Party packs of ice cubes

Whilst stuck behind a man at the supermarket buying his party pack of ice cubes, a thought struck me. How environmentally friendly are the party ice packs?

I am guessing not very. First you have a big factory making the packs, hopefully although not certainly they make them with water filling up lots of little ice bags (just like the ones you can buy in the supermarket to make your own without the need of an ice tray). If they freeze them at the factory and then transport them to the supermarket in temperature controlled lorries it would be a highly irresponsible act.

Then once you have your 100 little bags of water inside the big bag they have to be transported to the supermarket. Here they are put in the freezer to freeze over night and then you buy it in the shop and take it home.

This almost seems like a criminal waste of energy and effort not to mention the environmental impact. Perhaps selling ice in the supermarket should be banned, although obviously large trade sales would be allowed to continue.

For a party the alternative would be to buy loads of ice cube bags and make your own. I guess many people would argue they just don't have the time. Plus as a society we still don't always think of the environment first in all aspects of our life.

It does seem that we worry so much about the big things in life such as global air travel but then turn a blind eye to the little things like energy efficient light bulbs, recycling and ice cubes simply because it takes a bit more work.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

I Laying plans contd...

[Method and Discipline - number five of the five constant factors to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field]

10. By method and discipline are to be understood the marshalling of the army in its proper subdivisions, the graduations of rank among the officers, the maintenance of roads by which supplies may reach the army, and the control of military expenditure.

Notes by Zephyrist:

This is about knows the nuts and bolts of your army / team.

Know the structure and the roles of leaders, understand how the army is supplied and control the economics, spending and incomes.

If you have control of all these factors you have control over your army and can use it effectively to gain the winning edge. Lose control of these factors and the army will suffer from infighting and be more interested in fighting amongst themselves than fighting against a common enemy.

More Sperm donor advertisment ideas

I have been thinking about alternative add campaigns to encourage sperm donors. Here are some of my ideas.
Other tag line ideas:

"Get paid for what you enjoy doing, make a deposit today - The Sperm Bank"

"Handy men required? - The Sperm Bank"

"The Sperm bank - satisfaction guaranteed."

"Why pay for your lad's magazine? Make a deposit and borrow ours - The Sperm bank"

"Become a sperm donor, its time your boys joined the swimming team"

"Grab your joystick. The sperm bank now with online banking."

"We would give you a free pen but your not likely to be filling in the cross word in our magazines - The sperm bank."

"Become a sperm donor, lay back and think of England."

"Join the last men only club in the world, become a sperm donor today."

"The sperm bank, the bank that likes to say Yes! Yes! Yes!"

"Stand up and be counted... then relax - The Sperm bank."

"Become a sperm donor, take the pledge today and give it a quick polish."

"Age 8: I want to be a merchant banker

Age 30: I am a sperm donor.

Close enough! - the sperm bank."

Sperm donor adverts

I wrote an article yesterday about the chronic shortage of sperm donors. Now according to the article most organisations cant afford an ad campaign.

Now with such a personal male subject really the only way you could go is with humour. I cant draw so I bought out the stick men, added a good strap line and away I went.

Here is the badly drawn stick man with my strap line (Usual disclaimer - it may only be funny in my head)

School reports and planning problems

School report calls pupil 'wally' (BBC)

A confidential school report found lying in the street named some pupils as "wally" or "dingbat"

For a quick refresher the dictionary definitions are:

wally n. a stupid person.

dingbat n. a crazy or stupid person.

Both words are in the dictionary and are valid descriptive terms. After all if the children are slightly stupid or slightly mad you don't call them normal just to protect people's feelings. Yes, it is unfortunate that a teacher should think of a student as a wally but rather than criticising the teacher for injecting a bit of realism the child and its parents should be looking at how to change things. In reality little Tarquin (not the child's real name) wont have done anything wrong he is just a bit hyperactive or perhaps misunderstood.

There is a tendency to protect children from the reality of life, on what is a fine line between encouragement and reality. If you tell kids they are great, when they are clearly not you end up with the drama queens on reality tv who know they will make it one day and pursue a dream while working at a low paid job.

Is this what happens when you are never critical or realistic with a child? They pursue a hopeless dream and end up being desperately unhappy.

If they have people who tell them the truth then they keep the dream as a hobby and find themselves something they are good at. They may even lead happier lives because they are no longer pursuing hopeless dreams. Life is hard enough without being sent down the wrong path by over protective parents.

So please can we have a standing ovation for the teacher who just called a spade a spade, rather than a non-tooth fork. At least one teacher in the UK has managed to keep their sanity and still injects a bit of realism into education.

Planning shake-up for big schemes (BBC)

What is being heralded by the media as a new Brownabour idea is a simplification of the planning process in order to streamline all the red tape. The white paper being put before government proposes an independent planning commission to replace lengthy, costly and complicated planning inquiries. This commission would be made up of independent experts such as planners and lawyers to help decide policy.

There would also be more strategic guidance in terms of a planning framework at a national level which would cover major issues such as transportation and electricity generation.

The opposition have used the usual media buzzword objections of the idea taking decisions away from elected officials and giving them to government quangos.

So I can have a politician making a strategic planning decision who is only worried about whether he will get re-elected and may not have the relevant qualifications or experience to take the decision, let alone the guts to make the right decision.

-Or-

I can have an independent panel of experts with vast qualifications and experience who make the right decision for the country balanced against public opinion.

A panel of experts that's crazy talk, next they will be putting a panel of experts in charge of inflation policy. Oh they already have and it actually works a lot better than when the politicians were in charge.

Bring on the panel of experts they can hardly do a worse job than politicians.

So before you get on your soap box and follow the media crowd and complain about decisions being taken away from the people, think about it for a second and make your own decision.

After all in reality would the media ever agree and say it was a good idea, that just isn't newsworthy.

Zephyrist's sunday night briefs

The week of the office move. In reality I have been too busy with other things to notice what has been going on in the world but here are a few things that you might have missed.

I have been quoted on the BBC.

Whilst checking through my stats which is one of the perks of writing a blog I notice some inbound links form the BBC. Apparently they search the interweb looking for quotes about their new programmes. I have been quoted for my comment on Balderdash and Piffle, yeah me.

"The presenter Victoria Coren is quite cute and she was exploring the origins of words. Fairly interesting stuff for the writers or aspiring writer or those with a healthy interest in what things mean."

Zephyrist, Google Blogs

Ok so out of all the best bits of my blog calling a presenter "quite cute" isn't exactly my finest hour but it is a start.

Quote of the day from the BBC

"I don't really understand what a website is."

-Judge in cyber terror trial at Woolwich crown court.

Good job he does not have to sentence criminals who might use the internet then. Oh dear.

Out for the count (BBC)

An article about the crisis in the drop in number of sperm donors. Apparently there are now only 208 in the UK leading to a big shortfall as the UK need about 500-600 to meet demand.

The main problem is the change in the law which means that children created from the sperm can find out the identity of the father when they turn eighteen. The article states that a donor could end up fathering up to 50 children. You can see why no one would fancy fifty people turning up at your door.

Danny Robbins (comedian) went on tour to try and drum up some trade including asking labour MP's outside the houses of parliament to make a donation.

So would you do it?

I do not think I would have a problem with the children knowing that I was the donor. I am not sure what relationship would occur between the father and the child if any but it wouldn't really freak me out. They would have a right to know who I was and I would be happy to meet them if they wished.

Why would anyone do it, well to help out couples where the father cannot provide the sperm, to give the gift of life and hope.

I was minded of the "police -could you?" tv adverts, "Sperm donors - could you?"

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

I Laying plans contd...

[The Commander- number four of the five constant factors to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field]

9. The Commander stands for the virtues of wisdom, sincerely, benevolence, courage and strictness.

Notes by Zephyrist:

This could be easily translated into modern language by saying: The five qualities of a good leader are wisdom, sincerity, benevolence, courage and strictness.

Wisdom in the sense that you have to be able to make difficult decisions.

Sincerity in that you have compassion and belief in your subordinates, your plan and yourself.

Benevolence in that you you must be inclined to do what is right and good, which will be rewarded with loyalty from your followers.

Courage in order to take risks on decisions to further your cause.

Strictness in order to apply the rules, maintain discipline and respect in your subordinates.

The Office Move

The reason that there has not been much activity on this blog this week is because finally the long talked about office move actually happened. So this week due to a change in routine and all that activity I have been too tired in the evenings to do anything other than check emails and veg in front of the tv.

You work at a company long enough and at some point you will be told to move office. Most of the time it doesn't seem like there is any rhyme or reason to the move it is just a game of musical offices. Everyone packs up and when the music stops you unpack again. I have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of moves are down to office politics, who is closer to the centre of power.

For HR office moves always involve vast rooms of personnel files which require specialist storage space and so are sometimes more of a priority than people. Especially as until all the files are correctly stored and alphabetised you cant find anything. People on the other hand can work from a computer and a phone surrounded by boxes.

Such a big change is often disconcerting as well, the loss of familiar surroundings makes people nervous and edgy, we need routine so we can concentrate on the unusual. I have found it difficult to concentrate surrounded by stack of paper and half empty boxes. It didn't help that we could not store all the boxes into our new office, we had to unpack a few and then fetch some more. I have a feeling that we will be re-arranging stuff for weeks.

Change is just something that happens, and is a natural part of life but it does take a lot of energy so some things like this blog have to take a back seat for a while.

Google Earth - Trainspotting goes to Iraq

This week I zoomed over to Iraq to have a look what war, sabotage and neglect does to a nation's railway system. It is all a bit depressing you see empty stations, empty yards, overgrown areas all in the muted browns of the desert. Unlike Russian yards, Iraq yards are generally smaller and overgrown with fewer cars in them. In the whole of my research I only found one train running.

So here are some of the desolate sights of trains in Iraq.

This is a large Baghdad train station. The platforms are empty although they look like they are maintained. Note the bustle of the cars on the road around the station. The extensive yards to the north and west look overgrown and unused.



Iraq yards 8a, part of the Central station yards complex shows what is probably the passenger train yards. Although full of trains it does appear to be better maintained than other areas of the vast yards.




The one small train I found in Western Baghdad.






The missing link, a break in the track where a bridge has gone, was it war, sabotage or just a bridge being rebuilt?






Some kind of oil/chemical store with vast sidings, all empty but look at all the trucks at the plant. Road has taken over from rail.

Balderdash & Piffle

While channel surfing I came across 'Balderdash & Piffle' on BBC2. The presenter Victoria Coren is quite cute and she was exploring the origins of words. Fairly interesting stuff for the writers or aspiring writer or those with a healthy interest in what things mean.

Did I mention she is cute as well, I think I might be developing a small crush on her.

Anyway last night's edition was an exploration of words around madness including 'bananas' 'one sandwich short of a picnic' and 'bonkers'.

One of the interesting segments was when comedian Jo Brand met the organisers of Bonkers Fest ,who not being representative of what might be considered normal, were objecting to the definition of the word normal and wanted it redefined as a person who was unable to display emotions that might not be considered sane. They had a point after all to be human is to at times do crazy things, normal people aren't really normal people at all. The new definition was rejected on the grounds that the definition did not really define how the word was used in society.

Fair enough, time to corrupt the word and create a new word.

Norm: (n) Commonly a derogatory term referring to people (especially in a work environment) who in an attempt to gain favour act in a manner conforming to the social and political norms of the organisation. They do not show or exhibit any behaviour outside of those norms to the extent that they are not exhibiting or are suppressing normal human behaviours such as compassion or a sense of humour.

Variants:

sub-norm: a subordinate colleague who mimics the behaviour of his boss, a norm, in order to gain favour.

uber-norm: a super norm.

ultra-norm: environmental description representing an organisational environment where behaviour is restrictive, forcing employees to conform in order to be promoted or rewarded.

anti-norm: a work colleague who seeks out norms and destroys them

ab-norm: possibly a corruption of 'abstaining norm', an employee who refuses to play political games and does not pretend to be anything other than themselves at work.

The Great Campaigns of Nelson by William O'Connor Morris

[These extracts re-typed from the original book 'The Great Campaigns of Nelson' by William O'Connor Morris]

Preface

This little volume consists of a series of articles on the great campaigns of Nelson, marked by the names of St. Vincent, the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar, which originally appeared in the Pall mall magazine. the favourable reception accorded to them, though only fugitive pieces, has induced me to republish them; I have to thank the Proprietors and the Editor of the Magazine for their permission. The text has been revised and corrected, and some additions have been made to it; but I have avoided any important changes, for this was, I think, due to the publication which gave it its sanction. Captain Mahan has most kindly placed at my disposal the maps and diagrams in his Sea Power contained in the volume; this, at least is some indication that that great authority on naval warfare does not disapprove of it con tents. My thanks are also due to Messrs. Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Ltd., and to Messrs. Little Brown & Co., for sanctioning the use that has been made of these diagrams.

My object has been to present to the reader in tolerably exact outline, a sketch of the chief operations of Nelson at sea; and, at the same time, to glance at theories as to the impregnability of England, and her absolute security from invasion, which seem to me questionable and dangerous, should the nation rely on its maritime power only. For a full inquiry into the subject, the sources of information, original and secondary, are sufficiently known, it would be mere pedantry to do more than refer to them.

WILLIAM O'CONNOR MORRIS

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

I Laying plans contd...

[Earth- number three of the five constant factors to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field]

8. Earth comprises distances, great and small; danger and security; open ground and narrow passes; the chances of life and death.

Notes by Zephyrist:

Where you choose to make a stand can determine a battle. Always force the enemy to choose your battlefield and try not to get stuck with the enemies choice of battlefield. A really simple example is the home turf advantage, make the enemy come to you so they are unfamiliar with your territory.

Tony Blair leaves interest rates go up

Blair will stand down on 27 June (BBC)

UK interest rates raised to 5.5% (BBC)

So Tony Blair has finally named a date, finally the media can stop harping on about it. Although now they get to harp on about the leadership elections for seven weeks. It looks like they are going to be really dull as for leader, only Gordon Brown is standing. No stalking horse to make it slightly interesting. To be honest I understand the need for the long, full process but I am already bored of it and will be completely bored of the media going on about things, probably by tomorrow. After all its one of the things the media does best, go on on and on about something.

The question the media have been asking about Tony is "What is his legacy ?". I think Tony hit the right note in his farewell speech, he was an honest man trying to do what he thought was right and best. He made his mistakes notably on Iraq but he did what he thought was right at the time and right for the country.

Although I could join the hordes and criticise him for his decision to send troops into Iraq, in my heart I feel he made the best decision on the information he had at the time and I would probably have made the same decision myself based on that information at that time. It was with hindsight a mistake and was compounded by the fact that once we got in, there was and still isn't an easy way out. Remember that based on the information available at the time a majority of 310 MP's voted in favour of the case for war (Source: The Public Whip).

Moving on from the Iraq issue what legacy has he? Well the economy is robust and there has been no recession since labour has taken office. Inflation Policy is now an economic rather than a political decision. Public Services have received investment. Taxes have increased in complexity and have not always been designed to support the poor and vulnerable of society.

All In all I think he has done a good job, Tony Blair has been a steady hand on the country and has modernised politics back to a two party system where we do have a choice.

The other story today was the interest rate rise where the Bank of England added another 1/4 point on to the interest rate. This is the fourth in a steady rise since last year but on the upside the Bank of England expects inflation to fall back in the mid to long term so hopefully this will be the last rise for some time. The bank will be watching statistics over the next few months to see whether another 1/4 point rate rise is justified. If inflation still has a bit of short term steam expect another small rise in June /July.

The media are fairly mediocre at predicting the outcome of interest rate meetings mainly because they like to hype it so much, doom and gloom is always better than saying we don't expect anything much to happen. For individuals with debts it will tighten belts further and may push some people over the edge but the average man in the street should not be effected. As far as the housing market goes it will have little effect, as almost nothing effects the housing market any more due to the supply / demand issues.

Zephyrist's sunday night briefs - week 17, 2007

Well this week saw the local elections in the UK, the first of the May three day freakin weekends and tornadoes in the mid US.

Just what was I looking at on the interweb this week:

Spacecraft returns Jupiter images (BBC)

I like stories that look to the stars. This article shows the latest pictures of Jupiter by the NASA New Horizons spacecraft (what is the difference between a spacecraft and a probe?). There are some really fantastic photographs. According to the NASA home page for New Horizons some of the pictures taken are for artistic rather than scientific value.


I quite like this one entitled Two moons over Jupiter (artistic photograph). You can find out more on the picture by clicking on it to go to the NASA page.





Bush honours Queen at White House (BBC)

Two notable parts to this story, one is the customary bit where Bush puts his size 12's straight in it. Apparently the Queen was not amused although from what was said not surprisingly.

The other bit of note is the Queen is now doing her bit for the environment. With each of these state visits the carbon emissions of the air miles will now be offset as a cash donation to an environmental charity.

That is it for this week, obviously all the news this week was rather mundane and not worth clipping because that is the end of the file for Zephyrist's Sunday night briefs.

Interesting links: Free Hugs

The interweb, every now and again can turn up some heart warming story that can quickly circumnavigate the world as people take a look and feel slightly better about themselves.

One man, Juan Mann, arrived back in his home country of Australia where he felt like a stranger. In arrivals he saw all the people welcoming home fellow travellers but there was no one there to give him a hug and make his day a little better.

All he wanted was a hug, so he got a piece of card and wrote on it "Free Hugs". After 15 minutes of strange looks he got his first hug from a women who was having a bad day and just like Juan needed a hug.

City officials took a dim view of all this free hugging and banned him, but then he got a petition together to get the decision over turned.

The story of his 'free hugs' campaign then took on a life of its own and went round the world, if you don't believe me just google or youtube it.

Make sure you check out the video which tells Juan's story with a good backing track as well, it is doing the rounds of the viral charts.

So have a free virtual hug from me.

Google Earth -Trainspotting goes to Russia

Well continuing visiting different countries I thought I would pop over to Moscow and see what I could find. What I found was absolutely marshalling yards, so here are some of the choice pictures (note the yard numbers are mine, not some Russian bureaucratic innovative naming system).

Moscow area yard 11. Not a goods yard but either an engine or passenger train shed. No trains visible but a nice track pattern into the large building. Interesting motorway junction pattern to the south-east too.





Moscow area yard 10. A huge Marshalling area and workshop area. Just look at all those wagons lined up.






Moscow area yard 7. A passenger train yard just outside one of the main railway stations.






Three of Moscow's main train stations.

Second wave of tornadoes rakes Plains (CNN)

Sometimes when reading news articles on destructive weather systems I am thankful that the UK has such a benign climate. We rarely have any violent weather at all.

The Mid-US on the other hand has tornado alley and this weekend has seen some horrific destruction including 90% destruction of the town of Greensburg, Kansas. In the central business district only the court house and the town's one bar was left standing.

On Saturday there were over 75 tornado touchdowns and in the wake of such destruction several areas have been declared major disaster areas by the federal government.

It is also clear from the CNN article that the political fallout from Hurricane Katrina has not been forgotten:

"We're not going to let a disaster happen here like what happened with Katrina. We're going to take care of people first and then help this city rebuild."

- Todd Tiahrt, Republican member of the US House of Representatives

With Tornadoes come the storm chasers a mix of scientists and amateurs who chase storms getting footage and carrying out research. One such group posts up the footage on tornadovideos.net. They also post on YouTube so have a look at this post taken over the week end where they have a close encounter with a tornado.

The Great Campaigns of Nelson by William O'Connor Morris

One of my many ideas for a project was to find a book which was out of copyright and then add the text to the web. A sort of public service to enrich the knowledge on the web.

The book is about Lord Nelson describing four of his great battles.

In this article I will do a bit of a historical introduction to the book. The plate to the left is from the front of the book and reads "Horatio Viscount Nelson - After the Picture in the council chamber of the City of London".

It would be interesting to find out if this original picture still exists and where it is now.

The Book itself has a prize inscription from the Eastham Education Committee to Archie Ryan for "Progress, conduct and Attendance 1910-1911". If you search the 1901 UK there is an Archie Ryan born at Essex Forest Gate, Eash Ham , Essex. If it is the same Archie then when he received this book he was 11.

The book is written by William O'Connor Morris who describes himself as a sometime scholar of Oriel College, Oxford and may well be this man described on the Offaly History website.

According to the biblio.com website where a copy of the book is being sold the book was published in 1898, although my copy may be a later printing given that it was not presented until 1911 .

The publisher is Blackie and Son Ltd who only ceased publishing books in 1991, you can find a historical description of the company provided by Glasgow University Archive Services on the archive hub website.

Little Theories: About being the best

It is not always possible to be the best, there is almost always someone better but there is one thing that you will always be the best at.

Your the best at being you in the world ever and always will be. No one else even comes close.

My vote counted, did yours?

Well there is nothing like being proved right for a change. Yesterday I posted an article telling everyone to vote because every vote matters.

Well in my district area their were two candidates and the winner won by one vote and even better I voted for the winner. It wasn't a small turn out either around 1400 people voted, so if you were in my area and didn't vote shame on you because your vote would have counted.

Every vote matters which I have now proved. So next time make sure you vote you never know when your vote might matter.

Of course over all the vote doesn't make any different to the overall control of the council, like most Oxfordshire councils it remains a Tory bastion.

When I say bastion I mean the strongest ever castle you have ever seen with 1 mile thick walls an impenetrable energy shield and an army numbering the population of China. Any general that has ever looked upon this castle suddenly remembers they left the oven on at home, I'm talking that kind of Tory stronghold.

Local Election Day

According to the media it is 'Super' Thursday. Whoever came up with that idea really needs to get out more, there is nothing 'Super' about it.

Anyway here in the UK its time to cast your vote for the district / town council. You have just over one hour left to go and vote, so do it. Its your only democratic obligation.

For all those who just started complaining there is no point they are always the same, it is then your democratic right to go and spoil your vote. You may favour writing the words ' None of the above' across the paper.

"Oh but spoilt ballots don't count" said a right whinger. Not yet they don't but just think if there was ever a vote where the spoiled ballot papers outnumbered the votes for the winning candidate. Somebody would bring a legal challenge after all technically to win you have to get the most votes. So if everybody spoiled their vote politics would have to change whether in a trial by law or trial by media.

So vote or spoil your paper, you have to go collect your ballot paper, its a democratic obligation.

People have died in the past and continue to die for the right for one vote in a democratic election. The least you can do is switch off your computer and go vote.

Go now! Really I'm not joking. Now! Vote for me if you want.

ICC issues Darfur arrest warrants (BBC)

I wrote previously that the international criminal court in February had named two suspects for 51 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including murder, rape, torture of civilians.

The ICC have now issued warrants for the arrest of the two individuals Ahmed Haroun (Humanitarian Affairs minister) and Ali Muhammad Ali Abd al-Rahman (Janjaweed leader).

The ICC court is the court of last resort where a nations state is unwilling or incapable of prosecuting war criminals. The expected issuing of the arrest warrants is a damning indictment of the Sudanese government.

The ICC has no police officials and relies on member countries to detain and arrest criminals. Sudan is not a signatory of the ICC but it does have a moral duty to arrest these men. The Sudanese government has given no indication that they will and does not recognise the ICC's jurisdiction over any Sudanese citizen.

So now the world waits for the arrests...waits... and waits...

"Nothing ever happens, nothing happens at all
The needle returns to the start of the song
And we all sing along like before
And well all be lonely tonight and lonely tomorrow"

-Nothing Ever Happens, Del Amitri.

You have to wonder what exactly the world is waiting for. On the BBC the story does not even merit a top story on world news, only a top story in Africa, this truly is the hidden war.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu

I Laying plans contd...

[Heaven - number two of the five constant factors to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field]

7. Heaven signifies night and day, cold and heat, times and seasons.

Notes by Zephyrist:

Night and day considerations are obviously considerations of light. Small groups have the element of surprise in the dark while large groups may have trouble co-coordinating the battle in the dark.

Cold and heat, consider the extremes of desert and snow, even modern armies have difficulty with temperature extremes with equipment and men breaking down.

Times: attacks at dawn are quite popular especially if you are the side attacking out of the sun and if the enemy is sleepy.

Seasons: relates to cold and heat, some countries get so cold in winter you wouldn't want to fight at all while other countries can be wet in summer with major flooding, again best to give that battle a miss.

Zephyrist's sunday night briefs - week 17, 2007

This week saw the start of the serious campaigning for the local elections. Not quite as exciting as the general election but it is everyone's democratic duty to vote or if there is no one you like, to spoil your ballot paper.

So what else has been occupying my mind in the last week?

Green electricity target in doubt (BBC)

Regen SW, a electricity industry pressure group is trying to put pressure on local councils in the South West to deal with planning applications for Wind Farms. As I have previously reported one of the major blocks to new wind farms is the long complicated planning approval process. Therefore the more pressure the industry can bring to bear the quicker schemes can get approved.

Of course are these companies really caring about the environment or merely about the profit that is being lost whilst the farms are stuck in the planning stage?

Gloom lifts for riding schools (BBC)

In today's blame culture there is no such thing as an accident, someone is to blame. Hence the minute anything happens people look round for someone to sue.

This story about the horse riding industry reports on recent cases where judges have ruled that some accidents are simply that, the instructors are not to blame and individuals must accept that horse riding has a risk attached.

A clear result in favour of common sense that will hopefully mean that people can still enjoy horse riding and other sports without having to worry about spiralling insurance costs.

Wave farm passes funding hurdle (BBC)

The wave power snakes have finally arrived in Cornwall. Funding has now been secured to build a wave farm complete with connection to the national grid off the coast of Cornwall. The wave farm will be able to supply power to 7,500 homes which is 3% of Cornwall's total power consumption.

Train leasing market investigated (BBC)

Another story that has been reported before on this blog. The Competition Commission is now going to investigate the train leasing industry. There is a belief that prices may be too high and train operating companies are not getting the service they deserve.

The Department of Transport suggests that the leasing companies may be making upwards of £175 million in excess profits every year.

Watch this space.

World rallies for Darfur action (BBC)

Today was a global day of action for Darfur demanding intervention to stop the fighting in Darfur.

I have said a lot about Darfur but I think this quote tells you what you need to know:

"In certain parts of Darfur, blood is running like water."

-Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International

Celebrity photo shoot in support of the global action day - Excellent photography well worth a look.

The Office Mole

'The Office Mole' was a book idea which was too derivative and generic to ever get anywhere. The plot had the book ever been written would have been around the underground town flooding and the moles have to go down the great tunnel to unknown territories.

The Office Mole bit was because the main characters were the tunnel builders who were intelligent builders with rules of management and a good sense of bureaucracy.

It was in the style of a Terry Pratchett novel.

All that is left are a few random pages of notes and the odd sketch of dialogue.

Standard Disclaimer: This might not be funny to most people.

'Lets Go North'

A group of moles wearing yellow builders helmets in an underground chamber.
Mole 1 is the leader with a clipboard.

Mole 1: So let's go north
Mole 2: It's the only route left.
Mole 3: Under open grassland, what could go wrong.

[slight pause, everyone looks at each other nervously]

Mole 4: Well if this was a film...
Mole 2: Which it isn't.
Mole 4: Yes, but if it was a film, taking the safest option would be where the alien turns up and rips everyone limb from limb.
Mole 1: So anyway...
Mole 2: So your saying we need the slightly riskier option than the safest option...
Mole 4: Not really.
Mole 1: Mind you nobody in a film has ever said "Lets go north" its usually south, east or west.
Mole 3: True.
Mole 1: So North?
Moles: North!
Mole 4: Checking for Mutant aliens first.
Mole 2: Yup just to be safe.
Mole 3: You know I think that would make a solid rule of management.
Mole 2: Sort of 'Rule 429 - Check for mutant aliens first'
Mole 1: So anyway North then.
Mole 3: North. I'll go first.
Mole 2 (whispers): It;s always the one up front that gets it first.
Mole 3: Isn't it lunch time though, don't want to go tunnelling on an empty stomach.
Moles: True, Lunch time.
Mole 1: But we need to get digging.
Mole 3: Union rules. Have to take our one hour lunch break.

In a nutshell my philosophy is...

The Independent has a series of articles called "The 5-minute Interview". Often the last question of the interview is about their own personal philosophy. As I collect all things quotable and philosophical I thought I would collect a few of them together after of course starting with my own answer.

Note to 'The Independent', please can you make the five minute interviews a blog or rss feed.

In a nutshell my philosophy is...

Zephyrist , Blogger and poet

Always look on the bright side of life, you can waste a lot of time being miserable or finding someone to blame. Take ownership for your own life and do the best you can.

Ross Halfin, Rock photographer

The stupid neither forgives nor forgets. The naive forgive and forget. the wise forgives but doesn't forget.

Andrew Lancel, Actor

To quote Rod McKuen: "It doesn't matter who you love or how you love, but that you love."

Darren Campbell, Athlete

Be happy, try to make time for people.

Jose Carreras, Tenor

In Spain we say: "Do good and don't look to whom you do good."

Phillip Glenister, Actor

If at first you don't succeed try again, keep trying, then if you don't succeed after five years give up and realise it's not for you - whatever that may be.

Nathalie Mendoza, Actor

Be simple, graceful, compassionate and encourage joy in others.

Jeremy Hardy, Comedian

Don't kill anybody. I've been quite good since I got out but I have to see my probation officer tomorrow.

Michael Mansfield, QC Barrister

Be actively positive for the benefit of other people and inspire others to do the same, ie, don't let the buggers get you down.

Kathy Lette, Author

Never wait to be rescued by some knight in shining armani. A woman must learn to stand on her own stilettos.

Sally Gunnell, Athlete

Enjoy whatever you do, whether it's work or social. Life is too short so enjoy it as much as you can.

Julia Sawalha, Actor

To keep everything in the moment.

John Thomson, Actor / Comedian

Live life on life's terms no matter what shite is thrown at you.

Rachel Yankey, Footballer

You can't plan everything.

Tess Daly, Presenter

We're here for a good time, not a long time.

Daniel Mulloy, Director

Concentrate on the moment and enjoy it.

Sean Bean, Actor

Listen to people and treat people as you find them. There's an inherent goodness in most people. Don't pre-judge people - that was me mam's advice anyway.

Lisa Snowdon, Model and TV Presenter

Living in the moment and just loving life and if you can give people compliments along the way it makes you feel better!

Dominic Cooper, Actor

Be content with what you have, if it isn't meant to happen, you'll get over it.

Melinda Messenger, TV Presenter and model

Find one thing in every day to make you smile, even if you're having the day from hell.

Jools Holland, Musician and TV Presenter

Love.

Lenny Henry, Comedian

Everyday you wake up breathing and not foaming at the mouth is a good day.

Interesting links: Google Sightseeing

Well for those who have downloaded google earth and are not sure what to look at, I can highly recommend the 'Google Sightseeing' blog. Every day a new location to view, you may never need to go on holiday again.

There is also a large archive of articles and links for you to browse, you can even download all the bookmarks to add to google earth.

Even if you manage to exhaust the archive links with a new link every morning you can go sight seeing anew.

If you don't want to download google earth don't worry as it also links through to google maps the online version.

If you like trains don't forget my google earth train-spotting articles.

Little Theories: The 3 am call

Little theories, are perceived observational truisms of the world

Little Theory of the 3am call:

It's either bad news or a wrong number. Absolutely no other possibility.

More Google Earth - trainspotting

I thought I would bore you to death with more google earth trains. I also have a theory that you cant see trains at high speed as they are most common around stations.


A long US Goods train.







First Great Western HST Outside Bristol Temple Meads.







Three engines South of Milton Keynes.







Possibly a Freightliner Class 66 engine with a train load of vans near Southampton docks.

Scientists find most Earth-like planet yet (CNN)

Well European Scientists have found the most earth like planet yet, a planet with a similar temperature as Earth which could therefore sustain liquid water and potentially life.

Unfortunately scientists are a bit useless at naming things and have called it '581 c'. In order to correct this mistake I hereby use the ancient method of naming new places that are similar to old places by naming the planet 'New Earth'.

So what do we know about 'New Earth', well a full rotation of the 'New Sun' takes just 13 days so an octogenarian will be just getting ready to go to primary school.

Gravity is a bit heavier at 1.6 times earth's gravity so people might be naturally shorter, who knows they might even be ewoks.

The red dwarf 'new sun' will be twenty times larger than our 'old sun' and the planet may not even rotate.

The scientists were very cautious about the discovery and the possibility of life on 'New Earth':

"It's a nice discovery. We still have a lot of questions."

Michael Mayor - University of Geneva Astronomer

So we may be at the start of the journey to find out whether there is life out there. What if on 'New Earth' there are astronomers looking to the stars who are also announcing the discovery of a planet orbiting a bright yellow star which is twenty times smaller than their sun. Who discovered who first, and will they be our first visitors at only 20 light years away.

Of course when we finally get round to destroying earth we now have somewhere for the escape pods to head for.

So this is the first earth like planet to be discovered but where there is one there is likely to be many so we will have to get much better at naming them.

The truth may still be out there ...

The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

I Laying Plans contd....

[The Moral law - number one of the five constant factors to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field]

5,6 The Moral Law causes the people to be in complete accord with their ruler, so that they will follow him regardless of their lives, undismayed by any danger.

(Zepyhrist: In other words winning a battle is much easier with the support of your own people and all other things being equal this support would determine the winner. Plus if you do not have the support of the people, should you really be going to war.)

Zephyrist's sunday night briefs - week 16, 2007

Well this week I have been google earth train-spotting. I cant remember much from the news except more bleak news from Iraq and concerns about rising UK inflation and interest rates.

Here are some of the things that have crossed my desk this week:

A hard rain's a-gonna fall (Guardian)

I was watching the film "The Day after tomorrow" where abrupt climate changes causes super cell ice storms and floods, freezing New York. It is an excellent disaster movie but it supposedly has science in it. So is the film based on accurate scientific theories or is it just Hollywood fiction. Find out in the Guardian article.

On a personal note I was hopping it would be more like the BBC drama 'Super Volcano' with science being central to the story. In "The Day after tomorrow" they didn't get the same balance and really should have skipped the bit where the dad was the scientist, it would be an easier plot if the dad was like a marine, fire or police officer. Then they could concentrate on the rescue as the main plot and the politics / science as a back drop.

Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future (Guardian)

Everyone looks to the future including governments and companies. The Ministry of Defence has looked 30 years into the future and this article reports what they see.

Here are some quick bullet points:

• electromagnetic weapons will be operational
• Neutron weapons will be in use
• Unmanned delivery / weapons platforms will be used
• Electronic brain implants hard wired to the brain
  
• flash mobs - rent a mob by internet
• Middle classes become revolutionaries against the super rich
• The terrorism threat will grow
• The threat from climate change will grow with potentially the start of a temperature drop in Northern Europe.

Russia threatening new cold war over missile defence (Guardian)

The cold war may have ended but no one seems to have told the Americans and Russians. The US continues to build super weapon technology in order to protect itself from countries such as Iran or North Korea. This method of building super defence technology just antagonises everyone and helps create the uncertain world we live in and suggests the Americans would prefer war to diplomacy.

Now they are planning to place a new missile defence system in Eastern Europe which could potentially start a new nuclear arms race.

'Smart dust' to explore planets (BBC)

This is just like one of those science fiction stories. Intelligent computer chips as small as dust particles get blown on the wind exploring an alien planet (earth in the science fiction plot version).

They are able to act over a local network with each other to distribute computing power.

I can see a horror movie script in this story.

Another week done, tune in next week for more of the same.

Google Earth -Trainspotting

OK I admit I am fascinated by trains and tracks. Before you all starting rolling around on the floor laughing its not an obsession and it is only the same as being a petrol head car lover.

Anyway I have been spending some time with google earth and rail lines are quite easy to follow, so I thought I would post up some links for fellow arm chair train spotters.

The only snag is not all of the UK has hi-res imagery.


Virgin Voyager just outside Bletchley, UK





Long Coal train waiting outside Didcot, UK







Three Car Turbo set bound for Reading.
(Also some interesting circles in the field top left)




Reading Turbo Depot

New web / blog words

I read a few blogs, forums and the 'have your say' feature on the BBC and it seems apparent that the English language could do with being enriched with a few extra words.

I was searching for a word that describes the 'rent a mob' attitude that prevails in most of the forums. The armchair politicians view that is easy to give an opinion on a subject that people often know little about or they cannot understand the implications / decision making process.

That is not to say I have contempt for these people but I would like to see a bit more thought before people give an opinion and perhaps more openness to debate rather than flame wars.

Anyway I did not find the word I wanted but offer two other new words for consideration:

Webararazzi - bloggers and other commentators on the web who sensationalise news items.

Commekazi's - People who comment on blogs or forums who give an extreme opinion and then get burnt in the flames.

Drugs may boost your brain power (BBC)

This story might seem a bit dull until you start to think about some of the implications for society.

This article tells us about two studies, first a scientific investigation into whether such drugs work and second a study into how such drugs might effect society.

If you assume they do work what are the implications for society?

Well you could theoretically buy intelligence, buying the pills would give you an edge over other people that didn't in exams, jobs etc. Would exams have to get harder to compensate or would pills be banned for exams to level the playing field?

What about employment, as part of high performing schemes companies could insist that managers take the drugs to enhance their performance. Could taking the drug be written into someone's contract if the company paid for the drugs?

What about the long term health effects, it will be decades before any time bomb is realised. What if prolonged use leads to parkinson's, alzeheimers or cancer?

One area of life that the article does mention is at school, parents will push the drugs onto children to enhance their performance at school, so they can get in the right schools and get the best chance in a career. If you as a parent chose not to let the child use the drugs would that constitute child abuse?

The UK Government has commissioned a report to assess the impact of 'intelligence' drugs on medicine and society. The report will be published later this year.

I always thought it was going to be brain implants or biochemical body enhancements that would create this kind of social divide but it seems I forgot the power of the pill, intelligence in tablet form.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

I. Laying Plans contd...

3. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in one's deliberations, when seeking to determine the conditions obtaining in the field.

4. These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The commander; (5) Method and discipline

'The Apprentice' week 2 - money, money, money

All they had to do this week was make money, they were given £200 to run a business during the day and a business at night.

The key here was get your business idea right and you could make a mint. You needed to go for simple ideas and volume sales.

The boys with Tre as leader went for gardening on a rainy day and sing-a-grams.

The girls with Naomi as leader went for face painting and kiss-a-grams.

The boys ideas were pretty poor, gardening took too long and anyone that wanted any gardening done would already be paying someone to do it. The sing-a-grams main plus was that there were no start up costs.

The girls did ok with the facepainting but location and a lack of customers on a school day let them down. Again the kiss-a-grams had no start up costs.

For the evening I might have gone for rose selling, selling single red roses to lovers for £5 a shot.

Both teams argued a lot with Tre and Jadine standing out on each side as the opiniated ones but Sir Alan has got his eye on both of them. They better start delivering results or Sir Alan will get bored of their attitude.

In the end the boys put in some hard effort and won the task.

Geri got fired for being a slow starter and failing on two tasks to pick a good enough location for the sales team. Jadine had her card marked by Sir Alan for her disruptive behaviour, he is watching her closely and she could be next if she doesn't start working with the team.

Episode in quotes:

Katie: "Girls are so different to boys"
(As the only girl on the boys team, referring to their secret ballot for leader)

Nick Hewer: "Tre confuses physical work with leadership..."
(After Tre rushes around doing the gardening)

Katie:"Eat your heart out Charlie Dimmock...and I do it in underwear"
(Whilst sweeping up some leaves)

Naomi:"I am a busineeswoman not a prostitute."
(when told about the kiss-a-gram idea)

Tre: "We just need to ******* make some ******* money... Quite frankly I'm getting tired of all this bullshit."
(one of Tre's rants)

Sir Alan: "Give me some money, would you like to kiss me...sounds like another old profession"
(talking in the boardroom about the girls kiss-a-gram scheme)

Next week: Flog candy to the public at London Zoo

Jarhead by Anthony Swofford

I have just finished this book and I can highly recommend it.

Swofford goes to war in the gulf as a green 19 year old scout sniper and comes back as a vet who has seen too much. The book shows what is left after war has stripped away a person's humanity.

Life as a marine is described in terms of raw emotions and relationships all with the beat of war drums in the background.

As a marine your only job is to be an effective killing machine to follow orders and to get the job done. War isn't as simple as that even if you have spent years preparing for it, the desert is a different place than boot camp but in the end the people around you can make it the same place.

Is war, a battle with the enemy guns or with the people around you and the person you are or may become?

"Remarkable. A scathingly honest and bleakly powerful book. A hugely disturbing insight into the minds of the very young men who long to go to war"

-William Boyd

Zephyrist's sunday night briefs - week 15, 2007

Well the week of the grand national with plenty of sunny weather. Here are some of the articles I have been reading this week.

Google Earth turns spotlight on Darfur (BBC)

Now if you zoom in on Darfur in google earth you will see high tech satellite imagery combined with photo's and eyewitness accounts.

You can see the satellite images of the desstroyed villages, scorched earth and vast refugee camps. These images will also be updated as things change.

"We need President Bashir and other perpetrators to know they are being watched..."

-Daowd Salih, a former red cross and red crescent worker
who was forced to leave his home in Wetern Darfur.

Hopefully, the stark imagery and eye witness accounts will reach a much wider audience and in turn put pressure on world governments to finally take action.

Browne may need to quit - Cameron (BBC)

The row over the captured RN personnel in Iran selling their stories rumbles on. The media have gone into resignation mode, if they shout loud enough maybe someone will resign.

The real lesson is that tabloid journalism is socially unacceptable and society should stop buying the trash rather than moan about everyone selling their stories and then secretly popping down the news agents to buy the latest instalments of tabloid trash. The only people that should resign are the people that buy the red top newspapers.

It is good to see that the media writing the stories have not done any soul searching over the matter, as long as they sell papers ironically they cannot afford to worry about morals.

Why should we have eight hours' sleep? (BBC)

This is a story that strikes a cord with me, I am a night owl but my job requires me to get up just after 6 am, hence I am always short on sleep.

This survey reports that only a small minority get the recommended 8 hours a night, but not to worry the real test is whether you are tired during the day.

The 19th Century labour movement's classic demand was

"Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest"

Obviously they didn't have to worry about long commutes in the 19th century.

And that as they say is the week that was. Good night and don't have nightmares about fridges.

Life as a tube station assitant - It's hell down there

What's it like to work on the tube?

Well Jesse Fuller has been a tube station assistant for the past three years and will tell you all about it.

First you have to meet the general public, who are quite often brain-dead, rude and obnoxious. In order to survive you have to be ruder and more obnoxious either that or loose your self esteem and go slowly mad. Either Way 'Mr Angry' from Wapping will still write in with his complaint.

Looking at the other side the money is good and nobody seems to work too hard. There are worse jobs in the world and every day is different even if it is only a different kind of boredom or a different kind of complaint.

Grand National 2007

Well I had a few small bets on the grand national, none of which came in. It was just a bit of fun and gives better odds than the lottery.

One of my bets was on long shot cloudy bays, if you watched the race he was the one left at the start line when every other horse was halfway down the course. Not that you can really blame the horse or jockey as with 40 runners it was a bit of a scrum at the starting tape.

Another of my bets was Sonevafushi at 201-1, the worst odds in the race but I like to back the underdog especially after the BBC were so derogatory about the poor horse on the BBC sport website saying that sometimes a horse was just not good enough to win.

Well that horse showed he was good enough to compete, he finished the race and didn't come last. In the middle of the race he was in the pack and in the running. I had to support him because sometimes the million to 1 shot does come off and the grand national can make heroes out of nobodies.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

I Laying plans contd...

2. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.

(Zephyrist: Even Sun Tzu knew it was important to prepare for job interviews)

Zephyrist's sunday night briefs - week 14, 2007

Sunday night briefs on a Monday, what an earth is going on? Don't panic just the four day Easter weekend meant that I left it till Monday night to write the briefs.

So this week the Royal Navy prisoners were freed by Iran as a gesture of good will and arrived back home to a media storm. Questions were asked about why they didn't resist, the MoD and should people profit from telling their story.

MoD ban on troops selling stories (BBC)

The MoD have reversed their earlier decision to allow navy personnel to sell their stories as they saw fit. This follows a row where Faye Turney has sold her story to the Sun.

This is a very complex situation, the story does need to be told and it should be told by those people who know about it first hand. The Sun and therefore a significant section of society put monetary value on such stories. This poor taste voyeurism is one of the baser levels of society but if the public buy the Sun to read those stories how can they then criticise people for selling their stories. Surely that is double standards as society at large is responsible for moral standards not just one person.

At least one of the officers has decided to tell his story but has declined any payment, he has also gone to more reputable less sensationalist media outlets such as the BBC. He and perhaps some of the other members of the team have realised that the story needs to focus on what can be learnt from the incident rather than provide stories for entertainment.

I do not blame any of them for deciding to sell their story. I personally believe that they should if they wish be able to sell their story, although I would question the need for obscene payments to be made. I would urge anyone considering selling their story to consider the media outlets they choose and avoid ones which would turn the story into sensationalist or inflammatory stories.

East - West Rail link Boost (Bicester Advertiser)

I have previously written articles on the east - west rail link which would link Oxford to Cambridge. In a further boost to the fight to get it re-opened English, Wales and Scottish Railways (Freight operators) have announced it is one of their "super 16" list of projects which it says will allow the railways to increase freight traffic and remove it from the roads.

There is now a online Number 10 petition so people can pledge their support to the proposed east - west rail link.

Shoppers eat chocolate billboard (BBC)

Thorntons designed a large chocolate billboard 4.4 by 2.9 metres made entirely out of 390 kilograms of chocolate. They then encouraged the passing public to help themselves.

The display was expected to last a week, guess how long it actually lasted?

It was polished off in just three hours, 50 brownies who were allegedly just passing were implicated in the speedy chocolate snaffle.

Companies urged: 'let your staff blog' (BBC)

Generally unless you work in a tech / software company you work in a blog un - friendly environment. Most rules are draconian forcing bloggers under ground especially if they wish to criticise the organisation.

However bloggers can also spread positive news about the organisations they work for and can help counter the negative information in the blogosphere and the wider interweb. So in this article companies are encouraged to reconsider their positions on blogging. The article suggests that rather than ignore these forums of customer communication they should embrace them.

Scientists' 'perfect' bacon butty (BBC)

Scientists have researched the formula for a perfect bacon butty. How dare they, a good bacon butty is a work of art not of science. In addition what constitutes a good bacon butty is very subjective, so really thanks for your help but back to the lab.

Random Thought: Writing Conventions

I have been watching a tv programme where the characters crash a hot air balloon into the ocean off a tropical island.

You see the crash and then two of the characters wake up in the surf.

My random thought is is it just a writing convention to:

allow time to pass, you crash, swim about a bit, end up on the beach, fall asleep and then wake up the following morning.

Or

You fall unconscious in the ocean during the crash and then get swept onto the beach where you regain conciousness.

You see this happens all the time in this sort of shipwrecked stories. So if the plot is actually written according to the latter premise I remain unconvinced of the practicality of that survival technique.

Thinking logically if you fall unconscious in the ocean you would drown. I have no intention of testing the premise myself or of encouraging others to test it themselves. I would however be interested in any professional opinions.

Perhaps this falls into the same category as the convention where any plane punctured at cruising altitude sucks large objects through small holes. This theory was debunked on BBC 2's (US:Discovery Channel) 'Myth busters'.

'The Apprentice' week 2 - Dog Daze

Week 2 continues with a doggy challenge.

The Challenge

Two days to design an innovative product for dog loving "nutters". Pitch the product to three retailers and of course the highest profit wins.

The key to this task was designing a product which appealed to everyone and was cheap enough for the mass market. The final aspect was then the sales pitch to the retailers.

The Brainstorm

Rory, the team leader, told the team that brainstorming required everyone except the leader to take off their jackets and ties. The leader kept his on to show he was the leader.

Rory explained about discipline:

"Discipline - something I go f***ing crazy for... I will send you out"

Adam had a few comments about Rory's leadership style.

"...bit of a headmaster... feel like a five year old.."

Stealth(Girls):

Katie, the team leader, doesn't brainstorm she has an "Ideation". She acted as a good leader during the brainstorm controlling and opening up discussion. I can also credit her with one of the best quotes of the week (speaking to one of the other girls who is pushing a dog nappy idea):

"I'm going to ask you to drop the nappy."

Focus groups / Prototyping

Eclipse(Boys):

Rory led the team and virtually enforced his idea on the team with the "pooch pouch" which essentially was a Velcro belt / pouch contraption.

Jadine was still harping on about clips thinking about 'eclipse' clips for the doggy blanket one of the ideas that was rejected.

During a late night argument Rory and Tre continued their argument:

Rory: "I am your boss"
Tre "Your nothing to me"

Some classic quotes from Tre during this bit:

Tre frustrated about the lack of design at the prototype meeting:

"Cant be bothered... tossers!"

Tre on getting hold of the other half of the team:

"go outside and leave them a nice message"

Tre says more on Rory's management style:

"Rory, only thing he knows how to say is shut up"

Stealth(Girls):

The girls eventually settled on the dog cabinet and I must have switched off during that bit of the show as nothing much seems to have been memorable.

The Sales Pitch

Both teams pitched to 'Harrods', 'Pets and the City' and 'Pets at home'. This was supply and demand economics, the maximum profit was always going to come from volume sales and therefore 'Pets at home' was the key pitch.

Eclipse(Boys):

The boys did better at the up market small scale shops even though 'pets and the city' stated their product was "not a fashion statement". For 'Pets at home' they had clearly priced themselves out of the market.

Stealth(Girls):

The girls had a problem appealing to the upmarket shops with a flat pack but with the large retailer they hit the mark with their IKEA / Argos style dog closet.

Ghazal who was in charge of pitching just froze and had to hand over. We have all been there but what an unfortunate time to freeze.

During the girls pitch to 'Pets and the city' there was a fantastic exchange:

'Pets and the city': so you are stereotyping people?
Candidate: No... this epitomises a group of people...

Exactly what is your definition of a stereotype?

Boardroom One

It was all a bit close to call both teams had made mistakes, the boys would appeal to the upmarket retailers but the girls would probably corner the mass market.

Sir Alan started with the boys:

Sir Alan: "Think it was a good idea?"
Tre:"No"

Tre then proceeded to twist the knife in blaming Rory for just about everything.

In the end the girls won having sold 2000 units to 'Pets at Home' and making a solid profit of £5000.

Sir Alan imparted his wisdom on the task to the boys:

"Moral of the story...Effort into talking to the person with the potential to buy."

In the Cafe

In and around the cafe before the boys went back into the boardroom there was a final bit of honesty for Rory and Tre:

Rory: "picked the wrong product"

Tre talking about Rory:

"Has dug his own grave... talk about his faults for a day...talk about his good points waste of a fag packet if I wrote it down..."

Boardroom Two

Francis said her usual line to tell the boys to get in the boardroom.

Sir Alan kicks straight off with "Listen, you lost"

Ifta's poor performance and lack of contribution quickly came up the following exchange:

Sir Alan: "What did you actually do?"
Ifti:"Afraid I didn't contribute much."

The grilling continued as Sir Alan demanded to know who was responsible:

Sir Alan: "Who's responsible?"
Tre: "Rory"

Tre adds another knife to the pincushion in Rory's back.

Rory elects to bring back Tre and Ifti and it very much looks like Ifti would be a goner.

The Final Firing

Sir Alan instantly focusing on Ifti asking for an explanation and Ifti honestly explains that he misses his family and finds it crippling being away from them.

For the first time Sir Alan softened the blow:

"With regret, your fired"

But wait its not over, Sir Alan still wants to fire someone else as the other two don't deserve a "get out of jail" free card.

Sir Alan presses on with his interrogation of the remaining two candidates, turning the spotlight on each in turn:

Sir Alan to Rory:

"Do not want to hear chapter and verse, half the magna carter read out to me."

Sir Alan to Tre about Rory:

"Make mincemeat out of him."

Rory on Tre:

"...Not a team player..."

Sir Alan to Tre

"You're very disruptive ... very, very concerned."

Then finally as usual Sir Alan makes his final pitch:

Sir Alan to Rory:

"... Total absolute disaster... Rory here's the hat trick You're fired!"

Final Words

With Rory gone only Tre is left to go back to the house and I shall leave the last word about Tre to Simon who makes this comment whilst waiting to find out who survived:

Simon: "If you keep Tre on a leash you will be alright"

Next Week: Sir Alan tells the candidates to go make some money.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

I am going to offer up the teachings of Sun Zu in regular bite size chunks.

I. Laying plans

1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the state.

Railways: French speed and British investment

Two railway stories for you today.

French set new rail speed record (BBC Article)

A French TGV broke the speed record for a train running on conventional rails at a speedy 356 mph. This was done on the new high speed line which has been built between Paris and Strasbourg.

There was the standard fantastic media comparison, apparently according to the BBC:

"The train travelled almost as fast as a World War II Spitfire fighter at top speed."

For info the maximum speed of a spitfire was approximately 378 mph (Source:Wikipedia)

The UK train speed record is 208 mph (BBC Article) set on the channel tunnel link in 2003. Now that the new line is opening who knows they may try to beat that.

Of course the UK probably holds the record for fastest steam run by the world class Mallard which ran at 127 mph in 1938. (Reference: The Mallard)

Rail network given cash injection (BBC Article)

Network rail have unveiled 900 projects totalling £2.4 bn of investment over the next two years. The are even creating a new post to oversee all this investment, Director of Infrastructure projects who will be Simon Kirby.

This is all good news even if this isn't a sudden announcement of massive investment, a lot of projects are already under way. Having said that, it is a record level of investment in infrastructure enhancements and Network Rail should be congratulated for investing inthe future.

Usually I finish with a few quotes but frankly John Armitt Network rail CEO is a bit dull, so only read on if you are suffering from insomnia, and imagine it being said in a dull mono tone voice:

"Three million people use the railways each day, more than at any time in the past 60 years, and we're not standing still waiting for the big infrastructure projects to be delivered."

- John Armitt, CEO Network Rail

Zephyrist's sunday night briefs - week 13, 2007

Well this week the UK / Iran incident was all over the news. I personally believe that the UK navy were within Iraq waters and the Iranians are trying it on and provoking the west. This week has all been about propaganda but I think one thing that everyone can agree on is that Iran is wrong to parade the navy personnel on television.

Legal issues over captured crew (BBC)

Apparently the legal status of the navy personnel is not as clear cut as one might think. After all we are not officially at war with Iran so they are not officially prisoners of war which means there are questions over whether the Geneva conventions apply. The article tries to make sense of the legal status and what international rules apply.

Mystery of Great Pyramid Solved (BBC)

Jean-Pierre Houdin, a French architect has solved the mystery of how the Great Pyramid was built. It was built using an inner ramp to lift the massive stones into place. Mr Houdin has studied the problem for eight long years and even built 3D computer models. Even now there will be a long project of follow up work on site to try and prove his theory.

A man's life work proving how a pyramid that is 4,500 years old was built. All that work deserves some recognition which is why it is on my Sunday night briefs.

Heathrow Concorde model removed (BBC)

The real final end of Concorde at Heathrow airport as the model that has graced the roundabout for the last 16 years is retired as British Airways gives up its lease of the roundabout. If you want to know it costs £1.5 million to rent the roundabout which must make it one of the most expensive roundabouts in the world. Pretty secure as well, you cant really load the roundabout in the back of a lorry and make off with it.

Call for blogging code of conduct (BBC)

This is about bringing some kind of common law to blogging or maybe some etiquette rules. Some bloggers get death threats and as a close knit community fellow bloggers have had enough. In this article the BBC talks about the community lead response to recent prominent incidents.

Evanomics - Figuring out real life (BBC Blog Evan Davis)

This is a blog that I will be keeping a close eye on. It takes current issues and applies economic theories to work things out.

Schoolgirls rumble Ribena (NewScientist)

Schoolgirls in New Zealand tested different drinks for vitamin C content. It transpired that some versions of Ribena did not contained the amount of vitamin C stated on the label. The NZ Government were made aware of the results, did a bit of digging and then fined GlaxoSmithKline NZ$217,000.

School girls 1 - GlaxoSmithKline 0

France Releases UFO Files (New Scientist)

Every country has the UFO files locked away in a really secure filing cabinet. Well the French have now published all their reports on-line. They also openly admit they can only explain 75% of accounts but suggest that just because they cant explain the rest doesn't automatically prove the existence of aliens.