A Very Late Harvest

Pottering round the garden this afternoon I examined some fallen apples and found a dessert apple undamaged and free from slug nibbles. When I ate it I found it was in excellent condition. That is by far the latest time in the year that I've ever gathered anything edible in the garden.

A Quiet Christmas Eve.

When I went into town today to do some last minute shopping, I was surprised how quiet things were.

It was busier than on a normal weekday, but not as busy as it usually is on a Saturday, even though what would once have been called the 'January Sales' were already underway.

Is our Prime Minister Guilty of Contempt of Court?

The judge hearing criminal prosecution has told the jury to ignore comments about a witness made by the Prime Minister .

Lesser mortals might be sent to prison for such a transgression!!

Don't Forget the Necklace Killings

Prominent politicians seem to be competing to see who can pay the most absurd sycophantic tribute to Nelson Mandela.

Mandela did indeed do surprisingly well in keeping South Africa relatively peaceful while the apartheid regime was dismantled, but I think his virtues fall well short of sainthood.

It may sometimes be reasonable to use force to remove an unrepresentative and tyrannical regime that refuses to to submit to the test of elections, but I think that even then force needs to be carefully targeted, at key people in the regime, and at people who play an active part in suppressing dissent.

The African National Congress seems to have killed people just because they did not agree with its policies, and when it killed people did so with horrible cruelty. I don't think anyone who sanctioned or approved of necklace killings is fit to hold high office anywhere.

December Flowers: A Second Boast

I've just looked round the garden, and counted seven different varieties of plant in flower, and also four different varieties with brightly coloured berries.

Very late flowers

There are usually a few flowers in the garden, even in midwinter, but this is the first time I've seen antirrhinums flowering in December. A plant in my front garden has been flowering at full power for months.

Late Harvest

Yesterday I gathered half a dozen tomatoes from plants still surviving in my greenhouse. I'm also still eating homegrown apples, Ellison's Orange and Lord Lambourne dessert apples and Bramley cooking apples.

The Mental Powers of the Powerful

I just watched a House of Commons Committee questioning representatives of 'payday lenders'.

Confronted by the information that 3% of a set of 1.25 million borrowers had difficulty repaying, one MP decided to calculate how many people were involved.

His first attempt was 3% of 1.25 million = 125 000

He then resorted to a calculator, and after taking rather longer than I'd have expected, opted for 'about 40 000', which is I suppose near enough, but what a lot of fuss about a very easy calculation !!

Negative Royalties

As I struggled with the 'child proof' top on a bottle of cough medicine, I reflected that some disagreeable person, or antisocial company, holding the copyright or patent, may receive royalties to reward them for inconveniencing me.

I wish that inconvenient inventions could attract negative royalties, so that those who devise them could fined every time their pernicious invention is used.

Is Washing Up Liquid Necessary

I've noticed that if the washing up bowl gets greasy and discoloured, filling it with washing powder dissolved in hot water and leaving it to soak overnight restores it to a state of purity.

I'm tempted to use washing powder for my washing up, but I keep the washing powder in the garage near the washing machine, so it's never handy when I wash up.

Puzzled by units

A micro-meter is referred to as a 'micron' . Why isn't a nanometre called a 'nanon' ?

That thought was prompted by my converting Angstrom units into nanons. I've always found Angstrom units very counter intuitive and thought they were being phased out, but they still crop us quite frequently.


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A False Sense of Security

The head of MI5 has complained that Mr. Snowden's revelations about the activities of our and the American security agencies puts us all in danger.

I doubt that. I suspect that mutual spying by various national agencies has given each of them a good idea what the others are doing. Large criminal and terrorist organisations probably have agents in at least some national governments, so they too will have the information.

The only people kept in the dark were the ordinary citizens who pay for it all. Now we know.

All that has been damaged is the dignity of our spies.They should be thankful that they are no longer deluded into a false sense of security.