Snow Watch 2008

Just as I thought there was no hope Sky news predicts a snow fall.

"Weather forecasters are warning of snow, blizzards and freezing winds for later this week."

Admittedly if you read the article further, for Oxfordshire and most of England it clarifies:

"Across the rest of the UK, scattered snow showers will bring slight to moderate accumulations to some places, although detail is uncertain at this stage"

Past experience has taught us avid snow watchers that such vague predictions can mean anything from no snow whatsoever to a good three inches.

The place to watch is the met office who are quiet at the moment but then again the snow is on the limit of the five day forecast, we cant really be expecting met office early warnings till Wednesday.

The BBC five day forecast for Oxford is suggesting sleet on Friday and then light snow on Saturday.

Watch this space but it would appear we may be under starters orders.

Celebrity meltdowns are we to blame (BBC)

You may have noticed Britney Spears having a meltdown all over the trashy end of the media. The BBC have written an article which basically asks whether we are to blame for this celebrity culture.

The expert they consult suggests that these are modern day fairy tales or morality tales. We can all look at these people and say that is what happens to you if you do X, Y and Z. A kind of internal verification that if you act irresponsibly you don't get a happy ending.

Are we kidding ourselves really? After all lots of people don't end up like Britney but are just as bad. The thing is they don't get caught out.

Are such stories a bitter pill designed to keep everyone else in there place. After all that is essentially what a morality tale is.

"But we also want to know what it's like to live to the point of destruction, to experience the thrill of it without actually having to do it ourselves, and that's where Britney and co come in."

- Phillip Hodson, a fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

So basically we know the result and therefore do not need to carry out the experiment. Although there are some things that any normal person could work out from first principles. It is not rocket science is it.

"Britney is a victim of an exploitative industry, a sensationalist media, and a public who seem to enjoy voyeuristically the troubles of superstars and celebrities."

-Marjorie Wallace, Sane

Yes, sadly the public are guilty as charged. It is compulsive car crash compulsive viewing, you have to watch even though you know what is going to happen next.

What's the answer? There is none we need morality stories to show what happens when things go wrong, but does it really need to be headline news? Morality stories don't need to be current affairs, in fact the best stories live longer than the current news day.

Snow Watch 2008

Still no sign of snow, not even on the five day forecast. It seems unseasonably warm for mid winter but who knows what is round the corner.

Snow Watch 2008

Well so far all we have had in Oxfordshire is rain and lots of it. The problem with snow is that no one quite knows when it is going to turn up in the UK until a couple of days before hand.

The first snow in 2007 was on January 22nd, 2 days away but the weather in 2008 is far too mild and wet at the moment so the likelihood over the next week is for rain and not snow.

Its too earlier to say whether the 2008 will be a damp squib season after all this time month next month I may be reporting to you from the middle of a snow drift.

Shrapnel

Ok I have been busy counting out the small change ready to go to the bank. It is known as shrapnel, as it is the small coins that arrive back in your pocket after the big coins have been spent (exploded).

Now in the UK we have penny coins such as 1, 2 and 5. All of these are now pretty useless, they don't buy many things any more, they just weigh your pockets down.

If I were in charge I would probably get rid of 1p and 2p coins, after all there are billions of them just like mine sitting around in money boxes.

The other troublesome denomination is the humble fiver, have you noticed recently that more shops apologise for not having any fiver's in change and give you lots of coins or that the fiver's you do get are past their sell by date.

The reason is not that there is a national shortage, the Bank of England has millions just waiting to be issued, but that retailers and banks don't like the notes, they take up too much space. It may not be long until we see a £5 coin come into general circulation.

Of course even better would be to get rid of cash altogether but that seems just as far off as it has even been. Despite trials with mobile phones, charge up cards, chip and pin cards etc nothing quite seems to be able to replace cash in its entirety.

The other disadvantage to all this shrapnel is that it wears out the pockets on my trousers and even with the iron-on mending patch they are never quite the same.

From Banking to trouser pockets, it is a funny old world.

Littering- For **** sake people

Littering really annoys me, how hard is it for people to either find a nearby bin or take it home with you. There really is no excuse. You wouldn't do it in your own home so why do it in the outside world.

After all I bet you are the first to complain when your town is dirty, conveniently forgetting that it is people like you that made it so dirty in the first place.

The wombles of Wimbledon Common had it right, pick up your litter, reuse and recycle.

I have been reading 'Freakonomics' so I was thinking about the economics of littering.

The reason people litter is because there is effectively no penalty for littering, there is ineffective social pressure to litter and somebody will clear it up anyway.

Of course there is an indirect cost in the taxes we pay to clear up the mess, but again the non-litterer ends up paying just as much as the litterer. If you do the right thing you still cant avoid the cost.

Then how can we get rid of litter without imposing draconian punishments for those who litter. I think it is a question of ring fencing, set up a community litter team made up of people that litter. There will always be people to add to the team and they can then clear up their own mess.

Think about it a cash fine does not work because there is no chance of getting caught but 25 hours of boring litter picking will put you off if you get caught, and put you off if a friend gets caught and tell you about it.

Find me the teenager that would like to do 25 hours boring service like that, once a few got caught littering would so decrease.

Quick Joke

Usual disclaimer: If you don't find it funny, it was funny in my head, not all heads are the same.


Meanwhile on RMS Titanic in the dining room.

Waiter: Iceberg!!!!!

Diner: No, I ordered the mixed leaf salad.


What this joke really needs is a cartoon with the caption "Dave, hated it when the waiter got his order wrong, it really ruined his night."

Snow Watch 2008 - Leg 2 False Alarm

Well at least in Oxfordshire it may have been a false alarm. There were reports of isolated snow fall in Witney, Wallingford and Wheatly but I saw nothing.

The sky looks a bit snow-like but the weather warnings were withdrawn today and nothing seems to be on the horizon.

Leg 2 was indeed a false alarm unless there is some snowfall overnight.

Either way it is still early in the season and I am looking forward to what is shaping up to be an exciting snow watch.

Leg 2: The east wind takes to the field, snow is on the wind

The early start to the snow season continues with leg 2 predicted to start tomorrow a full 21 days earlier than last season's start.

The met office has issues a severe weather warning for 0600 Thursday 3rd January 2008 through to 0600 Friday 4th January 2008.

There is a 20% risk of disruption due to snow over Oxfordshire although some uncertainty over how much snow will fall and again how fast it will turn to rain. Note this is the risk of disruption not the risk of snow, the risk of snow is of course higher.

Watch this space and we will see what tomorrow brings.

The Review of 2007

Well a whole year of articles on the 'One mind, Many Thoughts' blog.

247 articles, many many pages. It all started with a quote

"It is only as we develop others that we permanently succeed"
- Harvey Samuel Firestone

It ended with a personal article about someone I met on a train and how it reminded me of the personal ads.

So what were some of my favourite articles of the year; political, internet links, Snow watch 2007 or comedy sketches.

It is difficult to just pick one article but if I had to pick one, just one where I was on fire, it would have to be one of the ones I wrote myself.

To be fair I am going to have to choose two, one that typifies my strange sense of humour and one that demonstrated my willingness to debate and dissect current affairs issues.

Random Thought: Horses and sheep

UK General Election May 2008 I choose this article because at the time when everyone was saying there would be a November 2007 election I said there wouldn't and with hindsight it turned out I was right. On an additional note May 2008 looks promising but it cannot be judged until nearer to the actual day, it all depends what happens in the first few months of 2008.

That was 2007, who knows what might happen in 200. Like I always say I don't know where I am going but it will be fun finding out.