Nov 28 2007
OK, not exactly cutting edge news, nor particular relevant to my life, other than another example of “aren’t kittens cute?”, but there you go. The BBC article details how the abandoned kittens were found temporary accommodation, and latched on to the good natured rabbit as a mother figure. This despite the fact that the rabbit itself is only five months old. Melanie (who is a nurse at a vet) hopes that the CPL will be able to find the kittens a permanent home.
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Nov 21 2007
In just a few years time, serious congestion could effect anyone who uses the internet for bandwidth intensive uses, or even perhaps just simple site browsing. Although the company behind the report have succeeded in getting the BBC News site to publish an article based on their research, I am definitely going to go and try and investigate more before telling everyone I know to get ready for a global cyber-gridlock.
I do remember that such reports were banded around just prior to this millennium starting, and how things have turned out OK so far. This could be down to serious investments by ISPs and backbone providers, or that the original reports were exaggerated. More likely a mixture of both. Anyway, take a moment to read the article, and let me know what you think.
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Nov 19 2007
Having spoken to Alex, I decided to catch up on news that featured Australia this morning, and came across a BBC article entitled ‘Australians named worst emitters’. Rather than a study into the effect too many barbecues has on the gastric tract, it details just how bad Australia’s pollution is compared to other countries, when you factor in the size of each nation’s population. More specifically the CO2 emissions created by each state’s power stations. Although Americans and Chinese people obviously have the highest pollution levels, when you divide the output by the population, Australia turns out to be the most polluting nation on earth, when it comes to the production of electricity!
Nov 19 2007
Just finished reading an interesting article over at the BBC site. It reports that Glasgow council are considering various ways to improve the health of their school’s pupils. Whilst their aims are obviously commendable, some of the options are quite laughable when you consider that it will be children who are expected to play along. ‘Locking in’ pupils at lunch time was carried out by my last school, though this just meant we had to exit the school carefully (the 18 inch gap under the school gates did little to stem the flow of smokers and fish’n’chip shop customers. Like wise, the idea of outright banning un-healthy items in kids packed lunches seems 1) unrealistic 2) a little too Big Brother to me. Contraband smuggling of Mars bars and fried food is likely to occur, and unless teachers follow these guidelines as well, children could rightly claim hypocrisy; children are very resourceful when it comes to bending rules and evading observation when they want to – perhaps time for a little realistic re-thinking?
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Nov 15 2007
According to a BBC article, it looks possible that more hand luggage will be allowed for airline passengers flying from Britain next January. I don’t know if this will occur before we return to Kazakhstan, but it would be good to not have to try and stuff everything into one bag… it does not matter how much space you allow for last minute purchases, magazines, coats and other items always seem to conspire against me, and I end up stuffing loads into my trouser pockets. This does not tend to lead to the comfiest of dozings during the plane journey.
Also of note within the article is Lord West’s refusal to admit that Gordon Brown persuaded him to change his mind when it came to the possibility of extending the time allowed to detain suspected terrorists without charges. Apparently Lord West is but a simple sailing man, who was not able to put his thoughts into words clearly enough on an early morning Radio 4 program. The British Prime Minister then helpfully had a quick meeting with Lord West, after which Lord West was able to ‘clarify’ his feelings on the matter.
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Nov 10 2007
Just read a report from the BBC that is of relevance to any cat owners, if you ever treat your cat for fleas, make absolutely sure you are buying the right treatment. Anti flea drops that are suitable for dogs can contain a chemical that is highly toxic to cats, so make sure that your cat stays healthy by only buying the appropriate medication. Of course, if you are ever in some doubt over that sort of thing, you should consult your local vet.
The brands that I could find online, that use the chemical (Permethrin) are Repel Permanone, Permethrin Tick Repellent, Adams, Bio-Spot, K9-Advantix and Cutter, though other products (used as general insecticides) also contain it. I’d hate to think of any cat owner accidentally killing their cat by trying to rid it of fleas, so if you know anyone who owns cats, please do pass this information on.
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Oct 28 2007
I am skipping ahead a little here, as I still need to write the posts on Amsterdam before moving on to Britain, but want to post a link to this article over at the BBC news site.
I had noticed safe refuge areas when I was travelling to Swansea (actually it was probably going to Birmingham airport) earlier this month, and did wonder what had sparked their need. By the looks of it, during times of peak traffic, the hard shoulder will be used as an extra (normally 4th) lane for those motorists who needs to take the exit at the next junction. From a purely selfish point of view, this seems like a good idea. Less traffic, people getting to work/home quicker. However, I have had several incidents in the past where I would not have been able to make it to such safe refuges with my car. Whether a complete tyre blow out, or engines cutting out, there are a few reasons why your car may not be able to make it to the next fenced off area. Although the article does explain that cameras will be monitored to ensure that any blockages by broken down vehicles will trigger the hard shoulder to be revert to its original intended use, I can’t help wonder how many accidents may occur before this change is implemented.
To my non-UK readers, if you get a moment, do let me know if your country has similar schemes already in place, and what you think of them.
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Sep 20 2007
OK, this is one of the last posts I will make whilst in Kazakhstan, so I intend to use it to catch up with a few articles, videos and sites I have been meaning to post about in the last few weeks. Otherwise I will return in a little under a month, and forget all about them probably…
BBC article on the growth in high tech online crime.
Article on 50 Cent’s promise to quit, which he gave prior to his album being beaten to the UK#1 spot.
Related article on fiddy postponing his European tour.
Cool article on speech to sign language translation software. Most impressive.
Another article, this time on how DNA data could be at risk if funding organizations succeed in twisting researchers’ arms.
Article on how Chernobyl is to receive a new steel cover.
Were they pushed, did they jump, or were they stage managed dives? Check out a little background info here on the continuing political family soap opera that is Kazakhstan…
Article on beloved uncle Pres Nazarbayev not being nominated for the Nobel prize. Never mind, he got a consolation prize.
From 3 weeks ago, an article on arrest warrants being issued over the Aliyev case.
Piece on two bodyguard’s return to Kazakhstan and their confession live to the media. (Related to Aliyev’s alleged criminal activities).
VOA (Voice of America?) summary of the recent elections held in this country.
Is Kazakhstan to follow Russia’s example by moving in on, or at least re-negotiating contracts with, Western oil and gas companies? The International Herald Tribune’s website has a report on the goings on.
Reports from foreign diplomats/govt workers on Astana and Almaty. I had especially wanted to give these two pages their own post. Some of the information is incorrect, some is simply out of date, though there are some gems in there for those considering moving to this country. I may remember to make a more detailed post when I get back half way through October.
Finally a couple of YouTube vids that caught my attention, both from members over at the channels.nl forum I believe. The first is on a man with a lot of vision, and quite a variant on the static art you’ll see in most galleries…
Secondly, we have a video that will have little cultural reference if you are not in the right age band, but is about who would win if all the super heros and villans had a big scrap. Hmm, not sold that too well, sorry. Unless you have tight bandwidth restrictions per month, trust me, it is worth listening to 🙂
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Sep 19 2007
Other than possibly the worst PR photo§ I have ever seen, a recent BBC article caught my attention.
Although Britain has reasonably good ADSL coverage, it took a long time, and BT (British Telecom) dragged their feet in some areas, a lot. As they previously had a virtual monopoly on the residential telecommunications industry (barring oddities such as Hull which have the Kingston company serving them), BT were loathe to invest a serious amount of money on fibre optics, for example, just to see other companies come in and profit from other’s investment.
This has left Brits lagging behind in post-ADSL technology, meaning even true 8Mbit connections are still rare to find. LLU (local loop unbundling) has gone some way to remedying this situation, but to ensure we are not left behind, something needs to be done soon.
Check out the story, and I’d be especially interested in hearing from readers who come from other countries as to what your local telecoms infrastructure is like.
Just don’t get me started on Kazakhstan. 128 or 256Kbit ? BROADband to the rest of the world!!!
§ I did check before making that comment – although he does seem to have under bite, the majority of his other publicity photos do not accentuate it so badly.
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Sep 17 2007
Back in school, I remember Mr Owen§ commenting on how whenever advertisers wanted people to inherently trust some spurious claim they made about a certain product, they would use someone wearing a white lab coat to convey the message. Obviously this person was very likely to simply be an actor, but because viewers associated the white coat with scientists, their brain would subconsciously give the statement more veracity in it’s assessment.
So why this meandering introduction? Well a BBC article has detailed a recommendation to be made that hospital doctors should do away with their white lab style coats. The reason? The coats themselves are excellent at spreading infections from one area or patient to another. Again our school teacher also mentioned that you needed to be really careful not to contaminate one experiment with chemicals or reagents from another. Obviously a student’s experiment’s results are not as important as a patient’s health or even life, so I wonder why it took so long for this opinion to make it from a teacher level to health professionals? Also mentioned are the banning of long sleeves where practicable, as well as wrist watches and jewellery, for the same reasons as the traditional white doctor’s coat. I do wonder what women whose religion forbid too much skin to be on display will be required to do?
§ Or it could have been Miss Ribena-Berry, Mrs Dowse or another of our science teachers… this was about 15 years ago now, so I hope you will forgive my fuzzy memory…
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