Scargill

It’s only quiet in here because I’m doing my updating in the www.bedrock.es site right now – come on over and take a look..

Many moons ago there was a time in the UK when most of the shops were closed in England on Sunday. As a non-religious person I used to  get bored to death on Sundays, about the best you could do was to visit an over-priced garden centre or go to the beach.

Today of course all that has changed and yet we STILL in the 21st century have some really silly, out-dated laws governing opening times even though we don’t need this to protect employees (minimum wage and the working time directive etc.) – and I don’t recall as a consumer or citizen ever being ASKED if I wanted these silly restrictions to continue.

The government is now putting out signals to indicate there could be a permanent change in the law (HURRAY) and yet watching Sky this morning I couldn’t help thinking we were back in the dark ages with the shopkeepers association unbelievably griping about the possibility of longer hours. Would these perhaps be the same people who said that consumers would not want to go shopping on Sundays (I remember the arguments well and I also remember the step-change in habits when shops DID start opening on Sundays) – even though certainly my experience suggests that Sunday is THE most popular day to shop – the MetroCentre in Gateshead is PACKED on Sundays – perhaps because many who are NOT in the retail sector are working most other days?

The sooner shops are allowed to open when they want and not when the government wants – the better. Bring it on!

Entries in here in August are likely to be thin on the ground as we’re in Spain now for the duration. If you want to head over to the Spanish blog site you’ll find I’m keeping that up to date.

Here’s a typical (though ever so slightly hazy) sunset in Galera where we’re currently enjoying peak daytime temperatures of up to 37c.

Amazingly while many of us were getting excited that Space-X had finally put America back in the launch business after the demise of the shuttle program, quietly (at least, I certainly missed it and I check BBC news website every day) the Japanese have just sent their own ship off to the Space Station!!

Not to be sneezed at – the ship is carrying FIVE TONS of stuff up there including a fishtank.  Article here worth reading. The plan with the fishtank is to breed 3 generations of fish in space – never done before – so they can see how they come on. Imagine that – legally the children will be off-worlders!

In the 1960s an experiment was undertaken to determine if the Nazis really were evil or, if in the right circumstances anyone could perform evil acts under simple instruction. Psychologist Stanley Milgram performed a series of experiments in which test subjects were instructed to electrocute another person in increasing doses.

The world was horrified (well, those who manage to get past watching Coronation Street were horrified) to find that a large number would indeed inflict serious pain on others if instructed to do so – read about the original experiment here.

Ok, so we can be happy that after a couple of generations of teaching people about World War 2, endless TV documentaries on the subject and overall supposedly improved education, we’d be well past that? Well, no.

In a recent version on Discovery where 10 subjects were sat in a room and asked to electrify a “test” subject (who was actually a plant") in increasing doses for answering simple questions, all but ONE did so obediently. Some had doubts as the subject complained about his heart and said he wanted out of the experiment – but when instructed by the authority posing as a psychiatrist who told them despite the pain the person was really in no danger, they continued on, pressing buttons marked 240 volts and beyond.

All 9 of these people were no better than the evil monsters of World War 2 Germany – except there was no chance of them being shot for disobeying orders. To anyone watching the show –and the producer himself this was HORRIFYING – yet absolutely real – we are almost all EVIL at heart and will absolve ourselves of responsibility as long as someone else tells us what to do.

If you think about it, from childhood we are taught by parents to do things regardless of whether we agree or understand – as for school I certainly didn’t understand why I had to do certain things but often, no explanation was given. But most of us started off life like this – and many can be hypnotised easily into doing the will of others. Something, somewhere in evolution went horribly wrong.

If we accept this reality – and anyone who has studied the original experiment and the modern equivalents really has no other choice – it seems to me that we need to do two things – firstly find out what part of our genetic makeup makes 9/10ths of the population prone to committing such evil – what makes the other 1/10th immune to this and start some pretty rapid genetic engineering BEFORE it’s too late and we repeat the horrors of the last world war (If you watch the Discovery show with Eli Roth, such research is being carried out – but going from there to improving the population is a BIG step we’re likely not ready to contemplate).  Surely also we should be looking at the responsibilities of authority – the people at the top who we trust in all walks of life – sure everyone can make mistakes and that’s fine but when they deliberately abuse that given authority to make people do things that are immoral – surely we need to dramatically re-think the punishments for such abuse and provide a MASSIVE deterrent – clearly we are mostly sheep who can easily be misguided – and need protection – even if we don’t think we need it.

Think you’re beyond this, that it would not affect you (I certainly would have walked out of the room immediately I knew I was actually inflicting ANY pain – but then I’ve always had a problem with authority -  at least I HOPE I would walk out) – that this really is not the case? Study the link I’ve given and more importantly check out the Eli Roth experiment for discovery channel. Read the Q&A in the link below-  this is worse than any Hammer horror movie. Beware however that it might put you off people! 9 out of 10 would seriously electrocute another on instruction – that’s REALLY, REALLY horrifying.

Constant, never-ending, ceaseless, relentless, continuous,incessant, eternal,non-stop, uninterrupted rain. I’ll bet they’re still on a hosepipe ban down south.

Another week of this and I’ll be potty by the time we go on holiday… this is what we Brits are missing.. central Spain forecast for the next week.. notice “chance of rain” at ZERO… fortunately I’m off to Blackpool tomorrow so there’s at least a chance of a little sunshine….

As part of a multi-purpose trip to Lancaster this week I had a meeting at the CURVE Theatre. Thought you might like to see some pics of the Curve itself and the surrounding area including the local market.

We stayed at a nearby hotel – the Mercure – nothing too ostentatious…

Within walking distance of the Mercure is a half-decent Italian restaurant and a Southern Indian restaurant. Picture below taken inside the Italian.

Food at the Italian was excellent and they had one of my favourites, a Calzone pizza.

For the last day of our trip we had a meeting in the Curve which is quite an impressive building in terms of size but also the design of the building itself is ultra-modern as you can see from the photos.

For much of the time the weather was nice which helped when taking pics!!

More photos.. you can click on any of these to enlarge.

Here is a letter I’ve just sent off to Tescos and to Kelloggs…

I would like to complain BITTERLY about the product I bought yesterday at Tescos in Hexham, Northumberland.

The product is CALLED “Kelloggs Froot Loops” – and bears NO RESEMBLANCE to the Froot Loops I first enjoyed several years ago in the USA and still do today thanks to the American store in the MetroCentre – and Ebay. I am worried that this product will do these people out of business and damage the reputation of the product.

As you can see from the photos below (sorry the colour balance is not identical in the images) – the FROOT LOOPS from the USA are shown on the left (package) and middle.

The package is virtually identical to the UK one which states it is a limited edition – presumably as it is new to the UK.

The problem is – the British product is as near to the original as Milky Ways are to Mars Bars… notice firstly the absence of blue, yellow and red – and the watered down colours of the British product.

What you can’t see however is the most important – the taste – Froot Loops have a particularly unique taste and they are very good – which probably accounts for the popularity. The product released in Britain tastes NOTHING like the original – unless your tongue is dead.

Did no-one at Kelloggs or Tescos do their research? The manager at Tescos certainly seemed unaware that the American product currently sells over here for as high as £7 or more – whereas the watered down version is £2.63 – now I see why.

I bought 2 packs of this and was ready to go out and buy more – now I feel completely and utterly cheated. Makes me wonder what else Kelloggs bring out here that tastes bland and boring compared to the originals – ALL of them??? These packs should CLEARLY be marked they are they are NOT the original product.

Middle – USA product… right – watered-down UK product

Tonight after a long meeting I took off from our offices in Catherine Place in London for the train. As the weather was showing signs of improving and with the traffic likely to be bottlenecked at teatime I made the mistake of taking the underground.

If you’ve not tried the London underground at peak times… it’s an interesting, never to be repeated experience. Dragging two heavy bags over to Victoria station, surrounded by masses of people in a hurry and constantly having to avoid running people’s feet over with your bag is not the most pleasant experience but when you get to Victoria it gets worse – try as I might I’ve never been able to find a lift in the Victoria underground and there is no escalator so you have to drag your bags down several flights of stairs (no wonder you rarely see really old people down there – it’s disgusting considering the efforts that small companies have to go to in order to comply with legislation) to get to the underground.

The tube was CRAMMED with people pushing into overcrowded coaches in a way we used to laugh at when watching them do the same thing in Tokyo – it must be a pick-pocket’s dream down there and I don’t even want to THINK about the carnage which would arise if the tube had to brake suddenly. £4.30 for a one-way ticket for just a few stops to Kings Cross and a rather annoying assumption that you either HAVE an "Oyster" card or even that you give a damn what the card is… in both cases I didn’t and hence stood in the wrong queue first time around.

Alighting at Kings Cross, they’ve done their best in the renewals to make sure you walk twice as far as in the past and so the whole experience took about as long as the taxi would have – but in considerably less comfort.

And so onto the government-run line from London to Newcastle – one would expect comfort in first class – especially as it can cost more than budget overseas flights – but on this occasion they were two coaches short – so the seat numbering was all to hell and the coach was quite full. I checked the first time they came around offering sandwiches and even then they were short – having only sandwiches with rabbit food …. marvellous… I declined.

The level of quality some folk find acceptable never ceases to amaze me – and some of them do this EVERY DAY!!

After a trip to the House of Commons on Monday night (the FSB’s "Summer Reception" wherein we met with politicians from both sides of the house for informal conversation on issues close to small businesses" and meetings first thing Tuesday I found myself with a few hours to spare before today’s director’s meeting. A bunch of us are staying at the Hilton Double-Trees in Victoria right now, formerly known as the Hesperia, formerly known as the Holiday Inn – just behind Victoria station (the constant changes confuse the hell out of taxi drivers).

Rather than contemplate the bad weather from the hotel room, one of my colleagues and I decided to make a day of it in London. He had a visit to the National Theatre planned so we headed off to the Thames area.

First stop the science museum which I have to say was something of a damp squib – we probably missed something but all I could see for kids were a bunch of theatrical sets with embedded touch screens and for adults a mock-up of the first lunar lander, some old cars and planes and not a lot else. If I’d paid to come specifically to London for that I’d be mightily disappointed. Next stop Fleet Street – wherein we visited Ye Olde "Cheshire Cheese" pub which did a cracking fish and chips, well worth a visit.

After taking in the Thames view including the new Shard building, we made a fleeting visit to the Tate Gallery (no comment) and then ended up at the "Prop Shop" – a makeshift bar outside the National Theatre (created out of theatre props) where very helpful staff entertained us as I made a 3d video of the place on my new Fujifilm 3D camera.

Final stop the theatre itself, we had a personal tour of the place as we checked it out as a possible venue for events before returning to our hotel briefly to recover, next stop Brick Lane for a curry with Nigel Duncan and David Miles. I have to say, great fun, the moment you arrive, there is intense competition for your business and it didn’t take Nigel long to negotiate 20% discount, free poppadums and drinks all around (and when the bill came, sure enough we got the discount etc. – extremely reasonable pricing). If you’re in London and you love Indian, definitely give Brick Lane a go and be prepared to haggle (I should point out that on a previous trip as the owners were haggling prices we took a female colleague with us and as soon as she interjected she was told impolitely that the owner was "talking to the men" – needless to say he didn’t get any business out of us and if I could remember the name of the restaurant I’d help ensure he never got ANY business full stop – but that was some time ago).

All in all a great way to fill a few hours – today I’ve a long meeting and a short presentation to do before heading back home to Northumberland for a couple of days hard graft, catching up on the many jobs that need a decent office Internet connection for. Between holiday and meetings I’ve build up an impressive backlog so I’ll be hiding away for many hours tomorrow to catch up.