Much debate about goal-line-technology and what system football should turn to. Choice seems to be between the Hawkeye system similar to that used at Wimbledon or the GoalRef technology that sees a microchip inside the ball.
The present problem seems to be that the action happens so quick that the human eye of the referee cannot see with 100% accuracy whether the ball has crossed the line or not. We have seen many examples of the referee deciding he saw one thing only for them to be proved wrong later when the boys in the studio look at it from every angle.
Personally, i enjoy the human error part of it, my team have scored goals that should never have been as i have seen goals scored against us which should never have counted and my worry is that it will quickly creep from the game being paused while the referee looks at whether the ball crossed the goal-line to whether it was a penalty or a red card and we will be stopping and starting all game long.
Now, as a few people have pointed out but have been ignored, the large majority of these incidents seem to occur when the ball comes down off the crossbar and the crossbar is round. Would a ball come down like that if it was bouncing off a flat surface, such as a square crossbar?
I'm no expert in geometry but wouldn't it be almost impossible for a football to hit the bottom of a square bar and come straight down as it does when hitting the underside of a round bar? It would just skim off and carry on or hit the edge and come out. If i'm wrong then how about a triangle with the point at the bottom so it has very little surface area that won't force the ball into the goal or away from it? Even a hexagon shape would work.
So instead of spending millions installing technology to tell us whether it was a goal or not and force games to stop and start, why not just go the low-tech and much cheaper option of just changing the shape of the crossbar?
Saturday, 12 May 2012
Friday, 11 May 2012
Drinking Tea The British Way
In my previous post i used the fact that Americans drink cold tea as an attempted humorous entry point to how they are now becoming more aware about Global Warming.I long thought that Iced Tea was one of those things that just happened to sound like it was made from cold tea, like Dr Pepper isn't actually made by doctors or contain peppers, until it was confirmed to me by my Canadian colleague that actually, it really is just cold tea.
Apparently it is made the same way as us Brits but instead of pouring it into a cup with milk and sugar and drinking it hot with a biscuit or scone, they put it into a glass full of ice and drink it cold.
I then realised that with an expected 4.6 million international visitors coming to our green and pleasant land this summer for the Olympics, that there is going to be mayhem in cafes and restaurants around the capital with our national beverage.
We faced a choice of trying to be helpful to our guests and accommodating them in their drink choices by learning the difference between our tea and your tea but we decided nah, stuff 'em, they can have our tea and as more foreign nationals are in UK prisons for tea violations than any other charge, i think i should arrogantly point out how tea should be approached and not the wrong way the rest of you are doing it.
You will face 4 choices when asking for a tea. Leaves/Bag, mug/cup, black/white and with/without.
Your first option when deciding you want to chance a cup of tea is if you want it made from tea leaves or tea bags. The former version comes with a strainer to remove the leaves, the latter with a tea bag which is dunked until the correct tea colour is reached. Too pale and we are legally entitled to shout 'Piss drinker' at you while too dark and you will be ostracised from the local community. It is like breaking wind in a lift, not illegal but just not done.
Your second choice is cup or mug. A cup will be china and come with a saucer, teaspoon and a teapot while a mug is just an over sized cup with a teaspoon stuck in it.
The third choice is where most people get into trouble. If you choose the leaves and cup, you will then be presented with a small container full of milk. It is absolutely vital that you put the milk into the cup before pouring the tea.
Most arrests occur by people putting the water in first. This can crack the china due to the sudden heat of the boiling water hitting the delicate china which shatters the cup and sees you in front of a wig wearing judge for criminal damage and GBH charges if anyone is scalded by the steaming water.
Always, always, always put the milk in first to stop heat shock and a year sharing a cell with someone called Big Larry. If you are unsure, choose the mug option as the milk and water will already be added.
If you have opted for sugar then this is put in last and then the whole thing is stirred. Over stirring should be resisted as it does nothing to the flavour of the tea but the constant chinking of the spoon against the cup annoys everyone else around you.
I hope that in some small way i may have helped you how tea should be drank so we avoid any confusion on your visit here.
Thursday, 10 May 2012
Welcome Aboard Americans
What about those crazy American eh? They drink their tea cold, call petrol gas and named a town Dicktown in New Jersey. Yep, mad as a bag of frogs but i think we can overlook their beverage drinking mishaps and mad town names considering they gave us some of the best TV and music during my lifetime.
Of course being the worlds greatest polluters until very recently should not be forgiven, nor the people who attempt to shrug off the damage to the climate which unfortunately is quite a few of the cold tea drinking Yankees.
Or so we thought because a survey from Yale and the George Mason University, have discovered that a large majority of Americans believe that the swathe of weather disasters to hit America these last few years were probably made worse by global warming.
'Most people in the country are looking at everything that’s happened; it just seems to be one disaster after another after another' said Anthony A. Leiserowitz of Yale University. 'People are starting to connect the dots.'
The poll suggests that a large majority of the public, 69%, feels that global warming is real and affecting the weather in the United States although the most striking statistic is that over a third of the public reported being affected by extreme weather in the past year.
Finally and all it took was fatal tornadoes, hurricanes and heatwaves in their own backyard.
It is a well placed blow to all those who deny the climate is changing, the American public are believing their eyes over your words.
Welcome aboard, it's always better to be late than never.
Now, about that cold tea...
Of course being the worlds greatest polluters until very recently should not be forgiven, nor the people who attempt to shrug off the damage to the climate which unfortunately is quite a few of the cold tea drinking Yankees.
Or so we thought because a survey from Yale and the George Mason University, have discovered that a large majority of Americans believe that the swathe of weather disasters to hit America these last few years were probably made worse by global warming.
'Most people in the country are looking at everything that’s happened; it just seems to be one disaster after another after another' said Anthony A. Leiserowitz of Yale University. 'People are starting to connect the dots.'
The poll suggests that a large majority of the public, 69%, feels that global warming is real and affecting the weather in the United States although the most striking statistic is that over a third of the public reported being affected by extreme weather in the past year.
Finally and all it took was fatal tornadoes, hurricanes and heatwaves in their own backyard.
It is a well placed blow to all those who deny the climate is changing, the American public are believing their eyes over your words.
Welcome aboard, it's always better to be late than never.
Now, about that cold tea...
Monday, 7 May 2012
Halal and Kosher Meat
Evolution has made us the top predator and as human beings, living in a food rich civilisation, we have the great privilege of choosing what we eat and what we leave on the supermarket shelves.
Personally, i leave meat on the shelf and have since i was a teenager although i am not a militant vegetarian, if you choose to eat meat than that doesn't concern me, or rather it does but i'm not your conscience.
Whether you would feel the same if you ever made a trip to a slaughterhouse and watched the first act in the journey that leads a 10 week old lamb from the field to your plate is debatable, at the very least it should make you think the next time you are served a chop.
Over 40 million cattle, calves, sheep, pigs and around 900 million poultry are killed every year in the United Kingdom for meat and the vast majority of these were stunned into unconsciousness before being slaughtered. The RSPCA state that stunning causes an animal to lose consciousness, so that it can’t feel any pain until it is dead and the law states that all animals must be stunned before being killed, with a few exemptions. Halal and Kosher meat.
Animals killed that are acceptable to the religious faiths of Judaism and Islam are not stunned, they are restrained and their throat cuts and the animal dies slowly as the blood drains away.
Animal rights groups, the RSPCA and the Government advisory board, the Farm Animal Welfare Council all say that the suffering caused by this form of slaughter is severe. The FAWC report went as far as to say that 'slaughter without pre-stunning is unacceptable and the government should repeal the current exemption for religious slaughter'.
The Government are not going that far bur are considering labelling meat that has been killed according to Kosher or Halal methods so the public have a choice which isn't perfect but should make slaughterhouses think twice if demand falls, especially as at the moment they can send out any excess Kosher and Halal meat to supermarkets for the unprepared public to eat. If they are left with tonnes of un-stunned dead animals literally hanging around the place, they should reduce the amount of animals unnecessarily slaughtered.
In defense of the Kosher method, Shechita UK, a group set up to promote awareness of Jewish methods of slaughter, insist that cutting an animal's throat in a single swipe is less cruel than stunning it first. Behalal, whose mission statement is to 'educate and inform those wishing to follow the halal diet' say that Halal is actually more humane than conventional slaughter and produces less pre-stress for the animal'.
If the choices are between the RSPCA and the Government advisory board or a couple of organisations whose purpose is to promote the religious slaughter of animals, i know whose side most right thinking people should come down on.
People will always eat meat and most people don't consider the trip from the field to the fork but when the labels go on to show which animal was killed humanely and which was subject to severe suffering, your conscience should tell you, if you really have to eat meat, which to put in your basket.
Personally, i leave meat on the shelf and have since i was a teenager although i am not a militant vegetarian, if you choose to eat meat than that doesn't concern me, or rather it does but i'm not your conscience.
Whether you would feel the same if you ever made a trip to a slaughterhouse and watched the first act in the journey that leads a 10 week old lamb from the field to your plate is debatable, at the very least it should make you think the next time you are served a chop.
Over 40 million cattle, calves, sheep, pigs and around 900 million poultry are killed every year in the United Kingdom for meat and the vast majority of these were stunned into unconsciousness before being slaughtered. The RSPCA state that stunning causes an animal to lose consciousness, so that it can’t feel any pain until it is dead and the law states that all animals must be stunned before being killed, with a few exemptions. Halal and Kosher meat.
Animals killed that are acceptable to the religious faiths of Judaism and Islam are not stunned, they are restrained and their throat cuts and the animal dies slowly as the blood drains away.
Animal rights groups, the RSPCA and the Government advisory board, the Farm Animal Welfare Council all say that the suffering caused by this form of slaughter is severe. The FAWC report went as far as to say that 'slaughter without pre-stunning is unacceptable and the government should repeal the current exemption for religious slaughter'.
The Government are not going that far bur are considering labelling meat that has been killed according to Kosher or Halal methods so the public have a choice which isn't perfect but should make slaughterhouses think twice if demand falls, especially as at the moment they can send out any excess Kosher and Halal meat to supermarkets for the unprepared public to eat. If they are left with tonnes of un-stunned dead animals literally hanging around the place, they should reduce the amount of animals unnecessarily slaughtered.
In defense of the Kosher method, Shechita UK, a group set up to promote awareness of Jewish methods of slaughter, insist that cutting an animal's throat in a single swipe is less cruel than stunning it first. Behalal, whose mission statement is to 'educate and inform those wishing to follow the halal diet' say that Halal is actually more humane than conventional slaughter and produces less pre-stress for the animal'.
If the choices are between the RSPCA and the Government advisory board or a couple of organisations whose purpose is to promote the religious slaughter of animals, i know whose side most right thinking people should come down on.
People will always eat meat and most people don't consider the trip from the field to the fork but when the labels go on to show which animal was killed humanely and which was subject to severe suffering, your conscience should tell you, if you really have to eat meat, which to put in your basket.
Sunday, 6 May 2012
Viva La Socialism
It wasn't much of a surprise that the French Presidency has changed hands and it now Francois Hollande cartwheeling around The Elysee Palace in place of Sarkozy who conceded defeat just 20 minutes after the polling closed.
Bye bye Sarkozy, don't let the doorknob hit the back of your head on your way out.
Hollande has said all along that austerity is not the only way to get France out of the Economic mess which has not gone down well in Germany with Angela Merkal and won't sit very well with our own Conservative Government who have long argued that austerity is the only way.
"I'm sure in a lot of European countries there is relief, hope that at last austerity is no longer inevitable" said Hollande at his victory speech which must be a boost for left wing parties everywhere.
Hopefully, we will now see a wave of right wing Governments removed and a sea of Socialist Parties being elected into power.
This could be the start of a momentous time where right wing policies and unregulated Capitalism have their chips cashed in and fairness, equality and a more equal redistribution of wealth is ushered in.
The trickle down theory has failed, there are far more poor people than rich ones in every developed country so anyone advocating policies that are in the clear self-interest of this majority, raising wages, reducing prices, create jobs, will be voted into office.
Voters are coming to the conclusion that since most people in the world are either poor or live below the average income in their countries, it is in their own interests to vote for politicians promising to redistribute wealth from the top of the economy down to them.
South American countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile and Ecuador reached this conclusion a while ago and turned to the left and now one of the great powers in Europe has gone the same way.
Maybe, just possibly, the penny has dropped and we will see modern Socialism replace the tired and corrupt ways of the right.
A lot will depend on how Hollande's policies fare but Karl would be proud tonight.
Bye bye Sarkozy, don't let the doorknob hit the back of your head on your way out.
Hollande has said all along that austerity is not the only way to get France out of the Economic mess which has not gone down well in Germany with Angela Merkal and won't sit very well with our own Conservative Government who have long argued that austerity is the only way.
"I'm sure in a lot of European countries there is relief, hope that at last austerity is no longer inevitable" said Hollande at his victory speech which must be a boost for left wing parties everywhere.
Hopefully, we will now see a wave of right wing Governments removed and a sea of Socialist Parties being elected into power.
This could be the start of a momentous time where right wing policies and unregulated Capitalism have their chips cashed in and fairness, equality and a more equal redistribution of wealth is ushered in.
The trickle down theory has failed, there are far more poor people than rich ones in every developed country so anyone advocating policies that are in the clear self-interest of this majority, raising wages, reducing prices, create jobs, will be voted into office.
Voters are coming to the conclusion that since most people in the world are either poor or live below the average income in their countries, it is in their own interests to vote for politicians promising to redistribute wealth from the top of the economy down to them.
South American countries such as Venezuela, Bolivia, Uruguay, Chile and Ecuador reached this conclusion a while ago and turned to the left and now one of the great powers in Europe has gone the same way.
Maybe, just possibly, the penny has dropped and we will see modern Socialism replace the tired and corrupt ways of the right.
A lot will depend on how Hollande's policies fare but Karl would be proud tonight.
Friday, 4 May 2012
May The 4th Be With You
In the film 'Revenge of The Nerds', the brainiacs end up stealing the girl off the jock, winning the talent competition and inspiring the school to raise up in the cause of nerds everywhere.
Outside of the film world, all nerds get are atomic wedges and largely avoided but for one day of the year the geeks, dorks and nerds stop grumbling about how Jean-Luc Picard should speak with a French accent, turn off the Sci-Fi channel and come together to celebrate Star Wars Day.
I'm fine with that, can't stand the film myself, but each to their own. I imagine there are some people who don't like the things that i like and that is fine also. Very weird but fine.
The IT nerds at work are very helpful. Yes you have to listen to them moan about how the inadequate air conditioning affects the server but that is a small price to pay for them fixing your mobile after you spilt coffee all over it or retrieving that important file after you accidentally formatted the hardrive.
Star Wars day is different though because every nerd i came within speaking distance of today said 'May The 4th Be With You'.
Every. Single. One. All. Day.
Yes, very funny, now please fix my monitor in perfect silence or you will be removing it from your Wookie.
Outside of the film world, all nerds get are atomic wedges and largely avoided but for one day of the year the geeks, dorks and nerds stop grumbling about how Jean-Luc Picard should speak with a French accent, turn off the Sci-Fi channel and come together to celebrate Star Wars Day.
I'm fine with that, can't stand the film myself, but each to their own. I imagine there are some people who don't like the things that i like and that is fine also. Very weird but fine.
The IT nerds at work are very helpful. Yes you have to listen to them moan about how the inadequate air conditioning affects the server but that is a small price to pay for them fixing your mobile after you spilt coffee all over it or retrieving that important file after you accidentally formatted the hardrive.
Star Wars day is different though because every nerd i came within speaking distance of today said 'May The 4th Be With You'.
Every. Single. One. All. Day.
Yes, very funny, now please fix my monitor in perfect silence or you will be removing it from your Wookie.
Tories Hammered
It's been quite a good week for lovers of schadenfreude. It began with Rupert Murdoch being declared unfit to run an International company, then the FA blew a huge raspberry at Harry Redknapp for the England job and then last night the Conservatives were handed a bloody nose and couple of black eyes by the British voting public.
Yes it was only local elections but they are a flavour of public feeling and what the public are feeling are that the coalition Government is not to their taste.
The Conservatives lost 400 seats and the Lib Dems 300 while Labour gained 700, a result which forced David Cameron to apologise to all his fellow Tories that were kicked out of the Councils up and down the country.
One minister, Gerald Howarth, blamed Cameron's decision to back gay marriage as the reason for the Tory collapse which is an interesting argument although it slightly overlooks the NHS privatisation, pay freezes, the extortionate cost of petrol, double dip recession, tax cut for the rich, the £11Bn Olympics, the Leverson enquiry, internet snooping, petrol shortage, savage cuts, redundancies in the public service, 3m unemployed, granny tax and student fees which many may argue are more on peoples minds at the moment than allowing a gay couple to get married.
This kind of drubbing should make the Conservatives and Lib Dems think twice about how they have been doing things so far although that's not the sense coming from David Cameron who said: 'These are difficult times and we need to make tough decisions and we'll go on making those decisions because we've got to do the right thing for our country."
Nothing like the arrogance of ignoring the people who voted you into power although that may soon be remedied as the array of political analysts on the TV pointed out that if the result was extrapolated for the general election, Labour would win a majority in Parliament in 2015.
Dave, Nick, the people have spoken boys and what they are saying is you suck.
Yes it was only local elections but they are a flavour of public feeling and what the public are feeling are that the coalition Government is not to their taste.
The Conservatives lost 400 seats and the Lib Dems 300 while Labour gained 700, a result which forced David Cameron to apologise to all his fellow Tories that were kicked out of the Councils up and down the country.
One minister, Gerald Howarth, blamed Cameron's decision to back gay marriage as the reason for the Tory collapse which is an interesting argument although it slightly overlooks the NHS privatisation, pay freezes, the extortionate cost of petrol, double dip recession, tax cut for the rich, the £11Bn Olympics, the Leverson enquiry, internet snooping, petrol shortage, savage cuts, redundancies in the public service, 3m unemployed, granny tax and student fees which many may argue are more on peoples minds at the moment than allowing a gay couple to get married.
This kind of drubbing should make the Conservatives and Lib Dems think twice about how they have been doing things so far although that's not the sense coming from David Cameron who said: 'These are difficult times and we need to make tough decisions and we'll go on making those decisions because we've got to do the right thing for our country."
Nothing like the arrogance of ignoring the people who voted you into power although that may soon be remedied as the array of political analysts on the TV pointed out that if the result was extrapolated for the general election, Labour would win a majority in Parliament in 2015.
Dave, Nick, the people have spoken boys and what they are saying is you suck.
Thursday, 3 May 2012
Tony Blair Redux
The bubonic plague, smallpox, deely boppers and those cup and ball games. There are many things that you hope once gone will stay away forever but nobody seems to have told Tony Blair who is keen to return to UK politics.
His first step in the long road back to not being egged every time he steps outside the front door is to hire a spin doctor as part of an attempt to drag his profile up from the sewer. Good luck to whichever firm gets the gig of rebranding him. Are there many more chalices more poisoned?
Maybe it was all part of the Blair master plan after it all went awry. Let Gordon Brown take the heat over his wars and lose the next election and wait for the Tories to get in and do what the Tories always do and hack off everybody while he swans off on an international magical mystery tour of expensive hotels, while making millions with his dreadful wife and come back five years later and see if people have forgiven and forgotten what a monster he was.
Seems we haven't.
His first step in the long road back to not being egged every time he steps outside the front door is to hire a spin doctor as part of an attempt to drag his profile up from the sewer. Good luck to whichever firm gets the gig of rebranding him. Are there many more chalices more poisoned?
Maybe it was all part of the Blair master plan after it all went awry. Let Gordon Brown take the heat over his wars and lose the next election and wait for the Tories to get in and do what the Tories always do and hack off everybody while he swans off on an international magical mystery tour of expensive hotels, while making millions with his dreadful wife and come back five years later and see if people have forgiven and forgotten what a monster he was.
Seems we haven't.
Wednesday, 2 May 2012
Thanks MOD
There are many things that Hamas and the Taliban are rightly castigated for and placing their military hardware in public areas is one of them.
We hear so many stories of Hamas lobbing rockets over the wall into Israel and Israel replying by blowing up a UN warehouse or a block of flats and killing scores of innocent people.
Britain rightly condemns fighting in civilian areas although that argument is looking slightly weaker with the news that during the Olympics, missile batteries are going to be placed on top of high rise flats in London.
Now i'm not sure how i would feel if the Army decided to plant a batch of surface to air missiles on the roof of where i live. Actually, i know how i would feel, i would tell them exactly where they could plant their missiles which is what many of the residents have done which is why they were not asked.
My first concern would be having high velocity missiles sat right above my head while i'm trying to listen to which athlete is having their medal taken back for failing a drug test. London is full of empty buildings, what's up with one of those roofs?
Secondly just by having them there my home would become an instant terrorist target, thank you for that MOD.
Thirdly, every news channel has now told every wannabe terrorist in the World exactly where tonnes of military hardware is sat.
Just because they are surface to air missiles, it doesn't mean that the surface has to be directly on top of 700 residents in East London.
We hear so many stories of Hamas lobbing rockets over the wall into Israel and Israel replying by blowing up a UN warehouse or a block of flats and killing scores of innocent people.
Britain rightly condemns fighting in civilian areas although that argument is looking slightly weaker with the news that during the Olympics, missile batteries are going to be placed on top of high rise flats in London.
Now i'm not sure how i would feel if the Army decided to plant a batch of surface to air missiles on the roof of where i live. Actually, i know how i would feel, i would tell them exactly where they could plant their missiles which is what many of the residents have done which is why they were not asked.
My first concern would be having high velocity missiles sat right above my head while i'm trying to listen to which athlete is having their medal taken back for failing a drug test. London is full of empty buildings, what's up with one of those roofs?
Secondly just by having them there my home would become an instant terrorist target, thank you for that MOD.
Thirdly, every news channel has now told every wannabe terrorist in the World exactly where tonnes of military hardware is sat.
Just because they are surface to air missiles, it doesn't mean that the surface has to be directly on top of 700 residents in East London.
Tuesday, 1 May 2012
How Did We Get Here?
I often wondered just how humans managed to evolve to become the globes top creature. We have no real weapons in our arsenal. No claws or pincers or razor sharp teeth. We are not particularly fast runners, swimmers or great climbers. Our sense of smell and sight are weak compared to most other animals and we can't fly and don't possess a poisonous sting or bite so what stopped all the other animals armed with all these things picking us off the second we came down from the tree tops?Whatever the reason, we are where we are and stomping around the place like we own it, which we do really. Tough luck dolphins, you had your chance.
Anyway, we developed tools and made wheels and found out how to control fire and moved out of damp, cold caves and into houses with carpets and central heating.
Probably our greatest weapon was our brains once we realised that sharp things do a lot of damage to anything wanting to make a meal out of us. So we continued to evolve and our brains got bigger and we got cleverer and it was thought that we had advanced as far as we could, that we were in a post-evolutionary state but a scientific report in the National Academy of Sciences have found that we are still evolving and growing bigger and stronger.
We haven't done bad for a glorified ape with no real weapons or visible means of protection but i might be minded to amend the 'humans are still evolving' headline to 'some humans are evolving' because i have met some who may well be devolving if there is such a word.
That's right, and you know who you are.
So what about the other creatures? Why are they content to stay in their allotted place in the scheme of things? Why are none of them developing along the same lines as we did? Will it take a global disaster that wipes us out before the mole or the badger makes the giant leap forward?
I don't know but i suggest we keep a close eye on those meerkats.
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