Semi-Green

Posted: Tue 10 February, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Green, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Apparently, a town in Norfolk is to take part in a trial of a “green” oil that can be used in boilers to heat homes.

Supposedly this oil has a lower “carbon footprint” than normal fuel oil, and is thus “greener”.

However, there’s also this in the story…

The fuel being used is a biodiesel manufactured by Argent Energy, in Motherwell, Scotland, from used vegetable oil and tallow, which is blended with conventional oil by Pace Fuelcare, in King’s Lynn, Norfolk, before the company delivers it to the properties.

So this biodiesel is going to be transported from Motherwell to Kings Lynn (some 350 miles) by truck before being added to normal fuel oil, and then delivered – again by truck – to houses and schools.

All of which makes the entire ‘green’ carbon footprint of the stuff slightly more suspect than it perhaps should be…

Induction

Posted: Thu 5 February, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Work-related | Leave a comment »

This morning, nearly four months after I started [new job], I get to spend a full morning doing an induction course.

It runs from 9am to 12 noon, with no breaks, no refreshments, and 12 speakers from different departments doing a 20 minute (on average) presentation.

I can’t think of anything that’d be more fun. *cough*

Bye Thatcher (Unfortunately Carol, Not Maggie)

Posted: Wed 4 February, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, News, Offensive Repetition, Thoughts | 4 Comments »

While I have no problem with Carol Thatcher being chucked off the BBC’s “One Show” (although I’d dispute it’s a “top show”) it really bugs me – yet again – that the BBC gets to be so hypocritical by reporting the story, including the offensive word, ad nauseam.

In fact, having gone years without hearing the word that the bigoted old trollbag used, I’ve now heard it no less than ten times in the last twenty-four hours.

And yes, I know I harp on about this (enough that I’ve now made it a category on here) but the hypocrisy of it really fucks me off on a regular basis.

Nottingham Snow

Posted: Mon 2 February, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Advertising, Charm School, Cynicism | Leave a comment »

(via Mike TD)

Yet again, Nottingham shows its class in the snow. (Screengrab from the market square webcam)

Snowed In? No Such Luck

Posted: Mon 2 February, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Driving, Work-related | Leave a comment »

So apparently London is paralysed because of 3-4inches of snow, with all the buses taken off the roads, various bits of the underground being closed, and trains in the south-east being cancelled. (It’s pathetic really, when you look at the weather in Toronto, and they’re still doing fine)

Up in Norfolk, what’ve we got? Less than an inch of snow, and no-one cares. The roads are gritted (although some of the backroads are “interesting”) and there’s no real problems at all.

In fact, the biggest issue was a certain bell-end this morning in a Subaru WRX on a gritted road who wouldn’t travel at more than 25mph. The fact they were in a 4-wheel drive vehice ideally suited to the conditions (even if they had been skiddy/slippy) seemed to have passed them by completely.

And that’s the only reason I was slightly later than usual getting in to work this morning.

Poisoning the Phish

Posted: Sat 31 January, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Geeky, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Is it just me who takes a certain amount of dark amusement from going through to these Phishing emails for bank details, and filling them in with utter rubbish?

Obviously the data I put in is nowhere even vaguely close to the true details (and I normally do it for banks/services I don’t even deal with anyway) but I firmly believe that the more you can poison the lists these spammers/Phishers work from (and thus sell on) the less valuable they are.

And that’s something that works for me. Maybe we should encourage more filling in of fake details, rather than saying “Don’t do anything”. Well, so long as you don’t install anything from those sites, of course.

Under 15? Not a Drop

Posted: Fri 30 January, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Cynicism, Health, Thoughts | 1 Comment »

I find it hard to understand the new government health guidelines that say under-15s shouldn’t be allowed to drink any alcohol that were released yesterday. Even if you gloss over the fact that by that age most teenagers have had at least one alcoholic drink anyway, the advice seems somewhat flawed.

Personally, I think it’s a better policy to be introduced to alcohol as part of the process of growing up. I don’t mean to the point of abuse, or a drink with every meal, but I do believe that introducing it early, not making a big deal of it, and letting it just be part of life is a better way of dealing with it.

To me, it seems that a lot of the ritual around teenage drinking etc. is because alcohol is seen as “forbidden” and “naughty” – drinking it before you’re legally supposed to is just one of those rebellion things that people go through as they grow up. But if it’s something that’s got no shock value, something that’s part of normal life, it loses the power (unless one goes to extremes, of course) to be seen as a tool of rebellion.

I could be wrong on this of course – it’s not like I’m a parent myself – but I know that growing up (all those years ago) I was allowed to try beer, wine, lager, and even vodka and whisky. I learned the taste and smell of them, as well as what I liked and didn’t like. Once I was able to go to a pub, I knew what I could order, and whether I’d like it or not.

It meant I didn’t make the really stupid mistakes when I was old enough – such as trying to drink that first illicit bottle of vodka in one go before anyone found me and made me stop – although I was still able to make plenty of other non-drink-related stupid mistakes instead…

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