Quote worth repeating

I don't think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains... My advice is : "Go outside, to the fields, enjoy nature and the sunshine, go out and try to recapture happiness in yourself and in God. Think of all the beauty that's still left in and around you and be happy!"

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.

Anne Frank

Overcrowding

Living in South Essex I'm getting really fed up with how crowded the area is.  Traffic moves slowly everywhere; no parking when you get where you want to be; public transport nearly ceases by 19:00; high land/property prices.  The really big one is how unfriendly people are, complete contrast to small towns, it's very unusual for anyone in the street to talk to a stranger, or even neighbour.

Government/council is only interested in packing more people in, encouraging infill building at stupidly high densities with no new infrastructure.

Soon as our kids are out of school I'm moving.

Fairness in education

Just been reading an article - the UK is increasing the extra payments to schools for disadvantaged children to £600 from £480.  The idea is to give all children an equal chance in life.
Surely to be fair all kids should have exactly the same resources spent on them.  I used to teach special needs groups and was quite surprised at just how much resource is available to this group - once they have crossed an invisible line and been classed as 'special needs'.  Against the intention of government this extra resource was withheld from kids with special needs at the 'superbrain' end of the spectrum.

There seems to be the idea that all individuals should achieve identical levels of attainment.  This seems contrary to my own experience that different individuals have different capabilities and levels of achievement.

The elephant in the room is that genetics does play some role in individual's IQ, motivation etc.  Parents who are low achievers are likely - in general, not in every specific case - to have children with a lower potential for achievement.

It's really not fair for the high achievers to be highly taxed, and then for their children to be deprived of a fair - i.e. equal - share of the education pot.  Could say the same thing about wealthy pensioners; they've paid in all their lives at a high level and the left wing whingers want to deprive them of their well earned state pensions so that those who have contributed far less (or have contributed negatively) can have more.

Can the more rabid socialists get it into their minds that if you contribute to society, you need to be rewarded or there's just no incentive to be a contributor.

Meaning of life

Must write this down before it seems too stupid.

I'm somewhat of a pantheist - there's a bit of god in everything.  I believe in god as an ordering force rather than some guy with a beard sitting on a throne (OK an ethnic minority woman with a disability if you prefer).

The thought that struck me was that the ultimate reality must be something pretty simple at base.  Rather like the simplicity of an algorithm that creates complex fractal patterns.

So why can't we see it?  Simplest explanation is one of scale - the basis of our 'system' is either so huge or so tiny that it's outside our limited comprehension.

That makes '42' as the answer a lot more plausible.  Cue Vogon destructor ships and my brain being diced.

Pleasure of shopping

No names, but recently bought a new laptop for my son and a tower PC for the home office.

WHY is it so difficult for a major chain store to operate a decent stock system and simply sell you what you want.

1.  Select item to buy.
2. Find staff member.
3.  Check item is in stock - no it's not.
4. Go to next store where they have stock.
5. Repeat steps 1-3 ( it is in stock, but is reserved)
6. Select alternate item.
7. Repeat steps 1-3 then 6  three times.
8.  Walk out of store and buy item cheaper in a non-specialist store.

When you can buy what you want there is then the the hassle of persuading the staff you really don't want support, insurance, any other items.  Just sell me the damn thing please.

Most of the staff are trying their best to be helpful, but are caught in the inflexible systems.  I had a wonderful explanation for the item being out of stock.  Apparently I was selecting the best value most popular PCs 'which keep running out of stock'.  I thought a basic stock system should identify fast selling lines and ensure they can keep selling them.

I know I'm not the only individual who's been put off this particular shop - it takes too long to identify out of stock items which is just so frustrating.  No discount is given if the display model is all that is left, and I was told it can take three hours to re-initialise the disk and memory before sale is possible.  They're not even particularly good value.

Progress?  Bah Humbug.

7 Billion people

OMG to use a detested abbreviation.  How crowded is SE England going to get?

Nature is sure to have a few tricks up it's sleeve.  If we don't limit our population or destroy it with wars, some disease or something totally unexpected will do it for us.

Just hope it's not too nasty for my own family.

Being reasonable V. enforcement by law

Following on from my last post, it's been suggested that in many cases it's OK to break the law if you're 'reasonable'.  I understand the logic behind this - it can't make any difference travelling at just a few mph over the speed limit, throwing a biodegradable item down can't be littering, cycling on the pavement is OK if you're careful of pedestrians rights.

Yes, fine.  But everyone has their own standards of what is reasonable.  Indeed if we were all reasonable, there would be no need for any laws at all.  It's not reasonable to take things that aren't yours.  It's not reasonable to drive a car without well maintained brakes or without the means to compensate a victim of your driving errors.

Laws are there to establish a minimum level of what is reasonable behaviour.  You may disagree with some of them, but if you break the laws you dislike you can't complain with others breaking laws you do agree with.  Going back to my bugbear of illegal cyclists on the pavements, many of them start out meaning to be responsible and careful of pedestrians, but familiarity and 'getting away with it' leads to increased speeds and risk taking.  Same with car drivers speeding I suppose.

I'll just repeat that.  Laws are there to establish a MINIMUM level of what is reasonable behaviour.  To create a pleasant environment for all of us, decent citizens need to go far beyond the minimum and be polite and considerate to their fellow human beings.  Remember that car you're cutting up to reach your destination a few seconds sooner contains a person just like you who is going to be stressed and annoyed by your behaviour.

If we lived at a density of one person per square mile you could do whatever you like without upsetting anyone.  I seem to remember experiments in the seventies where rats were put in overcrowded situations resulting in stress and aggression - very similar to what is seen in overcrowded urban environments now.

We need to either shoot half the population (the mathematical solution) or realise that we are ultimately harming ourselves by indulging in selfish, inconsiderate and possibly criminal behaviour.  In a crowded environment your every action affects other people.  Play nice.