Wednesday Witterings
'Tis the "Silly Season"
You know, that time of year when parliament is "in Recess", politicians are 'out in the constituency' or out of the country, beleagured Mums up & down the land are wondering how to combat the "Boooooredom" of their out-of-school-for-all-of-a-week-&-a-half-now youngsters - or hoping they aren't out causing trouble somewhere, & the newspapers generally don't try too hard to find serious news - although various 'situations' worldwide might force them to! So beyond stating that I am pro-Israel, though not unconditionally so, maybe I shan't either.
Apparently the BBC "Newsnight" programme has been looking at Green issues. Good for them, particularly if they inspire others of the programme team, & viewers, to change their habits as well. I suppose I could have walked to hospital to give birth, think I did with S, after all, it is just round the corner so to speak. Don't think we'll be having a composting toilet though. We've had a 'two-stage' water flush for years now. We just don't have the land available to put in the huge 'containers' a composting loo would require, nor the land on which to spread the resulting compost next year!
However, we do have a fairly large south-facing area of roof - which would be ideal for some form of solar power exchange system. Come to think of it, the summer temperatures we get inside our loft could possibly put to some use as well. & when the planning authorities have gotten their act sorted we might even investigate wind turbines - it gets pretty windy even in central Portsmouth, what with the sea breeze and all. Now that could be interesting in the event of a lightening strike! The aim, of course, would be generation of our own electricity. Various figures say that a small wind turbine could generate up to 15% of the average household's power needs . Or was that up to 15% the average household's electricity bills? H says that the way to do it is to sell this electricity back to your power supplier, who pay more for power you generate than they charge you for power you use. There now, you supply them with 'Green' electricity, they pay you, which covers even more of you electricity bill, & the environment benefits. A win-win-win situation!
Apparently there is a Top Ten list of songs that are sooo uncool they've come back in the other side & they're now, officially, ok. Don't notice "The Birdie Song" on it, but think it probably says more about fashion, & maybe "Q" magazine, than the pop industry!
And some (like about .6%) of the thousands of birthday cards the Queen received for her 80th birthday have gone on display at Buckingham Palace. Mine isn't there, I didn't send her one, but I do wish her well. Whatever your views on Monarchy - do you really want someone like Tony Blair (or Margaret Thatcher for that matter) finally representing the country? As mentioned before - politicians come & politicians go (thank goodness in some cases) but our consitutional monarchy is apolitical and can afford to take a long term view of things. BTW - for your average politician "long term" apparently means up to three years, or until the next election, whichever is sooner!
Having said which Fidel Castro has been a 'long term' politician in much the same way Queen Elizabeth has. Whatever else people may say, & think, about him, he's maintained stability in Cuba for the past more than forty years, & in the face of some pretty stiff opposition too. Not only has he maintained stability, the average Cuban is literate, reasonably well nourished, lives in peace (internal peace that is) and has a certain amount of personal freedom. Compare this with other states in the Caribbean - eg: Haiti, the poorest state. The average Haitian doesn't get formal schooling, is malnourished, has little access to healthcare & has been threatened by political instability and gangs recently and Papa, the Baby, Doc's gangs formerly.
I'm not, generally, in favour of dictatorships. They tend to lead to major abuses of human rights and those at the economic bottom of the population, the poorest, always suffer - witness Haiti! Another trouble with dictatorships - succession. Who's going to take over from Castro? He's in his eighties and getting frail. Dictatorships tend to stamp out potential new leaders lest they become potential rivals. Consequently when the dictator dies order tends to collapse into civil disturbance, if not civil war, as factions try to gain power. Now that is an advantage of Democracy, when run properly, or Monarchy. There is usually an acknowledged Successor in training somewhere (though, personally, I rather hope it won't be Charles!).
OK, so it's not been quite as "Silly" as the title might have lead you to expect, sorry. Y'all have a good day now.
You know, that time of year when parliament is "in Recess", politicians are 'out in the constituency' or out of the country, beleagured Mums up & down the land are wondering how to combat the "Boooooredom" of their out-of-school-for-all-of-a-week-&-a-half-now youngsters - or hoping they aren't out causing trouble somewhere, & the newspapers generally don't try too hard to find serious news - although various 'situations' worldwide might force them to! So beyond stating that I am pro-Israel, though not unconditionally so, maybe I shan't either.
Apparently the BBC "Newsnight" programme has been looking at Green issues. Good for them, particularly if they inspire others of the programme team, & viewers, to change their habits as well. I suppose I could have walked to hospital to give birth, think I did with S, after all, it is just round the corner so to speak. Don't think we'll be having a composting toilet though. We've had a 'two-stage' water flush for years now. We just don't have the land available to put in the huge 'containers' a composting loo would require, nor the land on which to spread the resulting compost next year!
However, we do have a fairly large south-facing area of roof - which would be ideal for some form of solar power exchange system. Come to think of it, the summer temperatures we get inside our loft could possibly put to some use as well. & when the planning authorities have gotten their act sorted we might even investigate wind turbines - it gets pretty windy even in central Portsmouth, what with the sea breeze and all. Now that could be interesting in the event of a lightening strike! The aim, of course, would be generation of our own electricity. Various figures say that a small wind turbine could generate up to 15% of the average household's power needs . Or was that up to 15% the average household's electricity bills? H says that the way to do it is to sell this electricity back to your power supplier, who pay more for power you generate than they charge you for power you use. There now, you supply them with 'Green' electricity, they pay you, which covers even more of you electricity bill, & the environment benefits. A win-win-win situation!
Apparently there is a Top Ten list of songs that are sooo uncool they've come back in the other side & they're now, officially, ok. Don't notice "The Birdie Song" on it, but think it probably says more about fashion, & maybe "Q" magazine, than the pop industry!
And some (like about .6%) of the thousands of birthday cards the Queen received for her 80th birthday have gone on display at Buckingham Palace. Mine isn't there, I didn't send her one, but I do wish her well. Whatever your views on Monarchy - do you really want someone like Tony Blair (or Margaret Thatcher for that matter) finally representing the country? As mentioned before - politicians come & politicians go (thank goodness in some cases) but our consitutional monarchy is apolitical and can afford to take a long term view of things. BTW - for your average politician "long term" apparently means up to three years, or until the next election, whichever is sooner!
Having said which Fidel Castro has been a 'long term' politician in much the same way Queen Elizabeth has. Whatever else people may say, & think, about him, he's maintained stability in Cuba for the past more than forty years, & in the face of some pretty stiff opposition too. Not only has he maintained stability, the average Cuban is literate, reasonably well nourished, lives in peace (internal peace that is) and has a certain amount of personal freedom. Compare this with other states in the Caribbean - eg: Haiti, the poorest state. The average Haitian doesn't get formal schooling, is malnourished, has little access to healthcare & has been threatened by political instability and gangs recently and Papa, the Baby, Doc's gangs formerly.
I'm not, generally, in favour of dictatorships. They tend to lead to major abuses of human rights and those at the economic bottom of the population, the poorest, always suffer - witness Haiti! Another trouble with dictatorships - succession. Who's going to take over from Castro? He's in his eighties and getting frail. Dictatorships tend to stamp out potential new leaders lest they become potential rivals. Consequently when the dictator dies order tends to collapse into civil disturbance, if not civil war, as factions try to gain power. Now that is an advantage of Democracy, when run properly, or Monarchy. There is usually an acknowledged Successor in training somewhere (though, personally, I rather hope it won't be Charles!).
OK, so it's not been quite as "Silly" as the title might have lead you to expect, sorry. Y'all have a good day now.