The Glass Box for Tuesday
...the place to talk about how PM did tonight...
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I think it will be a great programme tonight, I will be mesmerised.
Crikey! This business over dog mauled babies...
The amount of times that I have heard that dog owners, whose dogs have eaten members of their own families, used the old and stupid 'training' method of punching the dog between its eyes is incredibly sickening. I'm dog-tired of this infantile stupidy!
We should be required to do a weekend course on good dog ownership to gain a licence for an authorised dog breed and not dogs for drug-thugs (which is an accompanying problem in my view).
Regards,
Hi
Perhaps the government spokesman might have mentioned the extended 鈥榟olidays鈥 back to their parents homeland taken by ethnic minority children that are not penalized as are your average family seeking to give themselves and their children an affordable summer break.
Bill Ward
Torquay
Anyone got a link for the Atheist Ex-Muslims?
I didn't just catch the names.
I think we kid ourselves if we think children really miss a lot if they have a week or two off school, compared to what they learn - even if it is Benidorm.
Sid
Pity we didn't have time for a quick word about Joe Zawinul ...
Sid
As you might have heard I was in charge tonight. No great surprise that much of it fell apart on air - we had hoped to bring you a discusssion about a "dog suitablity test" at the top of the programme - but we couldn't get hold of the guest. Likewise, we were hoping to speak to a top police officer angry and the apparent decision to drop the 101 service. Lost him too - any hoo. Dave Prowse - one post thought we could have found a better guest to talk about road safety. Seemed an ideal guest if you ask me. Apologies if our man in hiding in the Netherlands was hard to make out on a ropey phone line.
For Alan - here's a link through to the story.
Like to know if you think we were a bit "child" heavy today - road safety, latin in schools and term time holidays. Too much?
Thanks again for the feedback etc. It's much appreciated.
Rupert
Hi Re. links for the ex-Muslim atheist, try these:
To read more about Ehsan Jami, have a look at the National Secular Society news article (https://www.secularism.org.uk/dutchex-muslimleaderinhidingafte.html)
you might also be interested in The Council of ex-Muslims, a British organisation trying to provide support for people wanting to leave Islam (https://www.ex-muslim.org.uk/index.html)
Under English law it is entirely legal to decide one's own religion and yet in our country this is an issue as well. If you are bothered, write to your MP and ask him/her to support Early Day Motion 1770:
EDM 1770
COUNCIL FOR EX-MUSLIMS OF BRITAIN
26.06.2007
Challen, Colin
That this House supports the human right to freedom of religion or belief, including the right to change one's religion and welcomes the launch on 21st June of the Council for ex-Muslims of Britain, an organisation dedicated to speaking up for the rights of those
raised as Muslim but who have now left that religion.
I was delighted to hear the sound clip from practice at the Manx Grand Prix. And I notice Steve Parrish has been spotted on this blog - perhaps not the former GP rider, who also raced on the Isle of Man?
Wasn't all the hoo-hah and death-threatery against Salman Rushdie able to happen at all because the people indulging in it had decided that having been brought up Muslim he wasn't allowed to stop being a Muslim? That's a wrong that ought to be stopped, I feel: people ought to be entitled to change their minds about religion, not stuck with the one chosen for them by their parents when they were too young to argue. After all, most baptised Christians don't necessarily regard Christianity as of first importance in their lives (not to mention awkward questions about 'yes but *which* Christianity?'), as far as I can see.
News headlines at 5:22
News headlines at 5:30
News headlines at 5:43
We have discussed the number of times that the news headlines have been broadcast on PM before. Indeed there was one occasion when a Blog comment asked if we had noticed the absence of the quarter past bulletin and a number of folks said they would prefer a permanent absence (I was in the contrary camp). I heard most of tonight鈥檚 programme on 鈥淟isten again鈥 as the batteries of my mobile radio died at about 5:10 but whilst listening I wondered 鈥渉ave they forgotten the quarter past bulletin again?鈥 Then there was a summery of the headlines half way between quarter and half past the hour; indeed, at about the one third point. Then again at the halfway point 鈥 as expected. Then again just before the third quarter, indeed very close to the two thirds point. My question is if you realise that you have missed the quarter passed bulletin and put it in a bit later, do you still need to have the half past bulletin as well? Are you allowed to present the programme with a better bit of balance?
H.
Rupert (7) You asked if the programme was child-heavy. Let us look at that:
a) Ellie Lawrenson 鈥 Not one that you mentioned in your list but still child-centric. A decent summery of what happened in court today, followed by a discussion of whether people can hide behind 鈥淭鈥檞or the dog wot done it!鈥 PM reporting at its best; well done.
b) Road safety 鈥 Always an important issue and one that you should never apologise for covering. I grew up with the Green Cross Code and did not realise that it was the last campaign for junior pedestrian safety. The interview with Dave Prowse was interesting, not least because it was with someone who was more interested in the cause than the fame or money that involvement with the campaign brought. Again, well done.
c) Latin in schools - I am not really sure about this piece, as I am not really sure about its worth in today鈥檚 world. However, as I mentioned on the 鈥淟atin鈥 thread of the Frog, I do actually have an O-Level in Latin. Put it under a banner of 鈥淐hanges to this year鈥檚 curriculum鈥 at the start of the new school year, and it has a place in PM. Okay, on this one.
d) Term time holidays 鈥 of all the 鈥渃hild鈥 stories tonight, I think that this was the worst covered. I am not convinced that the parent (I am sorry, I forget her name) gave a typical account of 鈥渟prog on hol during term time鈥 and I thought that this needed a counter argument from the educationalists. A minus, here, I feel.
Three out of four, from me. And a well done as well.
H
Humph @ 11
I was Rupert's number 2 on PM Tuesday (stop sniggering at the back) which means that during the programme, I am responsible for timings, based on the items we have in the programme.
Ideally, we do aim to have the headlines a few minutes either side of 15, 20 and 45, because yes, otherwise you get a set of headlines too close to another set.
Today it just didn't prove possible.
As Rupert explains above, we didn't get the discussion we had arranged about dangerous dogs, which we were planning would have taken us to around 5.14.
With the single interviewee, the dogs item had to end at 5.11. As that was a bit too early for the heads, we went to the next item, which was chunk about crossing the road. At nearly 9 minutes long, plus a bit of Eddie adding in comments from emailers, that took us to 5.21ish, which was a little late for the headlines, and quite close to the half-past summary.
normally we're quite good at hitting the headlines, but as I was in charge of timings for PM on this occasion, you can draw your own conclusions as to why things went awry ;-)
CCTV
I had incredibly good videos (and still) images of our burglar recenty
Were the police interested! - not really:
-(
I'm not even legally allowed to post them on YouTube!
Even though I'm 拢400 out of pocket!
So really - unless a child has been abducted. - forget it!
As an afterthought!
Eddie and team -
what is the point of trailing
'the sound of summer'
Before a trail!
Just come in 'AFTER' the trail - so no idea 'who and what it is! - twice now :-)
Why?
1) we have forgotten what we are wating for if you mention what it is before. - always remember the back announce anyway!
2) I've twice had to do a 'listen again' - spooling through the weather and missed you trailing the sound of summer -- - but how many people may have tuned in - during that time slot! It is Drivetime remember! and nearing the six' o'clock news - so hundreds of people tuning in!
Believe me - it's better to do the sign-off and finish by introducing the 'sound of summer' - logical and sensible? - I'm only a listener though - and it's the 大象传媒 - It's what you do! - we are told.
Paul (8)
I didn't hear this report, but I heard this issue raised in a radio programme some months ago. People come to the UK partly, in order to benefit from religious freedom, which ought to include freedom to chose which religion (if any) is practiced.
Those who attempt to apply unacceptable rules on members of their own communities for not bending to their will are taking advantage of their freedoms while denying them to others, often with severe consequences.
I shall write in support of the Early Day Motion 1770 as requested.
Please note I am PAul as opposed to Paul.
About the headlines...
I'm afraid I'm very 'old school' about this: there's too many headlines!
It's like the 大象传媒's awful daytime TV programmes (and increasingly its more quality progs such as Countryfile) where they make up for not having commercial breaks by tossing in 'still to come..' announcements between items.
Remember when ad breaks used to be considered a disadvantage?
Remember when ITV was jealous because 大象传媒1 had its news at 9pm and didn't have to split the big movie in half?
Ah, the Good Old Days ... another much missed feature of Sunday evenings.
Fifi
The International System of Metric Units
Metric Units are defined by
The International System of metric units
for all measureable dimensions
that is:
the System Internationale (S.I.)
the integrated written knowledge system
for all maths and science and engineering
the S.I. is:
1. decimal (latin: deca = ten):
based on the orders of magnitude
of 10's and 1,000's
1,000 being 10 to the power three
(the volume of a distance cubed)
for example:
giga [G] = 1,000,000,000 of anything
mega [M] = 1,000,000 of anything
kilo [k] = 1,000 of anything
unit [1] = 1 of anything
milli [m] = 1/1,000 of anything
micro [u] = 1/1,000,000 of anything
nano [n] = 1/1,000,000,000 of anything
( [u] is meant to be the greek letter 'mu')
and
2. metric:
for the measurement
of a quantity in a dimension
with clearly defined units
for all measureable dimensions
for example:
primary dimensions:
mass: gramme [g]
distance: metre [m]
time: second [s]
derived dimensions:
volume: litre [l]:
1 l = 100 mm.cube
1,000 l = one metre cube = (10 x 100 mm).cube
velocity: v [m/s]
momentum = mass.velocity [g.m/s]
acceleration: a = [m/s/s]
force: f = Newton [N] = mass.acceleration [g.m/s/s]
energy: E = Joule [J] = work done
= force.distance [N.m]
power: Watt [W] = rate of work = [J/s]
the use of S.I dimensions
has interesting practical examples at home:
a metric pint is 500 ml
one 500 ml bottle of old english ale
at 5% a.b.v. gives:
500 ml . 5/100 = 2.5 mL a.b.v
so the uk unit of alcohol on labels is: 1 ml
the imperial unit of energy
is the calorie [cal]
and we can see
in the food value tables on the labels
of the foods we buy in the uk
the metabolic energy value
in both kcal and kJ
and we learn in maths and science and engineering
that energy exists in different forms:
metabolic energy [eg. all life]
chemical energy [eg. fossil fuel]
thermal energy [eg. combustion]
kinetic energy [eg. vehicle motion]
electric energy [eg. rechargable batteries]
light energy [eg light bulbs]
stored energy [e.g. fossil fuel, electric battery]
nuclear energy [eg. the energy in every atom in the universe]
and each these different forms of energy
each have the same consistent measureable dimension:
the Joule [J]
in principle one form of energy
can transform and convert to another
eg. chemical energy [fossil fuel]
to thermal energy [internal combustion engine]
to kinetic energy [motion of a motor car]
at home in the uk
we all have elctricity metres
with the derived dimension kilo Watt hours:
1 kWh = 1,000 W . 3,600 s
= 3,600,000 Ws
1 Ws = 1 J
and
3,600,000 = 3.6 M
so
1 kWh = 3.6 MJ
also at home
we have gas metres
that measure the volume of gas
taken and burned
modern gas metres measure in
metre cubes to 3 decimal places
since: 1,000 l = 1 m cube
then this last digit on everyone's metric metre
counts the quantity of gas taken in litres
we can see it ticking around can't we ?
we all understand the size and proportion
of a litre don't we
we can understand litres of gas
flowing into the home
to burn in the gas oven
for cooking dinner
to burn in the gas fire
for warming the living room
to burn in the boiler
for making hot water for washing
our modern desktop printers
have dot resolutions of say:
360 dpi [dots per inch]
720 dpi
1440 dpi
well clearly these are imperial
due to the usa using their version of imperial
would it not be better to see:
10 dpmm [dots per milli metre] ?
20 dpmm ?
40 dpmm ?
we can unsderstand that better can't we ?
and thier equivalence in a square area:
100 d/mm.square
400 d/mm.square
1600 dp/mm.square
we can see what that means can't we ?
and
dots are pixels [px]
so
10 dpmm = 10 px/mm
in an area this is the same resolution as
100 px/mm.square
and at the resolution of 10 px/mm
an area of 100 mm x 100 mm
= (100 mm . 10 px/mm ).square
= 1,000,000 px
= 1 Mpx
= one mega pixel
(hey! so that is what it means!)
in britain
we used to measure fluid ounces of liquids
as a measure of volume
derived from its weight
well
wonder of wonders
one fluid gramme of water = 1 milli litre of water
so
one litre of water is one fluid kilo gramme of water
so in your kitchen
you can measure out a volumes of water
by pouring it into a container
on an electronic weighing scale
observing the mass in grammes
eg. 100 ml water = 100 fluid grammes water
eg. 568 fluid grammes water = 1 pint
wonder of wonders
see
the S.I. aids literal written understanding
in english of all forms of
maths and science and engineering
and in the home
all the best everyone
from michael jenkins
1010 bst wed 12 sep 2007
Jonnie,
You really do have my sympathy. The police only seem to be interested in:
a) cases they can solve immediately ("My next door neighbour hit me and there are 6 witnesses.") or
b) what they deem really serious stuff, e.g. murders.
I'd like to know why you can't use YouTube, though. Can't you publish it without commentary? There are tons of seemingly copyright things on there.
Thank you for your homework, Jenkins. Why is it so late?
Prof Sid
Blimey! Jonnie that is beyond belief and my sympathy and upset go with you along the same lines as Vyle mentioned. It's not merely the 400 knicker it's your home and well-being and surely the paid public service - the police - should keep a better eye on customer satisfaction (or we should be able to send 'the boys' round instead, etc.).
Re. YOUR videos my money is on the fact that you have copyright over your own artistic creations and thereby hold the rights to displayed said works of art via a medium of your choosing, especially given that the police aren't (thereafter the incident) prosecuting a crime.
You could try running them from your own server and setting links elsewhere, maybe?
Regards and the best of British to ya,
Sid (20) Tee hee :-)