OneGuyFromBarlick

598,000 and counting.

3 minutes later and it's 602,000

887,000 plus after I signed.....

Any moment now it's going to crack the million mark...Yeah! A million at 09.55 on 30th January 2017.
And another 2000 in the moments it took me to write this line!

The bloke is a liability and having him poncing around on a state visit over here would just put our Queen at much higher risk. It will be an interesting debate although I think Dennis has already hit the nail on the head.

On another matter I have just heard on the radio news about the mentally ill man who has been identified as an individual brought here and abandoned by his relatives. They flew in from the USA with a return ticket but left him on the streets apparently (now traced and interviewed) to avoid the medical charges in the USA. Desperation perhaps but callous and uncaring at any level.

That's a new twist on health tourism.

I heard later that it is known in the USA as Granny dumping.

Just to lighten the mood a little (it certainly made my day). Today I claimed my prize for winning the Christmas Photo Competition held by a hotel chain, a weekend for two at one of their hotels. What attracted my attention was the actual brochure price of the break; how good was that for one photo?

I watched the Panorama programme about Roger Curry last night. The saddest thing is that after he was returned to the US he was put in a care home with very low standards and has deteriorated. The case is still being examined by the local Social Care department.
That's not a bad pay out at all Kev......

Kev, is the hotel the Barlick Trump Towers?

Granny dumping was an ancient tradition in Japan and they've resurrected it to meet modern day needs! LINK

The Inuit used to put their crumblies on an ice floe.....

People have often noted the range and number of tools and objects I have about my person, some of them quite esoteric. However, every now and again I have a use for one of them and the storage and care over the years are all worth while. Such a circumstance is going to arise this morning in the Shed. I shall report later!

BBC report: `Apple reported its highest ever quarterly revenue, as the iPhone 7 helped it return to a growth in sales in the final three months of 2016. In its first full quarter since the iPhone 7's release, Apple reported net sales of $78.4bn (£62.3bn), up 3% on the same period a year ago. Chief executive Tim Cook said Apple had sold "more iPhones than ever before". It had also set new records for revenues from its Mac, Apple Watch and services divisions, he said. Apple shares rose 3% in after-hours trading following the results.'

FT journalist Tim Harford explained in detail in one of his radio programmes how everything in an Apple iPhone has depended on public funding for its development. It's quite remarkable when you think about the effort that Apple puts into avoiding paying its taxes.

iPhone sales were very likely helped by the Samsung battery fiasco. (Or am I being too cynical?)

The Lemmings running over the cliff in Parliament yesterday.....



It reminded me of this poster on the staff notice board at a college in Whittier, LA.

The fact that my day in the Shed is going to be disrupted by an appointment at the opticians! I know it's important to go but would much rather be in the shed!
Trump being childish about Arnold Schwarzenegger replacing him on what was his TV show. It's not often I can't find some redeeming trait in even the worse person but I have to admit Trump has me baffled. You've perhaps got to grant him one thing, he is consistently repulsive! I see nothing but trouble.....

I liked the way that Arnie handled it in true Terminator style. He knows he has more political experience than Trump will ever have.

Stanley wrote:The fact that my day in the Shed is going to be disrupted by an appointment at the opticians! I know it's important to go but would much rather be in the shed!
Trump being childish about Arnold Schwarzenegger replacing him on what was his TV show. It's not often I can't find some redeeming trait in even the worse person but I have to admit Trump has me baffled. You've perhaps got to grant him one thing, he is consistently repulsive! I see nothing but trouble.....

Am I the only one who admires President Trump? The man does it his way with executive orders and no messing about, good for him. I'll be sorry when the establishment manages to control him.

Trump, Putin and May, what a trio.

All three happily ignoring legal requirements, eh?

Trump is now getting a bit upset with the Iranians for testing new ballistic missiles. Just to recap what a ballistic weapon is, it can be anything fired from a gun, a shell etc, or a rocket or anything that you basically point in the required direction and then fire it to a height where gravity takes over and with a bit of luck it drops where you want it to. Ballistic Although Iran is a member of the Nuclear non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Obama and Putin were concerned about their nuclear programme moving into weapons manufacture. The agreement was that the IAEA would monitor the situation within Iran. As I understand it these sanctions are not about nuclear development but rocket development. Trump's proposed sanctions are being imposed not for doing what they are entitled to do but for doing something that Trump doesn't want them to do. All this may be OK in the short term for Trump's US image but will only increase Iran's standing in the Muslim world. There is of course what is seen as a double standard with North Korea, Israel, India and Pakistan all having nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and being non-members of the NPT and quietly ignoring them.

An early birthday present from the NE Mafia! This lovely old, completely refurbished Ames indicator that reads to two tenths of a thou per division. Just what I wanted! Aren't friends wonderful.....

I was amused by Iran's response to Trump, describing him as `inexperienced' and referring to the US as `useless'. I suppose it was all on twitter.

News from Grand daughter Yiota that she will be seeing me in March! Lovely surprise, they are great kids and are climbing out of the hole.

Hearing a friend of mine, Ben Russell, on the Today programme talking about an exhibition on robots he is curating at the South Ken Science Museum. Nice to know that he hasn't been downsized!

There are some things that nag away at me constantly and one of them that is being exacerbated at the moment by the loose cannon in the White House is rabid Zionism. I have immense respect for the Jewish race but none at all for Zionism which has consistently pursued policies designed to destroy the standing of Palestine. Trump's attitudes have encouraged them, a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse and they are aggressively encouraging settlement on the West Bank, traditionally Palestinian territory, by retrospectively approving illegal settlement. This is a thorn in the side of Arab influences in the Middle East and is stoking the already febrile atmosphere in the region.
This is a powder keg and eventually could be an enormous danger. I can't remember a time when this problem wasn't with us and we are no nearer a resolution now than at any time in the past.
I note that there are reports of private back yard poultry being allowed outside in spite of the bird flu ban. This will be affecting Wendy......

Stanley wrote:I have immense respect for the Jewish race but none at all for Zionism

I may be getting a little out of my depth here but it is worth repeating what the Director of the international atomic energy agency (IAEA) said about Iran's threat to remove the Jews from the face of the earth. His explanation, and he is an Egyptian by birth, was that that the comment was an error of translation from the Farsi (Persian) language Farsi and what was meant was that Zionism was to be removed. In today's age of spin and alternative facts who can say what the real explanation is.

Another report on the radio this morning about the effects of social media on children. Apparently they are supposed to be only allowed to use sites like Snapchat and Instagram after age 13 but a study of kids aged 10 to 12 showed most of them did use the sites. They're posting photos of themselves and are desperate to appear perfect and attractive and use filters to improve and `correct' their appearance. The radio programme played a lot of recorded clips from interviews with kids and it was horrible to hear how addicted they are and how they see this as `normal'.