Inflation

Yesterday I wanted to try out a pen that had been given to me, and discovered the only ink I had was green, so I bought some black ink.

57 ml of ink cost me £7-49. As I paid, I remembered that many years ago I bought a pint bottle for about 10 shillings. A pint was about 570 ml. At the current price, a pint would cost 74-90, so the price now is almost 150 times what it used to be !!!

Bogus Biology

I'm very irritated by misuse of 'DNA' and 'Instinct' to refer to traits that are not genetically determined, and to actions that are not instinctive.

The absurdity that goaded me into posting this comment  has just appeared on the BBC website:

" the party hacked down Margaret Thatcher in an orgy of political regicide prompted, naturally, by DNA-deep divisions over Europe."

Cruelty to Animals

Although I've never met a lion, I'm well acquainted with two smaller felines and know how much they like their food.

I read that in Chile a naked man climbed into the lions enclosure in a zoo, and when the delighted lions started to eat their naked lunch, people shot them. Apparently the man was trying to commit suicide, so it would have been much kinder to all concerned to let the lions enjoy their meal.

One sided contract

There is talk of the Government 'imposing a contract' on junior doctors.

That doesn't make sense to me because I think of a contract as a special type of formal agreement between two or more parties.

The Government may well eventually impose working conditions on junior doctors. Determined governments can impose almost anything on their subjects, but what is so imposed is not a contract ! Perhaps we should call it an imposition.