Canada?
Emergency vehicles fitted with a vibrator? There's a novel idea! It might be tough in A & E, but getting there is half the fun!
615 publicly visible posts • joined 7 Jul 2008
By the same token, of course, all the laws - bye-laws - orders-in-council etc, etc put in place by a government immediately become rubbish when that party moves into opposition!
Pity the current opposition cannot rescind the invasion of Iraq/Afghanistan - I'm sure they all disagree with those ventures. Of course it won't bring out dead soldiers back to life - might give even Gordo a frisson at the idea of Blair getting the Liberty Medal, though.
Ben wrote
Sadly, we need to start thinking of ways to limit the population growth worldwide, and to keep it at a more sustainable level for the future.
It is interesting to observe that as access to goods and energy has increased in the western world, the rate of population has tended to decline. Perhaps the same will be true for the rest of the world?
Arthur wrote:
(no doubt you have a parent, uncle or somesuch that qualifies here)
Now just a minute! I'm a grandfather, spent much of the '70's working with George II and George III (ICL's job control language), graduated with a computing degree at the age of 50 and have been using Linux ever since the first Slackware version on its 50 odd floppies. Never heard of "Silver Surfers"?
It's got the latest Solaris 10 DVD's in the pocket, for entertainment during slack periods.
He said investment in technology and bio-tech industries would help the recovery and avoid a lost generation of unemployed young people.
So a whole generation of illiterate and innumerate school leavers will be able to take up posts as molecular biologists, C++ programmers, network engineers? Who's he trying to kid?
Yeah, I've got a copy of the human genome printout in the pocket - but I can read it.
You wrote:
Ofsted, a quasi-autonomous governmental organisation, was created originally to be the watchdog for standards in school education.
Yeah, and how successful have they been at their own job? Of youngsters leaving school these days, 35% can´t read and the other 75% can´t add up!
OK, there is a ready reckoner (remember them?) in the pocket.
AC (one of them) wrote: Even the government has been elsewhered out to Europe.
Yes indeed, so why are the taxpayers still supporting this huge drain on resources? Clear Westminster, and appoint a High Commissioner and a staff of 12. We'd make billions selling all the vacant real estate to Arabs and Russians.
You lightly suggest a couple of weeks' gaol as adequate punishment - perhaps it would be, because it would then give the careless blighters a criminal record, which would ensure that they were no longer in a position to vote themselves pay rises or bonuses.
This would, like the famous case of Admiral Byng, definitely encourage the others.
Fortunately managed to escape from America's "unsinkable aircraft carrier".
Seems to me that "unsinkable" is a relative term. Sinking into the sea would be unfortunate, but not nearly so bad as sinking into the depths of moral depravity that NULab seems determined to plunge the country into.
There's a copy of Fowler in the pocket, and I know I shouldn't have ended a sentence with a preposition - but who cares any more?
Steve Swann wrote:
"It's the same thing as the current ridiculous debate about drug classifications in the UK. Hundreds may die each year as a result of Class A drug abuse, its true, but THOUSANDS die from alcohol and nicotine abuse, ignoring the effects that such have on the functionality of society! Why the difference in treatment? Because one is state-sponsored and the other is not."
Presumably you equate "state sponsored" with "tax-generating"? Any government that banned tobacco would soon find itself unable to pay its law enforcement organisations - or its politicians' pensions!
I've got bootleg cigarettes in the pocket - ofcourse I'm not stupid enough to smoke them myself, but they're a nice little earner.
"The stars in the photo have four spokes"
Yes, Joe, this is an artefact introduced by the fact that the secondary mirror of the telescope is suspended in the telescope tube by a "spider" of four struts.
There's a copy of "Amateur Telescope Making" in the pocket - but you really need a warm coat when observing, so mine is adapted from one of the space-suit modules used in the moon missions.
Surely there's some _consultant_ at the home office, unelected, overpaid, who has a database fetish.
Nulab high-ups have obviously been reading "1984" not as a piece of satire, or a warning, but as a text-book for the art of government.
A poster on another topic has suggested that "The United Kingdom..etc" be renamed; "Airstrip One" seems a good alternative.
There's a stolen passport in th pocket, so that I can escape to Oceania.