MikeStevens MicroBlog

I've had one tutorial on iVideo in the local Leicester Apple Store. Skilled, excellent tutition from Jon M.

The result is the video of my brother-in-law's 75th birthday paty which I've posted on YouTube.

It's available on the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o40y7ZNNLws

I've booked another tutorial to polish the video as I can see several minor errors.

Can you write down the number 8 eight times so that they add up to 1000?  They can be next to each other or under each other or any combination.

Have a go.

Thanks to Richard Wiseman http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com

Having worked in bacteriology laboratories for the whole of my 40 year career, I noticed at first-hand the worrying increase in resistance of bacteria to antibiotics.

It has recently been reported that General Practitioners were being encouraged with financial benefits to reduce the quantity of antibiotics they prescribed.

Many, arguably most, infections that are referred to GPs are caused by viruses. Antibiotics have no effect on viral agents, full stop.

Many, arguably most, patients take antibiotics and do not complete the course prescribed as the symptoms of the infection has ceased.

Taking small amounts of antibiotics is an excellent method of procuring resisitance.

These are bacteria and are killed by antibiotics, the first of which, penicillin, was discovered by Alexander Fleming. He warned against resistance in his 1945 Nobel Prize lecture.

He said “It is not difficult to make microbes resistant to penicillin in the laboratory by exposing them to concentrations not sufficient to kill them, and the same thing has occasionally happened in the body… …and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant.”

Why has it taken so long?

A few friends of mine have opened Twitter accounts but have failed to use the service. It's almost certainly because they don't understand it's purpose.

One friend said that he'd “stick with email for sending messages” He is a stubborn bugger (note the male article) and would prefer not to follow my lead but if he did understand the usefulness and pleasure that Twitter provides, he would change his mind. Another, a young lady friend, joined because it was the fashionable thing to do. She also didn't understand Twitter's rationale and was probably bewildered by it. Her tweets were addressed to “Celebrities”, I hope she wasn't expecting personal replies.

So here's my “take” on Twitter, my Twittertake.

Twitter is the “thing” at present (2009) and is relatively successful, relative in the grand scheme of internet-related things. However, it's poorly understood. It's also difficult to explain and I hope this attempt does not fall into that category.

As I mentioned earlier, Twitter is misunderstood because people compare it with something they are familiar with, e-mail. It's not a mail or message service, it is more like a newspaper.

Most people only read parts of a newspaper, it should be the same with Twitter, select the items and writers (Tweeters) that interest you.
News is freely and very rapidly available. the BBC and major newspapers post tweets regularly.

There have also been many examples where “ordinary” people have posted tweets immediately after something significant happens. The 2009 California earthquake elicited 20,000 tweets very quickly which informed other twitterers the severity of the quake.

Tweets are restricted to a maximum of 140 characters, however larger documents can be attached using a web address shortening system such as tinyurl.

Personally, I usually look at my tweets using a Twitter “client” Tweetie on my iPhone.

Twitter is classified by some as a 'micro-blogging” service. I'll make that the subject of a future blog.

Following our very sucessful forays to the RAF Museum, Hendon and the Imperial War Museum, Lambeth, Keith, Chel and I decided to see something more gentile at the Coventry Transport Museum.

There's a very convenient coach service which arrives 200 yards from the museum entrance. Also, for us seniors the coach is free.

Keith has owned many many vehicles and worked on many more in his career as a mechanic and a garage owner. Most of the cars and motorbikes he has owned seemed to be in the museum!

Here he is dispensing "draft" oil, how it was delivered in the old days
.

Some of the vehicles brough back memories for us all. Here is a Triumph Tiger Cub bike, the first motorcycle I owned; great fun days. All those girls on the pillion (not all at once)

Chel we disovered had shook hands with Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery, when he, Chel, was in the RAF Regiment.

This is "Monty's" staff car, which it is said travelled 60,000 miles in one year. (Can't really believe that, however, that's what the sign on it said).

More of mine now, a Triumph Spitfire, my first sports car, which was followed in my ownership by an MGB and a Lotus Elan. Girls again clamouring around, but like the Tiger Cub bike, all the cars only had one passenger seat.

After a pint or two we returned to Leicester and dined at the Bistro Pierre.

Keith hadn't had that much to drink but surprised us when he pointed to the clock tower on the Leicester Town Hall and asked "What's that?" We thought there was a punch-line coming, which in a way there was when he said "I've never seen that before". Considering that he has lived in Leicester for 70 years it was somewhat surprising!

Another great trip. Where next? Keith suggests York.

Pehaps we should use this for transport:

It held the world land speed record from 1983 until 1997 at an average of 633mph. At that speed it would only take 12 minutes to get to York. Not sure about the parking process though.

A bientot.

 

"The Meeting" statue at St. Pancras station, London

Here's a reflection of my mate Keith

In my area of Leicester, UK we have a community newspaper, the Evington Echo. It is produced entirely by unpaid volunteers. In total about 100 people are involved, 15 or so are actively involved in the production and many others freely deliver 5,900 copies to all homes in the area.

The Echo is an outlet for local news, the promotion of events and services. We also have adverts from local traders. We charge small sums for the adverts, which basically pays for our printing costs which is our only major expense.

We would like to purchase some publication software and probably a laptop computer. I discovered that the software costs £1000 full price but is massively reduced to about £200 for charities.Our finances peclude us spending the larger amount now and probably in the future.

We thought we might be a typical charity and submitted an application for registration to the Charity commission only for it to be rejected.

Their rejection letter included this statement: "The production of a newspaper is not charitable since it would not necessarily be educational nor, on the whole, would it add to the readers useful knowledge" It added a legal case reference supporting this view, Re Shaw (1957) 1 WLR 729. Note the date "1957", surely things have moved on.

Newspaper editors might like to know that their papers are neither educational nor do they add to their readers useful knowledge.

Personally, I's surprised by this rejection,not the least because I spent many many hours poring over two 20 page forms and documents, before actually filling in another large application document.

I'm at a slight loss where our next step should be. There is an appeal mechanism but it asks for new material not previously submiited.

Any help would be appreciated.

Just think, if Time didn't exist everything would happen all at once. Imagine all the blogs arriving together!

Which team do these guys play Rugby for: Seveali'i, Mapadua, Tagicakibau, and Hala'ufia?

Clue: They play in green and are a "London" club.