Category: Social

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Tear Gas and gun shots

Following on from my blog post about bombs in London that I had heard I thought I would write about just 2 more incidents of “slightly scary stuff that has happened to me”.

I am pretty sure it was New Year’s Eve of 1995 going into 1996. We had an Eve Eve party the night before and I may have been feeling the worse for wear. I am sure I was not drinking alcohol and we had left our flat in Ealing and were in, I think, the Harrington Arms. Someone will correct me. I was drinking orange juice, because of the night before. We were in the basement area and I went to the gents. When I came back I was greeted by one of our party who I thought was really upset and crying. It turns out this was just the effects of the tear gas that was working its way through the pub. Someone had let off a canister for fun as far as I knew and it soon affected me. My eyes and nose hurt and I felt even worse than I had from the night before. Needless to say we left and went elsewhere before heading to Parliament Square for the midnight hour.

The next incident happened on FA Cup final day in 1996 or 1997. I was at a flat just off the North End Road in London and was happily not really paying attention to the game when there were three loud bands and shouting from the flat beneath. I called the police. A while later there were plenty of armed police outside the block and they were calling up to the flat below me. I just waited and eventually someone was led away from the flats and the police spoke to me about what happened. I think the guy below just fired blanks in a rage but it didn’t matter to me. I think it could have been worse if I was out in the open and heard gun shots when I knew there shouldn’t be any.

Oh well. Life is much less exciting out here in the countryside.

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Bombs

Following the bomb that went off in Oslo, I decided to write down my experiences of terror.
During my time as a student in London there were 15 bombs or left packages left either by the IRA or by middle east terrorists. I lived there from 1992 to 1996. There were some huge explosions and many people died, but 99.999% of the population were safe. I always checked in at home after an explosion, calling my mum from a phone that was attached to the wall via a cable! I never really understood the worry she would face but now I have my children I get it at last.
The first bomb I heard was during my first year at Imperial College. I was asleep in student halls in South Kensington (actually they were in Westminster but I’m being picky!). I woke to the sound of a blast of thunder and I turned sides. When I became a little more conscious I realised it was sunny outside and so the noise must have been a bomb. I mentally shrugged and then went back to sleep. I don’t know what time I then woke up but I remember not being really bothered by the bomb. Fortunately no one was injured or killed. Those sort of things happened. It was 10th January 1992.
The second bomb I heard was more of a shock. By this time I was working for the students’ union of Imperial College and we had offices in the Beit building. There had been a fire alarm and so we were gathered in the quadrangle waiting for the all clear when there was a very loud boom. I knew it was a big bomb and quite close. I was worried about people and hoped that help would arrive. I also knew there was nothing I could do. There would be many people gathering to help. Some other members of the student union staff were visibly shocked and moved by the bomb. This time it was a big car bomb planted by someone from the middle east as they had just blown up the Israeli embassy. 20 people were injured and there was a lot of damage. It was 26 July 1994.
These days it seems we are more worried about terrorism without having the terrorism. It bothers me that we have lots of hype from the press and the government. The rigmarole we go through to get on a plane or visit a tourist attraction bothers me. The data show that no threats have been beaten through these security measures, the plots that have been stopped were caught by old fashioned police and intelligence work.
Time to get real on terrorism I think. Yes, there is a threat, but there always has been. We are a global power and so will always face having to deal with disgruntled people.

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Salad Cream

I’m slightly worried. For the last 24 years I have preferred mayonnaise to salad cream. This has even gone so far as to be happy eating a steak with mayonnaise. I thought this meant that I was sophisticated and grown up. Having mayo seemed like the continental, better thing to do. I was happy with this for many years and always shirked the idea of having either salad cream or, worse, tomato ketchup. It is only since I have been with my wife that I have grown to accept that HP brown sauce is ok (but only on breakfast).
But all of a sudden things have changed.
Over the last month I have wanted salad cream with my chips and on the side with my pizza. I’ve not had steak yet so I don’t know what will happen then (it won’t be gravy though, that is even more wronger than ketchup). Does this mean I have regressed? I still feel intelligent and sophisticated (you might not be able to tell from this blog) but I like and even yearn at times for salad cream. I am worried, what if my other tastes revert back to a time when I was spotty and uncomfortable? Will I suddenly have the urge to buy a Madonna album or jump on a push bike and just cycle around all day? I never hang out at the corner shop with mates smoking and drinking but is that about to happen? Like headlines that are questions the answer is no. I am going through a blip and I can blame it on my wife. Her recent pregnancy hormones have infected me somehow and now I just have to wait for my senses and tastes to return to normal.
If you are interested it’s Heinz Salad Cream, Hellman’s Mayonnaise and HP Brown Sauce. Never ever any type of ketchup.

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Hawaii 5-O

This re-imagined TV show is brilliant.
A friend, Jase, really likes CSI Miami and I have tried to watch it but find it extremely clichéd. CSI Miami is poorly scripted, it is poorly shot and poorly acted (apart from Emily Procter). However, Jase finds something to enjoy and thoroughly raves about it.
I now understand what he means. Hawaii 5-O is poorly scripted, reasonably acted and extremely clichéd.  The scenery is brilliant. The technology used is rubbish. The actors are glamorous and the plot appalling. I love it.
I vaguely remember the original series, watching it with my dad when I was younger. I do not remember whether it was any good. I am worried that if I went and watched the original series it would be like seeing 1980s Dr Who or Blakes 7. In my mind these shows are brilliant but if I was to  see them I know I would be disappointed. I have recently seen some episodes of Space 1999 and it is amazingly dated!
5-O is shot in Hawaii and makes the islands look fantastic. It is a brilliant advert for a visit. I can’t help feeling that Hawaii is somewhat wasted on the Americans! The actors are very glamorous and include members of the cast of Lost (good early on) and Battlestar Galactica (all good). The premise of immunity of the 5-O crew is somewhat bothersome for a humanist, but a brilliant plot device. The relationship between the main two characters is well scripted with them arguing like a married couple. I love them driving between crime scenes for the discussions they have. The idea that a police group can hack into any bank account, any phone account, utilities, CCTV system or triangulate a mobile signal is rather far fetched but I guess some of the population believe it.
This show is a great find and well worth watching as it is brain dead TV. It takes no brain power to watch but entertains.

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Vegetable Plot

This is the vegetable plot. I had thought it looked better in the photo than in real life but I might be wrong. Anyway, I don’t like gardening but have found myself tending to the plants on a regular basis. The plants are: beetroot, carrots, lettuce and pak choi. Hopefully my son will enjoy harvesting our goodies and eating them. He seems to be in an apple mood at the moment!
I also have six tomato plants on the go in pots. There are some toms appearing and so hopefully soon my family can eat those. Lots of, very slow, fun. Not quite PS3 really.

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Octonauts

The kid’s tv show Octonauts is brilliant. Let me explain.
Most other children’s shows have something wrong with them. A character or object or plot device which pushes the boundaries of imagination too much, here are some examples:
Bob the builder: a scarecrow that is alive, the character Spud. I’m fine with the vehicles talking and being able to drive themselves but a sentient scarecrow is too much.
Postman Pat: the village has a much higher proportion of ginger kids than anywhere in real life, apart from occasional villages in Scotland. Also these kids all seem to have colds and so speak with blocked nasal passages. Perhaps all these children were fathered by Pat.
Postman Pat SDS: Pat is turned from a competent postman to the world’s most incompetent delivery man. If something can go wrong it does. The economic model for this type of delivery is unsustainable.
Chuggington: a world of sentient trains doesn’t bother me too much but there are some physics issues. The trains get washed by resting on tracks that then turn the train longitudinally so it ends up being horizontal, not good. Another problem is the small train which can extend on a cantilever and turn its body to face the other way, don’t like this. I am quite happy with the flying train though.
Everything’s Rosie: the characters are annoying and whinge a lot. The carts they drive around in have no appreciable power source and don’t slow going up hill. Although I’m happy with Oakly who can speak I don’t like the female speaking tree, Saffy, as she just spouts Eastern mystical bollocks all the time.
Mr Bloom’s Nursery would be ok if it didn’t have the talking, singing, moving vegetables with faces. Surely there is enough excellent entertainment and learning that can be garnered from a gardening show that doesn’t need anthropomorphised vegetables. The McGregors are particularly annoying.

So back to the Octonauts . The main characters are animals who talk and are curiously the same size. They don’t wear ballast and have magic “field tech” helmets. The Octopod would need to be pressurised a huge amount for the depths they travel to and they even have Tunip, a half vegetable half animal called a vegimal. Somehow all of this is acceptable as the stories are excellent and consistent and it just looks marvellous. All  the creatures the Octonauts find are real and look, act and eat the way they do in real life. Marvellous.
I think it’s one of the best things on TV at the moment.

Explore, Rescue, Protect.

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Religion, the mother of all conspiracies

This is going to be a big one, not necessarily long just hitting at the basis of belief. Think I need to explain bit by bit and just so you know I don’t think it’s a modern conspiracy like the New World Order or so called 911-Truthers.

God
So firstly let’s face the reality of existence and admit there is no god, none of any faith. It’s quite clear that after reading around the history of religion and the psychology of belief and add in a little evolutionary theory that Mankind needs to have a supernatural agent. A being that can be blamed for things we don’t understand or to explain random events. There is no god, because if it were to exist outside our physical realm and not affect us then we have no need to understand it, but if god were to exist within and affect our realm then it should be detectable. The effect is not detectable.

Creation
It is nice that everyone enjoys a good story and that as social creatures we tell and re-tell stories, often embellishing them messages to get our particular point of view across. I’m happy to have myths on the origins of the Earth and the universe, it’s fun to tell a riveting tale. In reality we have a creation story based on all the observable evidence and it varies quite a lot from camp fire tales of 2000 years ago. Keep your stories but I prefer to follow the evidence.

Religious Texts
For too long Chinese whispers, mistranslations and blatant forgery written in the holy books of the world have been used to suppress and force people into acting as “they should”. Most of the biblical stories have no evidence for their reality and so most are made up or forged using older texts as a basis for modern manipulation. The arcane rules set down by organised religion that have nothing to do with love and compassion astound me. The puppets of god’s so called power should stand forth and announce to the world the truth about the lies they expound and endorse. The leaders of the faithful should admit the problems and forgeries within the texts and develop a more caring, humanist view of the world.

Organised Religion
Any organisation can, at the roots, be about belief and faith in the greater good. Some companies like to do good, some churches like to do good but what is the bigger picture?Companies are there to make money. Churches are there to maintain a healthy flock and in some cases to make money and create a power base. The problem is that all organisations are about power. The churches are no different. Once you get into hierarchy you gain power and it becomes harder and harder to face reality based on evidence. There is plenty of cognitive dissonance in everyday life but probably more in the churches. There is little chance to influence the direction of a big organisation especially when it’s about keeping the flock oppressed.

The Good of the People
Religion seems to be little about doing things for the good of the people and more about keeping the guilt and fear in people so that they never leave the flock. Churches make people feel guilty about their  behaviour and where can they go to feel better and get absolution? Their church.

Doctrine
Are we really living in a time when people believe that the way an animal is slaughtered can please or displease a god? That having a foreskin is against god? That being gay and loving another human being is against god? That missing a prayer gets you sent to hell? That not wearing a condom and  then dying of AIDS is the great plan? That god is a certain nationality? That intercessory prayer works? That religious people deserve to be heard in moral debates just because they believe in god? That morals can only come from god? That the Earth is 6000 years old? That religion has its place in government? That Jesus existed? That the exodus happened?

Humanism
The way to be good to people and accept the world for what it is, without god.
Look it up and treasure it.

Science
The best tool we have for understanding our world. We make predications based on observations and then see if we are right. Then adjust our predictions and try again. What better way could there be for learning what is true?

Conspiracy
So, religious leaders lie about god, they lie about morals and they lie about the historical evidence. Yet they still maintain they are correct. That is your conspiracy.

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Talk Talk Part 2

So, judgement day has come and not yet fully passed. The phone and broadband were both switched to Talk Talk today. I was expecting trouble and phone calls to their Helpline but in all honesty it went really well.
I turned the router/modem off this morning and by the time I got home after work (I’m a teacher so it was early) the phone and broadband account had changed. The biggest problem was getting the new settings to save in the router. Rather embarrassing really as I couldn’t find the “save and reboot” button in the router web-interface.
Didn’t want to use the Talk Talk router as it looks rubbish and I like the idea of configuring my own router.
Move router to the dining room and now “electronic corner” has a little less heat emitted, might make the lounge a bit more comfortable as there’s no natural fresh air flow.
Well done Talk Talk, hope your up-time proves just as good.

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Talk talk

My change over to Talk Talk for phone and broadband is about to happen on Monday. I’m bothered as I’ve been with Plusnet for years although changing provider has meant I had to go out and got my own web domain and space.
The free wireless router arrived today. It’s very close now but I think I’ll just configure my own router. The only improvement would be wireless range and I get 3G in the garden so what do I care? Also the new box would have to be moved to a different position to fit in “electronic corner”. Don’t like the talk talk colour. So D-Link router it is with no reception in the garden. Could move it and connect PS3 wirelessly, will think about that.
Main concerns at moment. Will they screw up my phone line and will the broadband work properly on Monday. New settings easy so it should be a breeze.
All this to save money! Sky don’t have the package I wanted so they’ll have to wait for more of my money.

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