music, food, drinks, navigation systems and the clutter of signs."

Chris Grayling, the Tories' transport spokesman, called for greater use of police patrol cars, rather than cameras, to deal with the menace of "rogue drivers".

There are more than 5,400 camera sites in England and Wales, which raised £113 million in fines in 2004-5. The Department of Transport insisted that, while driver error accounted for 66 per cent of accidents, motorists going too fast for the conditions, irrespective of the speed limit, accounted for 29 per cent of crashes.

The analysis rekindled the speed camera argument and raised questions over whether the Government would meet the road safety targets it had set itself. The figures showed that the number of people killed on the roads last year fell to 3,201, one per cent fewer than in the previous year. The 28,954 people seriously injured represented a seven per cent fall on 2004. The Government has said it wants the number of people killed or seriously injured on the roads to be reduced to 40 per cent of the 1994-8 average by 2010.

Its figures, based on information sent to the Government by police forces, show that the tally has dropped by 33 per cent. But analysis of hospital data sent to the Department of Health painted a very different picture, suggesting that the drop in the number of deaths had been minimal. A study of the figures in the British Medical Journal said the gap between police and hospital data indicated that the Government was unlikely to meet its casualty reduction targets.

"It is hard to ascertain why there should be such a wide divergence in these figures," said one of the authors of the article, Mike Gill, professor of public health at Surrey University. "There are two main contenders for the discrepancy in my view. First, there is an unintended effect of drink-drive legislation. While one cannot avoid police intervention when there is a fatality, when somebody is hurt it may be tempting to shuffle people off to casualty and keep schtum. Also, dedicated traffic patrols have been reduced and therefore there is less likely to be police intervention in all cases."

However, Prof Gill was reluctant to suggest that the study undercut the case for speed cameras. "We don't know what the figures would have been otherwise," he said.

Andrew Howard, of the AA Motoring Trust, supported the Government's analysis and the speed camera programme. "Human beings make mistakes," he said. "So the only thing that can be done is to mitigate their impact and that means slowing the car down."

See also the speeding database:
http://www.e-database.co.uk/

1 August 2006

Speeding Comment
First time ever I read a blog - only because I was looking how to avoid 3 points on my license going over limit through M4 road works. You have inadvertently or unintendedly helped. Thank you. After reading tons of rubbish I read your few sensible words. No point fighting in courts. I will pay up shut up and count my self lucky as I only have 6 points now
Dr BA  

My wife hits the bottle

Bodegas Muriel SA are producers of fine wine in Spain. It is not everyone whose wife has a wine named for her. It actually tastes quite good as well.
http://www.bodegasmuriel.com

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