Who's the victim here?

A YouTube clip that is causing controversy across the UK. You may have seen it, I hadn't. Until we landed yesterday I'd no idea it even existed. A student on a train in Scotland with the wrong ticket is ordered off by a conductor who is old enough to be his grandfather. Said student verbally abuses both the conductor and the other passengers in that carriage until a big chap steps in asks the conductor if he needs help with the problem and when the conductor says yes puts the kid off the train. After he does this he gets a round of applause from the other commuters. You cannot see the student's face and what should've happened is that the unnamed student learned a valuable lesson and the public got to realize that we can stand up for ourselves and others. What actually happened is this. The student revealed himself to be 19 year old Sam Main (remember that HR departments this little charmer will be looking for a job once he's graduated) and has been photographed looking like an angel with a scuffed face, I'm betting he isn't giving the money he gets from the interviews to any good causes. He loftily admits that he was out of order with the verbal abuse but says that he shouldn't have been thrown off the train especially by a member of the public. Seeing as the conductor couldn't have lifted a bag of sugar let alone an abusive 19 year old kid methinks he doth protest too much. And the have a go commuter? He has been charged with assault. Oh and the conductor is now under investigation. So here's the message loud and clear, don't interfere, standing up for your fellow man will get you a criminal record.

Who threatens Santa Claus?

A British teenager instead of writing a letter to Santa, has sent him an ultimatum. Give me the presents or Santa gets it (and I'll cook his reindeer). The little charmer (I'm being sarcastic here spoilt little brat would be far more appropriate) has a long list including the real Justin Bieber she is quoted as saying 'I don't see any problem with the letter, I want all of these things and I don't see why I shouldn't get them.'

 

Her mother says that she's going to try and get most of the things on her spoilt little kid's list. I don't know about you but I have two huge problems with this.

Firstly, she's thirteen! and still thinks that Santa exists and second and worst of all, her mother is indulging behaviour that will carry on into adulthood. What the kid needs is a good slap and no Christmas presents, instead she gets publicity in a national newspaper. If I could be a fly on the wall at their house on Christmas morning the meltdown when she doesn't get what she wants is going to be spectacular!

Here's the link to the article.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2073907/Christmas-list-Spoilt-girl-13-demands-presents-says-Santa-Claus-die.html

Your bargain or your life?

Ah Black Friday. Every year I think to myself, should I do it. I mean get up at 3am and queue in the freezing cold. Think of the money I'll save. But here's the truth, I am a lazy shopper and I shop local not big box and at 3am the only place I'm going to be is in bed. Looking at what happened over the weekend my opinion of 'the running of the bargaineers' still hasn't changed. The woman who pepper-sprayed a crowd to get her greedy little paws on an Xbox, the grandfather who may - or may not have been shoplifting but was brought to the ground by a zealot police officer who tackled him as if he was a suicide bomber and slammed him face first into the concrete floor. And the poor guy who had a heart attack and died, people just stepped over him. Also when they put up those lists of the worlds deadliest jobs, you would think the poor sap who has to open the doors of any store on Black Friday would get a mention. Bargains are material possessions, I prefer to enjoy Christmas with my family not in an emergency room.

What do the 99% and the Arab spring have in common?

My what short memories we have.  Arab Spring - peaceful sit-in protests in the middle east that led to a lot of changes, people died, some dictators were removed, the sheer will of the people did this.  Now cut to Occupy Wall Street, peaceful (mostly) protests all around the US (Salt Lake has an 'occupy' protest down in Pioneer Park) and in many cities around the world.  Our citizens saying that they've had enough of the culture of corruption that the banks have been getting away with for years.  Even after we bailed them out (remember that - your tax dollars paid for it) they're back to their old ways.  And when we try and do something about it - the police are ordered to break up these camps using force.  Laws are rushed through local government to rid us of this public nuisance.  These 'occupiers' are from every walk of life and they are expressing their discontent in the only public way they can.  They can't bring down these banks or large investment houses only the super rich can dismantle their little eyrie and why would they want to do that?

And what do we give these (mostly) peaceful demonstrators for their trouble?  Violence. Demonstrator Scott Olsen - an Iraq war veteran , 24 years old. He survives fighting for US freedom and he gets a fractured skull courtesy of a smoke grenade from the Oakland police force.  Using excessive force on your citizens here at home makes you look like a bunch of bullies. And unlike middle eastern countries where refusing to obey an order meant you could be shot, if the police refused to take these orders they would only lose their jobs not their lives and that would be a sign that the 1% were losing ground. Taking away the generators the NY protesters are using for warmth because they constitute a 'fire hazzard' also smacks of the 'the man' sticking it to us. Occupy Wall Street is a way for people to express their discontent with everything that's gone wrong in this country.  A safety valve if you will.  And neither negative media coverage, nor dismissive politicians have managed to put this upstart movement to bed - the protesters say they are in it for the long haul.  Six weeks in they've no clear message, they don't have an agenda, they're all ages, all races but they are still occupying.

There are those who read those post and will assume I'm a democrat.  Guess what I don't support any political party, the left is wet, the right is so far right that if we moved them back in time to Berlin in 1933 they'd fit right in.  Moderates are few and far between, if I could find one I would support them.  Oh and speaking of history, you might want to look up that time the French 99% turned on the 1%.  They skipped the peaceful protest - it wasn't pretty.

Why don't we notice small amounts going missing from our bank accounts?

You'd think with all the tools we have at our disposal to monitor our bank accounts that this wouldn't be allowed to happen.  I check my bank accounts regularly and I completely missed the $5.10 withdrawal by Witifile but my bank (thank goodness) didn't.  It's not a huge amount in fact its so small that lumped in with all the other transactions I just assumed it was meant to be there.

Once the bank had alerted me I started to look into Witifile and found I'm not the only one.  Somehow they've gotten hold of a bunch of card numbers and debited that small amount from each one.  If you times $5.10 by millions suddenly its not such a small amount any more.  The moral of this post is, check your bank account and if you don't recognize a transaction call the bank, they will be able to tell you more and dispute the charge if necessary and unlike me keep all your receipts until the bank has put them through which I will be doing from now on.

Now I'm stuck with a dead debit card until my new one arrives.

Since when is it okay to steal?

I know we are in a down economy, I know that people have to make ends meet but I cannot get my head around stealing books.  I mean why? Why would you do that.  Get in the queue at the library, don't come to a small business and steal the inventory.  Of course this person isn't going to steal from a chain, they have cameras everywhere and they prosecute shoplifters.  We are booksellers not store detectives I have no authority to challenge a customer even though I followed said customer to the cash desk and the book was still in evidence and suddenly it wasn't.  I even asked if that customer was ready to buy the book I'd seen in a hand only moments earlier. I was told that the book had already been put back.  Did I say 'liar' of course not.  The thing that gets me is that I can't prove anything was stolen, bookfairs mean our inventory is spread all over the valley at the moment.

Makes me mad.

Also makes me miss our manager at the local newsagents in Storrington.  She watched a kid thieving with such sleight of hand that we two at the counter knew he was taking stuff but couldn't catch him in the act.  She had the security camera footage and she had a temper. She came flying down from the upstairs flat, grabbed the kid by his ankles and shook and you would not believe how much stock fell out.  Then she righted him, told him he was 'barred' and his mother would be seeing the footage along with the local policeman if he dared set foot in the shop again.  He never did.

Of course that wouldn't work for the bookstore because we are welcoming in honest fellow bookworms...

Where are my manners?

You aren't born with manners, as a baby the first words are more likely to be mamma or go goo than 'please' or 'thank you' (If you're first words were please or thank you consider yourself a child prodigy)  Parents teach kids manners, if they don't their kids learn by copying the other kids in the playground.  To be honest I was dragged up pretty well but there was a stage where my manners were sadly lacking.  It is very rude to swear and when I worked for the civil service it was a way for staff to let off steam, I even learned to swear in Dutch - which ticked off my manager no end because she couldn't tell if I was swearing or not.  Since most of my jobs - except that one - involved a degree of interaction with the public I'm sensitive to bad manners and at the moment we're not doing the next generation any favours. 

Take this morning, standing in a queue at the post office.  Mothers on cell-phones ignoring their kids, people pushing into the queue to get forms for various things, in one case the guy was so keen he stood on the foot of the woman in front of me, a woman who was so interested in her cell-phone conversation that she was ignoring the questions of the clerk trying to serve her. With our busy and increasingly isolated lives we get less and less chances to talk to real people.  Good manners cost nothing so the next time you're out and about turn off your cell phone and turn on a smile, you might make someone's day.

(I'm always polite to our customers, I've come to know a lot of the regulars by name.  We do our best to make everyone who walks through the door feel welcome.) 

Are we slaves to our Sat Navs?

For reasons it isn't worth going into I'm about to upgrade my iPod to an iPhone and this brings up an interesting dilemma.  I've been hankering after a GPS in my car for years and now I'm about to get one.  The concept of being able to plug in an address and be directed to it instead of having to reccee places before I go to them or using google streetview really appeals to me.  I hate getting lost, and worse being late for important things because I was driving round in circles unable to find a tiny unmarked side street.  Not that my navigation is terrible, but knowing exactly where you're going is one less thing to have to concentrate on especially in down-town Salt Lake, where lunch time commuters wander around the streets like a flock of lemmings.

Did you know in the UK alone 300,000 crashes were blamed on satellite navigation aids. In a quote from UK tabloid The Daily Mirror

One top academic argued mindless motorists were at fault for perceived problems with satnavs.
Psychology professor Cary Cooper, of Lancaster University, said: "When you see pictures of a lorry being lifted out of ditch with a crane, it's difficult to understand why drivers follow a satnav even when it's clearly wrong.
But some people are easily persuadable and will follow instructions, whether it is their wife or a computer telling them where to go.
Some people like to hand over control and don't want responsibility, even for something as simple as directions.

If you google 'sat nav accidents' there are many, many pages of stuff just like this.  Having read plenty of these articles I have come to the conclusion I will let my GPS offer advice on my route - which I don't have to take if I don't want to- and will always keep a map handy.


www.engadget.com/tag/gps+accident/
http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/posts/gps_related_accidents/
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~johnson/papers/GPS/Johnson_Shea_Holloway_GPS.pdf

Why is doorstep harrasment still legal?

Ever heard the phrase an Englishman's home is his castle.  I used to think that was a really grown-up (ie boring) thing to say.  Now I have a home of my own I can see what it means. I - the co-homeowner - decide who comes in, I don't even have to open the door if I don't want to.  My friend - the wise girl I was discussing this subject with intends to put a notice on her door that basically says, 'if we don't know you we won't be opening the door'  Which throws up all kinds of problems - all those packages you have to sign for that won't get delivered, publishers clearing house cheques, the passer-by who has just spotted your garage is on fire....    My parents have an airlock between them and the front door so they can open the door shake their heads and close it again without a word being exchanged.  Unless its the JH's and then Mum hides under the table until they've gone - I am not making this up!

I tend to take direction well, a sign saying 'NO TRESPASSING' will stop me in my tracks.  So will a sign (like the one on our front door) that tells you to read it before you ring the doorbell.  People who ignore that sign and aren't people we know or a appointment that we have set up, or parcel/pizza delivery are likely to get an earful from hubby (if he's home) or me.  But ignore it they do and then they wonder why  I'm so short with them.  It could be because I was buried inside my washing machine trying to extract the filter, balanced half way up a ladder, had just got my head around a concept and the doorbell sent my thoughts flying to the four corners or the fact that the doorbell scares the hell out of my cat. And when I do open the door they launch straight into their sales pitch.  The words "I'm sorry to bother you," would go a long way in this situation.

If I am in the front garden however, I'm fair game.

Update : Privacy film on the window at the front door, you can see them and they can't see you. People still ring the doorbell they just don't get an answer unless we know them. Simple but effective.

Is it time to say goodbye to Facebook?

Have you noticed that just recently a lot of companies are riding roughshod over us the consumer.  They tell us what we want, they tell us to pay more for services which frankly aren't worth the money.  They try to tell us what to listen to, what to eat, how to dress.  The most recent and vocal of these - 'you'll grow to love it - stop complaining' companies is Facebook.  FB has become a part of my life.  I use it to keep up with my friends all over the world.  I have the FB app, I check it all the time.  But get this FB I am the boss, I dictate our relationship or so I thought.  With each new update I renew my privacy settings.  But this last update - the one that sorts stories into an order of importance that's done by an algorithm is quite possibly the beginning of the end -for me at least.  FB wants to move in with me, it wants to tell all my friends what I'm watching or listening to.  It wants me to give it a timeline of my life long before FB was an idea for an exclusive ivy league network.  FB sit down and listen, its not you it's me.  I value my privacy, my guilty pleasures, my pandora playlist, youtube videos ect.  I'm announcing a trail separation.  If you haven't come to your senses in a month, I'm afraid it's over.

10/10 Moved the facebook app to the second screen on my iphone and found I don't feel compelled to check it.  I'm thinking I'll stay with FB but only at the weekends unless someone messages me direct.

When one size doesn't fit all

There's an old saying that 'sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me' which increasingly seems to hold less truth.  Listen to the media, pick up any magazine, or watch any talk show and they're all about how a person looks.  It's all about the size zero - but is that healthy?  Speaking as someone who never has been and never wants to be a size zero I would say not only is it an unhealthy obsession it's downright dangerous. My husband recently lost a lot of weight - around 70-75 llbs - it took him a year of diet and exercise to get to just under 200llbs.  That wasn't his target weight but he can maintain 200llbs and still eat normally.  According to his BMI he needs to lose another 10 llbs - only losing that much more would make him start to look skeletal..  With that dramatic a weight loss some people thought he was ill, our next door neighbour was convinced that he'd taken some slimming aid.  My BMI target is 120llbs I'm ten over that but if its a choice between counting every calorie to lose that extra poundage or eating normal healthy food and remaining a size 10 I know which I prefer.  Every body is different, we all have a golden ratio when it comes to weight our own personal number - your body will let you know what yours is.

Why do today's tennis players come with their own sound effects?

Lets get this out of the way up-front.  I love tennis, I've been to Queens Club and watched Wimbledon every year and I can't believe how long it has taken me to notice this.  If you google Murray v Nadal (US open semi final 2011) and compare it to say Stich v Edberg (Basel final 1993) there is one major difference - a lack of grunting.  Seriously, compare the two.  The Basel match you can't take your eyes off for a number of reasons - the players, the almost balletic shots and the grace, strength and power behind them they make their battle look effortless.  Murray v Nadal on the other hand you could be chasing a peanut across the floor and you'd still know who had just hit the ball because of their grunts, groans and moans.  The women are just as bad, Seles v Sabatini Miami 1991, Seles actually does a double grunt a sort of 'ahh- uhhh!' each time she hits the ball.  Sabatini just grunts.  Right up to date 2011 Wimbledon final Sharapova v Kvitova, Sharapova screams into her serve.  Compare this with Virginia Wade v Betty Stove Wimbledon 1977 final, not a grunt or a yell in sight. 
We know you're putting your all into each shot - just lose the sound effects.

How is this not a monopoly?

In 2008 the only two satellite radio companies - Sirius and XM merged.  Being two separate companies means they were competing against each other, the corporate way of keeping each other honest.  But when you merge two companies together and they are the only ones who provide a certain service isn't that plainly a monopoly ie there is no alternative service that you can use?  Well the FCC and Justice Department clearly didn't see it that way as they ruled in favour of the merger and up until a week ago I didn't really have a problem with it and then they took BBC Radio 1 off the air, with no warning, just a recording on C15 where it used saying that if you want music similar to that found on Radio 1 we offer the following stations.

That's when I found out how abominable Sirius XM's customer service is.  We cancelled the house subscription and to keep us they offered us 2 then 6, then 12 months for free.  The customer service rep was convinced that 'in time we'd grow to love the other stations and forget about Radio 1'.  I don't want other station I want Radio 1.  So we cancelled.  But we found out that 21 million other listeners who only have Sirius/XM subscriptions in order to listen to Radio 1 (timeshifted so that the morning show is in the morning etc)  are out there and they are ticked off.  So I joined the FaceBook campaign and duly sent off my carefully composed e-mails of complaint to their director of programming and what I got back was a form letter, saying 'thankyou for your concerns, but we think you'll like these other stations much better than Radio 1.  I sent back a reply saying that I had a subscription for one reason only R1 - a link to my home that I listen to for the DJ's the music, the whole package.  I got the same form letter back, over and over.


So a week later we still don't have R1.  The Facebook campaign has had some reaction. R1 is coming back but Internet only which means you can't listen to it in the car and for the pleasure of listening online you have to pay Sirius/XM $12 a month in addition to your subscription.

I would really like to thank Sirius, due to their arrogant attitude and appalling lack of customer care we investigated other solutions and found one that for a one-time payment (just less than the cost of a yearly subscription to S/XM) gives us a time-shifted service on any show we want to listen to and also steams Pandora and Radio 538.  Bye, bye Sirius/XM - customer lost.

Why do some websites give you Hobson's (no) choice?

I can't always get what I want in Utah so I shop online and it wasn't until hubby had lunch with a security expert from Zions bank that I took a good long look at how much of my credit card information was dotted around the web.  Being proactive - I set about removing it, if I'm shopping on a new site I shop as a guest but it seems that more and more sites let you put your credit card information in and then won't let you proceed with the order until you register with them.  Drugstore.com is one such example, I suppose the reasoning is - oh I got all this way - all my information is there I'll be able to go back next time and just one click everything.  These aren't websites there are on-line store fronts. 

Can you imagine walking into a bricks and mortar store and getting all the way to the checkout before they tell you 'sorry you can't buy this item until you hand over all your personal data to us for us to keep'. Oh and for future reference CVS.com lets you shop as a guest, I'll be using them again.

Am I wanted by the health police?

I'm all for a healthy life style, but there is a rising trend especially in the US to force employees into becoming fitter more productive individuals by making them get fit.  Trouble is that extends to their families so once a year I get poked and prodded in the name of corporate health - and I don't like it.

There will be no mention of which companies I am referring to because this post comes from personal experience and I don't want to get hubby into trouble but their mo goes something like this.  They take your blood, analyse it and they compare the numbers with the results you gave them last year.  Last year I had a fairly structured argument with the person who gave me my test results.  He told me my cholesterol numbers were up from last year and I responded that the numbers hadn't moved but the guidelines had been lowered to make more people take cholesterol reducing medication.  I've seen for myself how being on statins dries up your skin and takes the lubrication away from your joints.  He didn't know how to argue that one and it goes further than that.  To get the carrot of money off your health insurance you have to complete three programmes on their website which last year actually made me put on weight.

Its a one size fits all approach, which doesn't target the couch potato or the guy eating all the wrong things who most of the time opt out of the programme because they can afford not to make the effort.  Lets face facts here - we could opt out - but its a very expensive carrot and we need that extra money.  I just think that the whole thing is intrusive and way too ra ra for me.

Update - Goalposts have been moved again but wider this time.  So our friend who weighed himself before he went in for the screening actually lost 14lbs between home and work - must ask where I can get a set of those scales..  My numbers are a lot lower than last year so we both qualified. 

Why is no-frills news in such short supply?

The rise and rise of on air personalities.  In the UK we have newsreaders their main job is to read the news, if they have a talent for interviewing they'll do the odd pre-recorded and occasionally live interview.  Some present other shows for the BBC.  If you go to their webpage it takes a bit of digging to get to say a profile of news reader and presenter Fiona Bruce the bio is simple and there is a picture, no twitter feed, no facebook page.

We have news shows, like Panorama that focus on one topic and they don't always get the balance right and we have British bulldog Jeremy Paxman who presents Newsnight for those who want no-nonsense reporting.

Compare that to Fox News in the US -our local Utah station is Fox 13 - although I prefer KUTV 2.  Go to their national webpage and right up front is the list of on-air personalities - it says it up in the top right hand corner.  Go to Shannon Bream for instance and up pops a glossy bio, no facebook but you can follow her on twitter and our local stations pound it into us that we can get them on facebook and twitter, you can even win prizes for liking them on facebook.

The reason for this post is the throwaway comment made by one of our local news 'anchors' last night

'if you care'

she threw in after an entertainment story.  She obviously didn't give a damn about that story she'd just read but her job is to report not emote and its her job to do that about every story that the people who put the bulletins together include that day. Until news organisations give us the news not opinion, I'll still be sticking to comedy central and bbc america for news with the occasional bout of NPR.

Cherry picking

This is not a fruit related post.

For the past couple of weeks our visitors have come home with a USA today, so I have been catching verbal crossword clues and reading USAT's articles and one in particular intrigued me - an editorial on best practices that America could adopt by looking at the way other countries tackle problems that the US has.  The article can be found by google-ing lessons america can learn from other countries (I don't want to get sued by USA today for copyright infringement as this is such a new article)  USAT did one article US and World Report News did the other.  Both articles were fascinating eg Finland values teachers more highly, subsidizes their education trains them better before they even step into the classroom.  Germany has apprenticeship schemes, which teach basic skills things like plumbing, carpentry, brick laying etc and Canada didn't have a housing crisis because it didn't allow the practices that caused the one in the US to flourish.  That's the basics of the article and the US WRN is more of the same but the thing that floored me was the comments section.

There is something about anonymous online posting that brings out the worst in people and in those fifteen pages of mostly nasty comment you could literally put a label on the poster.  The TPs - no one does it better than us, our country is in a mess because of weak liberal policies. The Republicans - Ah but Finland are communist/socialists (two completely different ideologies)  Canada pah! and if you challenge me I'm right and you're wrong and why don't you move to Finland/Germany/Canada if you like their ideas so much.  Ds  We need to look for new ideas but who is going to pay for them - we're not.  And last but not least the Normals (2%?) who advocated the ideas and suggested that adapting them to fit the US was the way to go - and raising taxes to pay for them.

Each side cherry picked facts that supported their position.  Lets face it the US has problems and they need to be solved and looking outward rather than looking inward might help and for starters how about cutting government salaries and getting back in touch with the people.  Here is a classic example from the ap news wires

But Republican Boehner said that tax increases are a nonstarter: "The American people will not accept — and the House cannot pass — a bill that raises taxes on job creators."  

Boner (hey that's how its spelt) says he is speaking for the American people.  Maybe he should ask the American people what they want.  Some will of course not want their taxes raised.  Some will quote the trickle down that tax cuts for the rich brings for the rest of us - which isn't really trickling anywhere except into the rich man's pocket.  Some - like me - will ask how the Clinton administration left the federal government coffers overflowing with cash.  He raised taxes - as this 1993 Washington Post article shows.  Some will also ask why if it worked then it wouldn't work now.  Say what you like about Clinton but he left office with the highest approval rating of any serving President since WWII (most Presidents have some kind of skeleton in their closet he had a whole graveyard full. One thing Clinton wasn't was dull)

Comments welcome here, by e-mail or at the shop but don't hide behind anonymous screen names.  I don't choose my friends by which party they support. 

Why Netflix? Why?

If you watch Jon Stewart this is a 'meet me at camera three' moment.  If you don't we'll  just call it an open letter.

Netflix, you were a company I respected.  I liked your business model, it was simple, streamlined and straightforward.  We made a list and BluRay movies appeared in the post, we sent them back in the could've been designed by apple return envelope.  Life was good - then life got better - you added instant streaming. All for $11 dollars a month.  Yesterday under the misleading banner of more choice (ie more profits) you split the two services. Now if we want both movies in the mail and streaming it will cost us just under $20 (starting in September) 

Hubby thinks this is a prelude to ditching your original model (the one that made you into a household name and a verb) and going to streaming only.  When I asked why that was a bad idea he started spouting words and numbers like 1080p and impossible and not enough bandwidth so I stopped him before he blew up.  In layman's terms you can't stream BluRays because there isn't enough bandwidth (think how annoying it is when you try and watch a you tube clip (buffering, buffering) imagine that while trying to watch a movie)

So Netflix here's the bottom line, in a time when money is tight you jack up the price for both services.  Genius.  As of today we no longer stream and I kind of hate you a little right now.  

Is shunning the sun good for you?

In the wake of the new FDA  guidelines for sunscreen that came out this week  I decided to look at the pros and cons of sun exposure. And to do that I took one of the most memorable campaigns I could think of.

In Australia in the early eighties the government launched the Slip-Slop-Slap campaign to ingrain the dangers of skin cancer into their outdoorsy population.  Slip on a shirt, Slop on suncreen and Slap on a hat.  It worked so well that in recent years they've added Seek shade and Slide on the sunnies (sunglasses) but when I read the results of the studies I was surprised to find that although the basic forms of skin cancer - basal cell and squamous carcenomas  - decreased the incidence of melanoma increased.  So did cases of Osteoporosis in adults.And in a few rare cases children who had been religiously protected from the sun since birth by their careful parents had developed rickets (see link at the base of this post).

Many scientists believe that a lack of vitamin D - known as the sunshine vitamin because we naturally produce it as a result of sun exposure is the answer.  So how much exposure are we talking about.  Opinions vary but to avoid being one of the 30 - 70 % of patients who are D deficient just 10-15 minutes of unprotected exposure is enough for the body to produce its daily quota of Vitamin D.  For those who believe that no sun is the best way to go there are Vitamin D supplements (which I take in the winter when the winter sun is too weak to stimulate much production.)

Moderation would appear to be the key.

Please note that we are having a debate here - I'm not issuing medical advice because I'm not a Doctor, or a scientist but I noticed that all the media coverage focused on the sun giving you skin cancer and the other information got lost in the media shuffle. 



http://www.bmj.com/content/318/7175/39.extract - NB the full article on rickets is subscription only but the extract gives the basic information.

Help! how do I turn down the positive reinforcement?

Positive reinforcement, according to my mini 3rd edition OED -

Positive meaning showing the presence rather than the absence of particular features

and

Reinforcement meaning the action of making stronger

When I did a quick internet search the first thing that came up was animal behaviour, reward your doggy with a treat.  Of course the major use of positive reinforcement is in parenting.  But while society tells us that this is a good method to train dogs and kids how much is too much and should we be carrying this 'good job!" attitude into adulthood?

Concepts like discipline and constructive criticism are so twenty years ago.  I'm pretty sure that if I went back to school now, I could coast, and probably pass the subjects I failed because no one wants to be seen to be failing our kids.  Problem is school may be social hell but the real world won't cosset you.  If you don't turn in those monthly figures your boss requested he won't give you a lolly pop and say well done for trying, he will kick your ass - metaphorically speaking.  He won't give you a hug if you muff that presentation to the Japanese conglomerate, he will fire your ass.  If you fail at something, you either won't bother with it again or it'll spur you on to try harder.  I'll give you an example I hated Latin - with a passion and I had the chance to drop it but my teacher told me in front of the rest of the class that I would be better off dropping the subject as I didn't have an aptitude for languages.  He later told me that it was a calculated criticism on his part because he expected me to rise to the challenge, as the two languages I was studying at the time held their roots in Latin. 

Saying 'I can't fail' is the same as saying 'the earth is flat' nothing is too big or too small to fail.  But failure is also a tool, you can use your mistakes or that wrong answer to the chemistry question to look at another solution.  Think of your first swimming lesson where you sucked in half the pool, or the first time you tried to ride a bicycle.  We're human we make mistakes and its OK to compliment someone on a job well done.  But it you do it every thirty seconds it has no meaning.


http://www.dogmanners.com/posreinforce.html
http://www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/specconn/main.php?cat=behavior&section=main&subsection=classroom/positive

About subtle - or not so sublte cultural differences

This has been bugging me for weeks so now I'm throwing it out there.  If you are a recent arrival in another country or even if you've been living in a foreign country for years are there things that you just expect to obtain without use of the internet, local foods that you grew up with, the school system, the rubbish collection system, transport, sales tax, healthcare, things that shouldn't broadside you but do?

In my case I've been trying to drink less soda.  Easy, I thought, I can still have fizzy drinks, I'll just buy a sodastream and drink fizzy squash all summer. Buying the sodastream wasn't a problem.  Squash however was.  The squash I am referring too isn't the sport, or the vegetable it is a  fruity concentrate (usually orange) that you dilute with water to make a drink.

It's a staple in England, in fact we never had coke or pepsi in the house that's why I still have teeth.

None of the supermarkets had it, they had plenty of fruit juice, crystal light (which sounded like a plan until I read the ingredients) pre-mixed drinks, and of course the dreaded coke aisle but while fruit juice kind of works, it's not squash.  So off  I went to Whole Foods (or whole paycheck as my friends call it) juices galore but no squash.  Luckily for me we have the London Market and the Old Dutch Store in Utah, both of whom sell squash in various flavours but because it is imported it is not cheap.


So here's what I want to know.  Is this a Utah thing or a whole of America thing.

5/16 Several suggestions from fb and e-mail for Mio - a liquid water enhancer (Is there a solid water enhancer?)  I checked it out and having read the back and not even found the strawberry flavouring in the strawberry watermelon variety five ingredients in I think I'll pass.  Thanks for the suggestions though - oh and apparently in the US they don't call it squash they call it cordial.  I stand corrected.

7/13 Torino make syrups which you can use to flavour Italian sodas, my current favourite is the sugar free vanilla.  A tiny amount goes a long way.

Why did I buy that? Pt 1

Infomercials.  Most of the time I'm immune but once in a while, I can't help looking at a product and thinking - that's a really cool idea - a simple idea - that deals with a problem that I want to solve.  The problem - identity theft. The solution? a wallet made of aluminium. The aluma wallet.  For the last year I've carried around a bulky German designed wallet that protects my cards but is a giant hassle because is it designed for European cards my driver's license is just a little too snug to slide out - every time I travel. So when the Aluma wallet finally appeared locally I bought one.

May 6 : This morning I loaded everything from my old wallet into my spanking new electric blue wallet and straight away there's a problem.  I can't get it all in. The wallet has seven plastic compartments - this means I can carry six cards plus a small amount of cash and no business cards - which might be a good thing.  There are also two weak points - the hinge and the clip that opens and shuts.  Both are made from cheapie plastic.  On the plus side it fits in my jeans' pocket which das deutsche never did.  Will take it shopping and see how it fares.

May 7 : Has already started to scratch, very useful at airport security - no problem pulling out my driver's license.  It is hefty though and if you threw it at someone it would hurt.

May 18 : Pleasantly surprised that the wallet survived the trip.  Have had it in my pocket all the time and it hasn't deformed although it is covered in minute scratches.  Have had several people say it looks cool.  It has jammed a couple of times and it is only built for cards and paper money and for now I'll live with that.

April 28th : Lasted less than a year before the opening clip broke only way to open wallet was with a screwdriver. Not sure I'll buy another one.

Polygraph Anyone?

We all tell white lies - I'll give you an example.  At some point today someone you know will ask you how you are and guess what you'll say? 'good thanks' or 'I'm fine' and then you'll move on to the meat of the conversation.  If you said, 'I've got post-nasal drip and a mouth like the bottom of a birdcage' the pleasantries come to a screeching halt and - well it's awkward.  So we lie.  We lie to be polite, to make someone feel better about themselves, but these are harmless fictions.

I'm talking about the official, blatent, in-your-face whoppers.  Lies that take us to war, or damage our economy.  Lies that go on record as statements of fact.  The truth is we have become lazy, we don't research, we don't question, we just believe and worse we trust.  I was brought up to question authority, I never had much time for politics or politicians, they always make promises they can't keep and in political circles the bigger the lie the more people are likely to swallow it.  The big offenders for this are news anchors mainly on the FOX news network - although there are offenders on other networks and of course big oil.  But by far the worst are the people we democratically elected to represent us on a federal and state level.

Republican Senator for Arizona John Kyl - on April 8th - flat out lied about how many abortions planned parenthood carries out in the official records it will say 90% in a later statement from the senators office he said 3% but that isn't what goes on record.  To their credit lots of people have called him on it - including John Stewart on the Daily Show - faux news has more integrity than FOX news.  That's just one example I'm sure there are many more, so here's what I want to know.

In order to discourage this culture of twisting the facts to suit your political agenda (yes the D's do it too but not to the same extent as the GOP and the TP) why not hook them up to a polygraph while they're on the floor - if they're caught lying they can't vote on anything that day.  And if you flip/flop you have to explain why you've decided to do a complete 180 on something you were so passionate about in state government (anyone? Romney?)

There are still some honest politicians out there but they are a dying breed.  What was once considered an honourable profession and a chance to serve the public has morphed into smoke and mirrors and money.  So when a politician or a pundit speaks by all means listen but try and discriminate fact from fiction and never stop asking questions.




http://www.freep.com/article/20110419/OPINION05/104190318/Leonard-Pitts-Jr-Political-lies-hit-new-low

Q. We're all going to die? A. Nah.

We've all seen the scenes of devastation in Japan.  It is heartbreaking and the Japanese people will recover but as a nation they've taken a serious blow.  So what do the so-called cable news outlets focus on.  Oh that's right yeah Japan's radiation is going to destroy the world, its pouring onto Californian beaches, polluting our air and water and food and -  well actually its not.  There is no doubt that miniscule amounts of radiation have been detected in rainwater in CO and ID but the emphasis here is on the word 'miniscule' and to the cries of 'its three mile island all over again'.  Here's a link to the nuclear regulatory commission report
http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/fact-sheets/3mile-isle.html

Read even the first paragraph and you'll find that no one died

But that isn't a story, that doesn't scare you that doesn't make you watch cable TV.  I saw a clip of a CNBC show host arguing with the 'nuclear expert' insisting that he was wrong and she was right.

And here, Look at this link read the screaming headline and then the body of the article

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/28/radiation.us/

So feel free to panic but before you spread what you just heard on CNN or MSNBC or that weird looking Beck person, or scary Nancy, or even on-the-spot Anderson's show take a deep breath and go in search of some facts.




http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/03/what-the-media-doesnt-get-about-meltdowns/72418/

http://gizmodo.com/#!5782590/how-does-radiation-travel-and-what-kinds-of-damage-can-it-do

When did it become someone elses fault?

This trend hasn't been creeping up on us, its already here.  My parents, bless 'em taught me to stand on my own two feet by making my own mistakes and I made a lot of them.  From what type of food I chose to eat - liver - just the word turns my stomach.  To the friends I hung out with - to what time I went to bed.  Phrases like 'on your head be it.' or 'are you sure you know what you're doing' to 'watch where you're going' and Mum's personal favourite 'you've made your bed now you can lie in it.'  All of these contained the word 'you' in some form or other.  They taught me to take responsibility for my actions and deal with the consequences when I made choices which weren't smart.

But this is 2011 where personal injury is an industry.  Our sense of self preservation seems to have withered just as our ability to lay blame on someone or something else has grown.  Here in Utah I'm amazed at the things people blame, the weather, the pavement, the barbed wire fence they were trying to climb over, snow, hot coffee, the list goes on and I won't bore you with more stuff you can blame.  Of course there are acts of god, like lightening strikes, no one has yet tried to sue God (if there is one and that's a topic for another day) and some things come out of the blue which no amount of forward planning could stop but most events are the culmination of a series of small events that altogether cause a problem.

I witnessed an example just a couple of days ago.  We were driving out of a busy car park, not going very fast because it's pretty much impossible with all the cars bumbling around looking for the space closest to the store they want to go into.  So we get to the exit which opens onto Highland Drive and this bunch of six or seven people are wandering along - to the side of the path of our car, when one of them just wanders across in front of us, never even looked behind him, we weren't going very fast and sat stopped while he meandered around.  We couldn't move until he was out of the way and my husband - who doesn't list patience as one of his virtues - honked the horn to get him out of the way.  The response was immediate, that horn is loud and it certainly got his attention but what he did next was mind numbing, he got angry and slapped the back of hubby's car and shouted something with dude in it - he wasn't surfer dude material.  Of course my husband doesn't like anyone touching his pride and joy let alone slapping it so he stops and the bloke starts shouting that we almost ran him down - we shouldn't have been going so fast.  Our speed at the time zero miles per hour.  See there you have it, rather than look stupid or -  god forbid -  apologize for wandering into traffic he gets angry and blames someone else for his stupidity. 

One other example I can think of is the woman who was so busy texting that she walked right into the fountain.  She of course now has a lawyer and I'm guessing they'll have to take the fountains out after she gets a massive pay out - for being an idiot.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8268547/Dangers-of-texting-while-walking-woman-falls-into-fountain.html

Who benefits when the clocks go forward (and then back again) ?

Last week - up until Saturday night in fact I was starting to ease into Spring mode - waking up when it is light outside was making my mood as sunny as the skies and then - forward go the clocks and now getting up is a chore again, because I can't see where I'm going and stubbornly refuse to flick on any lights, I run the risk of stubbed toe or a cat/foot connection.

Daylight Savings Time or DST as they call it over here is something my generation grew up with but it wasn't always like this.  If you look back far enough you find that DST was introduced as a cost cutting measure during WW1 and dropped not long after the war ended.  If you ask most people they'll tell you that it's good for the farmers (actually they hate DST)  Some will quote safety reasons but whereas the kids at the school two blocks over could see where they were going last week, this week you could argue they are less visible to our crazy Utah drivers and therefore far less safe.  At the other end of the scale we are supposed to be able to stay out later in the evening.  At the moment it's too cold and gloomy to do that.

Oh and that extra hour of daylight plays havoc with your natural circadian cycle.  Your body is programmed to wake when it's light and go to sleep when it's dark.  I'm tempted to just say screw it and leave my clocks the way they are but like the rest of the sheep I did what I was told and changed them all - except the one in my car.


So again I ask myself who benefits from this?


Your local electricity company - that's who.

http://www.energy.ca.gov/daylightsaving.html
http://www.standardtime.com/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/11/110313-daylight-savings-time-2011-what-time-is-it-spring-forward-nation/
http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/daylightsaving.htm

Why the legislative session in Utah is so short

Only a few weeks to go before the legislative session ends.  What the??  It only started a few weeks ago.  What do these people do for the rest of the year - are we paying them for this.  These are all questions I was asking  my television last night in a rather loud voice (I wasn't shouting but well ok I was shouting)  And to cap it all the important stuff, the state budget, immigration (Utah needs a guest worker's program imho) hasn't been finalised yet.  Here are some of the frou frou bills that have passed into law.  We have a state gun (HB # who the hell cares it was one of Carl Wimmer's the man who wants the U to allow open carry on campus)  Landowners in rural Utah can now kill feral cats (that one died in committee - thank goodness), new rules on blood collection and procurement (for the vampires amongst you), new boating regulations, wolves have been delisted as an endangered species etc etc.  Sure every representative thinks their bill is important but in the grand scheme of things is it.  Is it really?

And then there is HB477 - this means we the public can't request our (or any) representative's electronic communications.  So transparency in Utah government just took a turn for the opaque.  The cheek of those so-called representatives one of them appeared on TV last night - fat - well-dressed - smug - republican - to express surprise that his constituents should be able to know every aspect of his life on the hill (not his private life)  Um Duh!!   He said that those who believe this bill  is a bad thing are the people who believe in the black helicopters.  If you hide your communications then hello bribes, back handers, back scratching - all the things that give politicians a bad name. 

http://le.utah.gov/asp/passedbills/passedbills.asp

Thankfully after a massive public outcry HB477 has been repealed.

Why do sick people think we all want what they've got

When it comes to illness I'm downright selfish, this cold/flu/thing that's going around the Salt Lake valley right now is mine, I hold the exclusive rights and no one else shall have it.  I stay in bed and take my medicine and come out the other end refreshed, recharged and back to my old self.  Other members of the public are more generous, they haul themselves around, sneezing, wheezing, coughing, and infecting the rest of us.  I'm pretty lucky, I don't tend to catch much and I have a battery of defences including vitamin D, and home made ginger tea.but what I don't have is the authority to send a complete stranger home.

Picture the scene a quiet Sunday morning, in a coffee house.  Half the booths are full and then this guy comes in and from the moment he sits down he starts to sneeze and not dust up my nose sneezes either.  These are full-on my lungs are going to come out of my nose shortly sneezes.  I've seen Mythbusters - I know how far and how fast a sneeze and its associated lurgy can travel.  Apparently so did the rest of the room,  the people sitting next to him moved as far up the room as possible.  It's one thing when you don't know you're carrying anything - like the woman who arrived in New Mexico last week and was promptly diagnosed with measels.  But when you can hardly stand the only place you should be heading is to the doctors - wearing a face mask.

Have I indentified a new species?

This post is slightly tongue in cheek and while my exposure to this species is rare once back in Control Section in the 90's

It's been rumoured for some time that there lurks among us a new breed of human.  Predominently male - they have a wide range of habitat but their behaviours are similar and easy to recognize once you've established their genus.

Ladies and Gentlemen I present to you - the teflon.

The teflon is always very well dressed and if you are up wind of him you can scent the powerful aroma of deadwood.

Teflons are powered by copious amounts of alcohol and junk food.

The teflon feigns intelligence,

The teflon hunts those alongside and below him, he will sacrifice them to the people above him,

The teflon gives destructive criticisim never praise.

Teflons have a hero complex they break things so they can rush in and save the day.  Teflons also have the reverse midas touch so someone else will have to clean up the mess they have created.

You can injure a teflon but it only takes three months for them to heal.

The teflon has a chocolate coloured nose.

And as his name suggests he can deflect blame from himself onto hard working co-workers.

Teflons destroy morale.

If you discover a teflon, do not approach them, teflons hate to be ignored.  Ignore a teflon today you'll be glad you did.

No Valentine left behind

Valentines Day, after Christmas the most shameless example of consumerism.  Did you know that Saint Valentine was an early Christian martyr (and there was more than one Saint Valentine)  so hearts and flowers and martyrs (people executed for their faith) do have something in common, red .

I see nothing wrong in a day that celebrates love but when did it lose it's exclusivity?

Valentine's Day is for lovers, you get that card from a secret admirer and spend the rest of the day trying to work out if it came from Dan in accounting or the really cute guy who delivers your mail or a n other.  You give your husband/wife a card because you are still in love with them and there might be roses or dinner for two in the mix. 

So I'm looking for a card for hubby and guess what? there are Valentines that sing at you, Valentines from your kids, or the dog or the cat, every kind of sweet that can be moulded into the shape of a  heart. Packs of 20 valentines!  Please, anyone with that many boy/girlfriends would be labelled promiscuous and it kind of takes the edge off that 'special someone'.  Then we come to the gifts, you can buy anything from a bunch of roses, to a diamond necklace, to a car, to - my personal favourite - a sofa.  That's like giving a woman power tools, you'll be the one who gets drilled and not in a good way.

So by all means celebrate Valentine's day but do it thoughtfully and responsibly, you're showing the one you love how much they mean to you.  You don't have to go into debt to do it.