Broken links
No idea how to fix them, but sometimes me just adding another entry frees up the comment link on the previous entry. If there's an R in the month.
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Enough of this home brew computer support - you'll put the ´óÏó´«Ã½ techies out of a job and you know the unions will play havoc with the schedule...
(But well done for noticing this fix and even more bravos for implementing it yourself.) (But I didn't say that or they will come and take my screwdriver off me.)
Anyone fancy trying out this new place? I've put up a shell on the 'I have a small but growing' thread back in November.
For those who haven't yet engaged with the Fifi thread, it's an indoor alternative to the Beach, where serious discussions can be held on any topic we choose.
The prototype, if anyone would like to join me, is here:
/blogs/pm/2006/11/i_have_a_small_but_growing.shtml
Currently trying to get the log fire to catch (I think the sticks are damp) and then will be looking at wallpaper samples.
See you there for lunch? The catering facilities are excellent!
Fifi ;o)
Probably requires a lot of 'R's', Eddie!
Thanks for fixing the comment buttons. And without recourse to Richard?
BTW, is it true that I've frightened the Frog Prince away? I hope not. Tell him, Eddie, that I'm completely harmless.
Okay, almost completely harmless.
Eddie said on the previous post :-
"on the programme I write my own introductions."
But Eddie we are always here to check any complicated ones for you, and re-write them ? ...
like wot we did a while back on the blog.
For those that have forgotten it's here :
/blogs/pm/2006/09/can_you_do_better.shtml
Fifi (2)
Look at wallpaper samples first, then use to light fire.
Is the blog pining for its mistress?
Is there an R in "the month"? I have been looking at it for the last ten minutes, now, and I am sure that I cannot see it!.
H.
Vyle (5) : If nobody joins me there soon I shall EAT the wallpaper samples and throw myself on the fire!
But not before finishing off the contents of the bar.
How to make a frog go 'woof'?
Fifi
/blogs/pm/2006/11/i_have_a_small_but_growing.shtml
Will there ever be a PM newsletter e-mail again?
Mr Mair,
CLIMATE CHANGE...
Let's be perfectly clear about this. That global warming is happening with inevitable effect on the climate is an indisputable scientifically measurable fact. But for politicians to say it is CAUSED by human activity is very dangerous absolute nonsense.
Clearly the planet has been warming up ever since the last ice-age 10,000 years ago. According to the studies of the Royal Society, based on previous inter-glacial periods, we can expect global warming to continue for at least the next 15,000 years, long before which time we can expect the planet to be no longer capable of supporting any form of life as we now know it.
Our limited knowledge leads us to believe this has happened innumerable times before. There's no reason to believe the present inter-glacial period will be any different and there's nothing Gordon Brown can do to alter that.
On the other hand we CAN be foolish enough to allow Gordon Brown creditable opportunity to use 'global warming' as a splendid excuse to introduce yet more 'stealth taxes' in the fatuous name of 'saving the planet'.
Paveland Man, discovered in Essex is the only known survivor carbon dated 30,000 years ago - well before the last ice-age. We've no means of knowing whether he was as advanced, ot indeed more advanced than we are. But it's clear that HIS civilisation didn't survive the same cyclical climate changes of the planet we too are similarly experiencing today.
We can date the geological structure of the Earth back at least 300 Million years, yet we do know there have been four ice-ages in only the past FIVE MILLION years.
That's four ICE-AGES in a mere fraction of the Earth's (known) existance. Global warming might be the topical subject of the day, but it seems not unreasonable to expect the end result to be yet another ice-age. Inevitably in the not too far distant all life on Earth will either freeze or fry, and there's nothing Gordon Brown can do about it.
But never mind, the record suggests that in another million years or so it will all start all over again and once again the World will start warming up again - but nothing at all to do with the Dinosaurs driving aound in their 4x4's.
Humph (7):
There is an "r" in "the month", but you have to use a cod-Scots accent such as Dicky Attenborough's in Jurassic Park:
"Therr morrrnth!"
Talking of links - and I hope this won't be considered advertising - I've finally managed to re-do my department's web-pages for our Masters in Finance Programme:
Comments and suggestions from interested froggers gratefully received.
I'm considering adding a PM-style strapline...
Finance: It's got nothing to do with fine ants.
Go on - you know you want to be called Master...
If I can do it, so can you!
Because school just didn't have enough exams!
...no, maybe not that last one...
Cap'n Dave,
There are a few broken links in your outburst:
1. Is it not tautological to suggest warming will affect the climate?
2. It isn't politicians, but scientists who say it's happening and that we humans loom large in the causes.
3. Did Paveland Man bring on the ice which wiped out his/her 'civilisation' by paving over the most fertile land, as we have often done?
4. For an account of how civilisations cycle, see Clive Ponting's "A Green History of the World".
5. Explain away the data .
6. And a to calm you down.
xx
ed
Wednesday January 10, 2007 at 15:59:13 GMT
Captain, (9)
Paveland Man, discovered in Essex is the only known survivor carbon dated 30,000 years ago - well before the last ice-age. We've no means of knowing whether he was as advanced, ot indeed more advanced than we are. But it's clear that HIS civilisation didn't survive the same cyclical climate changes of the planet we too are similarly experiencing today.
Technically, he wouldn't have *had* a civilisation since this word refers to a way of life based on cities; a way of life which is only ~6000 years old. Clearly *people* survived the ice age or we wouldn't be here.
As for ice-ages, generally the term is used for periods of glaciation, which occur every 40-100,000 years. It was a period of glaciation your Paveland man predated, not a major ice age which as you say occur only every few million years.
SSC (13),
Technically, if Paveland Man is a survivor, he'll be getting pretty long in the tooth by now.
xx
ed
Please, Mr. Moderator, allow the rest of the Blog to hear this clip?
Eddie apologises to the Nation:
Capn Williams (10),
You miss the point.
While not wanting to have Mr Brown (or others*) dip his hands ever deeper into my wallet, the scientific concensus is that the current rate of climate change is man made. There is a graph, showing the mean temperature of some part of the world for perhaps 2000 years (I think), which is known as the "hockey stick". For most of the recorded time, there are slow, and relatvely small changes into cooler and warmer spells.
We all know of Romans growing grapes in Yorkshire, and of the "mini ice age" around the 14th Century. A small change in average temperature can very quickly bring what we would think of as large scale changes in climate.
But it's in the last 100 years or so this average temperature has shot up, causing the line on the graph to resemble - a hockey stick. Even if mankind disappeared tomorrow, it will be a century or more before the atmosphere / whole earth system would reach equilibrium with the CO2 load we've added to it to date, and who knows what temperatures that will bring.
But then there is also the underlying changes you mention, going on as well - perhaps due tochanges in solar radiation, passing through gas/dust clouds in the galaxy etc. Chances are, life could adapt quickly enough to those slow changes that have gone on since the planet first had life; can life adapt fast enough to the man-made increase which is in addition to it?
Try telling the Chinese and Indians they don't need the cars and lifestyles of the West they all aspire to; Americans and Europeans to give up their cars, air flights, air conditioning, living alone...
Solution? I don't have one. Brown's (like Richmond council's) sudden conversion is a green scum on the need to raise taxes. Doubling (approximately) the cost of petrol in the last couple of years hasn't had much effect.
*I live in Richmond with that "Green" Car Barking scheme, where you pay extra if you don't drive to work.
Capt. David William (was 9 now 10), I think you are confusing two issues here. Certainly on the basis of our knowledge of both minor glaciation and major ice ages there are likely to be such events again.
However these types of climate variation are distinct from what is now being observed, which very clearly parallels the industrial revolution and our use of fossil fuels. There's a good piece at about the so-called 'hockey stick' graph which shows the temperature changes and their recent very steep increase.
Unless you want to deny this kind of evidence, and here I'd recommend Al Gore's recent 'An Inconvenient Truth' as a good summary, then I think you have to accept that climate change is happening.
So we can either sit around and wait for the consequences - greater prevalence of severe storms, droughts, flooding, sea-level rise and so on - or we can choose to do something about it. If you accept that we have altered the climate by our actions then we can also affect it beneficially if we act quickly before irreversible tipping points are reached, such as the switching off of the Gulf Stream.
We in the West especially must learn to make do with less, to use less, to waste less, to re-use more. We can do this by being more efficient at home and in industry. However, most people will not act unless they see good reason to do so. I would favour a taxation regime that rewards energy-neutral and carbon saving behaviours and penalises the opposite.
But if in your condemnation of stealth taxes you mean the use of supposedly 'green' taxes to fund other activities, such as wars, I would entirely agree with you.
What I don't really understand it that the law protects older adults, and gives the local authority duty of care, but then the local authority don't actually provide that care unless the person's needs fall into their 'substantial' category.
I do understand that a local authority has a budget, & can't fund everyone, but care just isn't being provided for some people who are assessed (under the NHS & Community Care Act) to be in need. There is a gap between legislation and service provision and I would be very grateful if you could ask someone how this is not a local authority breaking the law?
It is also important to recognise that adults who can pay for their own care are often more vulnerable than those who can rely on social services vetting their services. Despite seeming independent, they can have less personal control because they can bypass the assessment and referral processes which could support them.
Less contact with professionals can result in less ongoing planning, monitoring and reviewing, all of which would normally enable a care plan to be continually modified. This vulnerability can allow them to be abused in private residential homes, but it also means they are susceptible to exploitation or abuse by family members as well as paid, or other, carers.
Thanks Deep,
You and the Captain might find the discussions here of interest.
There is also an interesting , and an even more interesting one .
ed
10/01/2007 at 17:18:11 GMT
Please can we not have Gordon Brown, how can we do this? I don't like the shoe in on principal.
Great interview on the CSCI report today, covered all my points nicely Eddie, I will be sure to email when the next social care issue arises!
(-: Should it roll on, I think there needs to be an agency to assess and provide care plans for those who are not to be funded by their local authority, avoiding vulnerablity.
Anne P (18),
"we can either sit around and wait for the consequences - greater prevalence of severe storms, droughts, flooding, sea-level rise and so on - or we can choose to do something about it."
It's not an "exclusive or" situation. We must do both. I also commend the graphs in my post which has yet to appear (and may (or may not) have done so by the time this one does (or does not))
xx
ed
Wednesday January 10, 2007 at 17:45:45 GMT
Is anyone else disappointed whenever Lord Melchitt appears on the readio and *doesn't* start by saying "BAAH!"?
On cloned animals: I don't have a problem with clones being created, BUT we need to study them for several generations before we start eating them, drinking their milk, or electing them to high political office.
Did I hear correctly? Was that Lord Melchett being interviewed about the cloned cow? Were they cloning cows in Blackadder's time...?
Ed (15-ish)
...survivor...
Aaargh! I missed that. Does that mean Cap'n Dave was winding us up?
What a surprise. George Bush's latest answer to violence is more violence......
If an iraqi whose family were killed by American armed forces were to drop a bomb on those they considered might be responsible, it would be reported as an act of terrorism. Yet when America does it, it isn't.
How does Bush get away with it? Not bringing those he considers responsible to justice in case they're proved innocent. And never mind any innocent people caught in the crossfire.
How did they put this man in charge of lethal weapons?
Gossipmistress, you weren't the only one to have that thought pop into your head as soon as you heard the name!
Gossipmistress (25ish) I was thinking the same. I just wanted someone to call Eddie "Captain Darling" during the piece...now that would be a superhero name to cherish.
SSC,
Nah! I kinda think he's one of those self-winding models.
xx
ed
Wednesday January 10, 2007 at 18:31:26 GMT
Sparkly Helen: A great deal of the problem lies with the splitting of healthcare and social care budgets, as you probably already know.
Having worked in the field for a few years (after leaving teaching), I've had many discussions with Social Services and PCTs around these kinds of issues. There is a need for a complete rethink on provision of this kind generally.
In the area where I live, there is, moreover, a great difficulty in recruitment of care staff (high house prices, low wages, rural area ....). In some ways I agreed with a comment today that a radical rethink is needed, and that alternative means of providing support will become inevitable.
It's a tremendous issue! But in some ways it would be good if we could emulate southern continental practices again with extended families living together and providing mutual support. This would, I believe, enhance the quality of life of older people in many ways while releasing time for working parents. But you need the right kind of housing and infrastructure to support.
I know the above thoughts are a bit random. Sorry. I'm in a bit of a rush and perhaps shouldn't have started commenting on this thread, but it's a topic in which I have a great deal of interest and first hand experience.
Ed (20), and Anne P (18),
While not seeing the specific graphs before, I've seen similar ones. Did you hear the proposal to put sulphur in aviation fuel, so that sulphates in the exhaust would help cut down the amount of sunlight incident on the earth and lower atmosphere?
Or a few conveniently large volcanic eruptions would help out temporarily.
We are incredibly reliant on the Gulf Stream, which itself is driven by the ice sheets of the NW Atlantic. If that shuts down, we'd need to burn an awful lot more fuel just to survive, let alone be comfortable.
I wonder if the Captain will return here or post again anywhere.
Given that shrub had his military attack Somalia yesterday in an attempt to 'get' an Al-Quaeda big shot can someone tell me what would happen if the americans learned there was a similar Al Quaeda big shot living say in Liverpool? Is our relationship with America special enough to stop Liverpool being bombed to dust?
Big Sister (31),
In the last home my late father was in, the LEA was fully funding it ~ to their financial limit. The only place available required us to add £300/mo to meet the costs. Mind, that was much better than in his previous home (when he was not so ill), where we (acting as his receiver) had to pay the entire cost.
Like the woman on PM, I wonder what the point of saving is, when there is this "illness tax". If inheritance is anything to go by, that will be where I end up, so why should I save for then, rather than enjoy my life while I can? I am really very angry at the whole set up.
Thanks Big Sister, not that random at all, & I agree it is time for a radical rethink. I don't have a great deal of experience, and in fact intend to avoid working in the statutory sector because of all the rules curtailing my ability to meet needs, which is just my wish not to be miserable in my working life.
R4 once broadcast a great programme in which an older gentleman compared care homes here with those in Germany, where communal housing provides support without the institutionalism we often witness in care homes. People often moved in their 50’s, and whilst it may not sound immediately appealing, they appeared to have sufficient separation from other occupants to remain independent.
What I do find very positive about working with older people is that it is possible to get an occupational therapist in & deal with such practical needs, in a way which can often prove sufficient; it is just the manpower which is really hard to put in place. In childcare it is often only possible to wait for a situation to deteriorate without any other options.
What I do find very funny (in an ironic way only you understand) is the Carers Act which ensures the needs of carers can be assessed, but (in my experience) there is no provision for those needs to be. It is a situation which is not funny at all when the carer is a 90 year old who hoists his spouse into her bed every night.
THE FONT
Ahem, I apologise in advance because I know this is the most mundane question one could ask and I know that I've not been well and I really need to get out more and I know that there must be another way of finding out but I'm going to ask anyway:
Can anyone tell me what font is used on the blog? I really like it.
Thank you.
Sorry.
I won't bother you again.
Bye then.
Declan, I looked at the secret ´óÏó´«Ã½ codes and found the font : it's Verdana. If you don't have Verdana on your system then it's Arial, if no Arial then Helvetica, and if no Helvetica then you have a very old (or broken) computer!
Just my 2p, anyone else know any different?
Declan,
From Page source: (ctrl-U)
font-family:verdana,arial,helvetica,sans-serif
and
font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"
I don't know if that's any help, but that's all it says in the sourcecode.
Salaam, etc.
ed
Wednesday January 10, 2007 at 21:18:23 GMT
Ed and Andy (34 & 35)
Blessings on you both - superb service, thank you.
I DO need to get out more but I was listening to a programme all about fonts and typeface broadcast on the World Service in the wee small hours. Twas one of those gems you sometimes come across. Unfortunately I can feel a font obsession coming on.
Thank you chaps.
SSC - I clicked on your link and found that you were posting while I was visiting! Had to take TD for interview in the John Weir Building today......quite a long round trip, but worth the visit!
SSC - I clicked on your link and found that you were posting while I was visiting! Had to take TD for interview in the John Weir Building today......quite a long round trip, but worth the visit!
Admin Annie (33) absolutely! Only I really do hope it's not Liverpool......
I thought I clicked the 'submit your comment' button when I posted this hilarious idea for a PM strapline yesterday, but it hasn't appearsd. Perhaps I didn't click, so here goes again.
PM - Getting it right, as often as not
See what I meant about hilarious just then.
Declan (39) are you about to embark on a frenzy of baptising??!
I know it's normally Ed I who brings our attention to Mike Fiore, but his latest animation is linked to the main discussion I was having with others earlier on this thread. You can find it by clicking
...whoops, In my previous post, for "Mike" read "Mark".
Sparkly/Deepthought:
Another quickie I'm afraid (am leaping out to Southampton ....)
Re the German experience, there's a similar project up and running in at least one place in Scotland, I believe near Edinburgh. A friend's mother lived there until her recent death and was very happy.
I didn't work in the statutory sector, rather was working on a project in the voluntary sector, so had greater freedom of 'philisophy'. A thought that kept striking me, and for which I would campaign with great passion if and when I could find the right platform, is that there is a need in this country to stop isolating older people from the rest of the community, whether it be while still living in their own homes or in care homes.
In addition to adding a much needed social dimension to the lives of all older people, it would also ensure more protection to vulnerable adults as the actions of carers, home providers, etc., would be under constant scrutiny in a way that, sadly, they often are not.
Your experience, Deepthought, is very typical.
There's loads more I'd like to say about this, and may do when I've the time (sorry about the rush today!). And I would dearly love to try to find ways in which the issues could be tackled. But in a way which is not patronising to older people, nor likely to remove from them the element of choice to which they, like all of us, are entitled.
Ohhhhh, it's my strapline!!!!
I'm all flustered! Thank you, Lissa and Eddie!
Now, about that trip to Southampton ...
(Why is it that these things happen on days when you can hardly find time to blog?)
Annasee: Spotted the Marcs out of Ten report on last thread - LOL!
...except my first post hasn't appeared...yet?
pertenant new animation - click .
Valery P:
Coincidence! If I'd known you could have popped in for a cup of tea. (earl grey, green, green & black, green & lemon, I've got the lot.)
What kind of interview?
Just adding to the bit about funded care. My late grandfather had vascular dementia in his final years. Because his next of kin (my mum) agreed that the consultant could do no more for him, he was discharged from his care. This then made the nursing home a "social need" rather than a medical one. Cue a 3 year fight over funding during which time my mum paid the bills so that her mum could keep her home. After he died there began a lengthy appeals process to try to get the NHS Trust to agree to follow the ruling of the Ombudsman.
All through their lives my grandparents scrimped and scraped and provided for their future - but when it came to the crunch the only thing that would have helped them was to sell their main asset and leave my grandmother in need of rehoming in her 80s.
My in-laws, on the other hand, through tortuous circumstances now live in a council flat with no assets. They will receive all the help going. I do not begrudge them any of it but there is simply no incentive as things are to provide for yourself. I am even now of the view that owning your own home may not be a good thing as you reach your twilight years.
The asnwer many come up with is to deny the poor assistance. What should happen is that there should be some equitable way of assisting the "not quite poor". If the National Trust can step in for the richest estates, why cannot something similar help those with smaller assets in need?
Big Sis (47),
Yes, I know that my experience is all too common.
But he was out "in the community" being cared for by mother and by the odd LA helper for probably longer than she could really cope with, without live-in helpers, but the house was also no longer suitable (upstairs loo).
In fact, when I can afford to move from this flat, I will ensure - or even add - a downstairs loo (& shower?) so that when I'm affected, some of the obsticles my mother found with their home won't apply.
Anne P (18)
"So we can either sit around and wait for the consequences..."
Most of us prefer to drive or fly around, it seems.
Fom Fifi on the beach:
At 12:09 PM on 11 Jan 2007, Fifi wrote: To those who find it a faff chasing all the threads on here....
I have emailed Eddie, very sweetly suggesting a solution to this:
* * *
I've just found this on the Beach, dear Sir:
"I love the Beach and don't want it to change. I think we should try "The Furrowed Brow" or whatever we are going to call it. I also think we should have the daily message from El Mair. But I think the present plethora of threads is inhibiting rather than stimulating contributions. I think the sparcity of comments in recent evenings illustrates this."
And I have to agree. Fun as it is to have 2 or 3 or 9 new threads from you in a day, it's a complete bugger for us froggers keeping track of what gets added to them all. This is not a criticism ... it's gorgeous that you are as active, and as interactive as you are with us! But now that we have an established culture going on here, do you think we might alter the format ever so slightly?
One post per day, perhaps including early thoughts on what will be in the programme (which neatly deals with the newsletter issue, till the teckies can sort it out) -- and then anything frivolous goes to the Beach, and anything serious that occurs later in the day goes to the Bar?
Your 'umble and obedient slave, now terrified that she has overstepped the mark and will never have a comment read out on PM ever again.............
* * *
It's not perfect I know but it's all I can think of. If anyone wants to talk serious today, then I invite you to
/blogs/pm/2006/11/i_have_a_small_but_growing.shtml
where I'm currently painting the walls ready for our first 'serious' discussions.
Still don't have a name for it yet though...
Fifi xx
Dear Eddie,
Did you say you wanted more strapline suggestions?
How about "PM ... AND tea, not PMT"
welcome Gerry - if you stay you are obviously going to fit right in. I heard that font program on R4 months ago. I usually use either Lucida Bright or Verdana myself and one of those was mentioned as the font of choice for intelligent stylish individuals (well thatys a slight exaggeration, but whatever it was they said made me feel good).
Fifi, I'm just going to check up on the beach and then I'm coming to join you in the new place.
Well done - and never mind all the 'bloodys' - newsletter received at 14:20 today. Nice to have you back Eddie.
mistress (44)
No, I just really need to get out more, along with my new friends, andy and Ed (37, 38). They don't go out either. We're all very happy with the font. Fonts are VERY important (as are CAPS).
PM - People that need to get out More
Primarily Moronic - and no need to leave the house
Pacifists Mooning - but not outdoors
Protective Masonry - indoors and out
Please Make it stop...
Deep (32)
The sulphur idea and another I saw recently to flood the sea surface with microscopic flakes to reflect more solar energy back into space, and similar ideas can be usefully compared to the old lady who swallowed a fly....perhaps Fifi could improvise a few verses?
I didn't intend (knowlingly) that the Captain had an overactive wrist.
ed
Thursday January 11, 2007 at 16:26:30 GMT
PM, the Font above all others.
"They who know of no purer sources of truth, who have traced up its stream no higher, stand, and wisely stand, by the Bible and the Constitution, and drink at it there with reverence and humanity; but they who behold where it comes trickling into this lake or that pool, gird up their loins once more, and continue their pilgrimage toward its fountainhead."
"No civilians were harmed in mounting this quotation."
xx
ed
Thursday January 11, 2007 at 17:21:20 GMT
SSC - 50 - thanks for your interest! Product Design and Innovation :o)