Recently I mentioned that 2016 was a leap year.

 If I haven't got the settings right you might get some messages of February 29 saying that it is my birthday. Those really know me know that my birthday is not on February 29.

The reason?

I have never knowingly put my actual birth date anywhere public on the Internet.

I picked a (significant ) leap year so that silly reminders of my 'birthday' would only happen once every four years.

More importantly, the two most important bits of data are your birthdate and mother's maiden name. With those two bits of information your personal data security is at significant risk.

I think anyone must be mad to put their real birthday anywhere but on the most encrypted sites on the Internet. Publishing them on social sites is a risky endeavour.

I bet you have a shredder to destroy paperwork before it goes into the recycle bin.

The chances of someone raiding your bins to find out information is infinitely more unlikely and difficult than the ease of accessing data on the Internet.

Unfortunately, like a tattoo, once on, almost impossible to remove.

Education Secretary Nicky Morgan is supporting a flawed concept.
Having supported a number of students with various disabilities through their GCSE maths, I can comprehensively support the need for numeracy in life. But learning the 'times table," often by rote, just to get through the test is not the answer.
Besides the fact that students with dyscalculia or a number of other disabilities, would find a timed test, even if it is on a computer, daunting at least and, at worst, impossible.
Also, why the heck does it stop at 12? Surely developing a working process of addition and multiplication calculation is the way to go. I have asked students who have successfully 'learnt' their tables what is 13×7 and been presented with a somewhat blank look. Painters and decorators or builders plus a host of other trades would be completely screwed if they could not get past 144.
I strongly suggest that all the politicians in the House of Commons plus all of the members of the House of Lords should be obliged,publicly, to take this computerised test before considering imposing it on the rest of us.

I have a thing about advertisements particularly TV advertisements. A few, a very few are brilliant. Some more are just good, but then it goes downhill from there.
My bugbear at the moment are the ads for nicotine vapour suckers. I am all for using a vapour as a transition to giving up smoking but the ads are now comparing them with sexy, smart technology. They remind me of the old fag adds that were allowed many moons ago.
They're not selling a solution but a product that is actually encouraging new users. Shame on them. The fact that Griff Rhys Jones as lent his voice over to one of these ads shows anyone would go something the money. Shame on him to.

I would like to wish you all happy New Year (especially for when it actually happens).
As you may or may not know 2016 is a leap year. The reason for the leap year is that the Gregorian calendar has a year of 365 days but in actuality the time it takes the Earth to orbit around the Sun is 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds.
The reality is that the real New Year is later tonight.
 If you're up to it, I suggest you PARTY ON.

The Art of the Fart

Creating a smell

Is all very well

But there is an art

To the fart

When alone

You’ll squeeze a tone

From daybreak to well past noon

But when an Audience is there

You do not dare

So hold it you will

Till your colon doth fill

Only then can you play a whole tune

Taken from the ebook of the same name

How Not to Sell - Part One

Retailer: Jewsons Kitchen and Bathroom Centre.

The conversation literally started in this manner.

Me: I'm looking for a corner toilet.
Salesman: you don't want one of them they're rubbish.
Me: Why?
Salesman: They don't save any space to know.

Already I was thinking what a twat. This is not a good start and this 'salesman' made me feel annoyed and patronised at the same time. When I politely explained the constraining space considerations and that this was the best solution to where I needed a downstairs sanitary room built, he had to concede, that from a practical design point of view, this was the best solution.

However, he was still incredibly negative about the the whole idea mentioned on three more occasions that he hated corner toilets. He offered two choices but said categorically not to buy one manufacturer as it was incredibly expensive and not worth the money. That left me a choice of one.

Where this vitriol against a design concept came from my do not know or do not care.

I left the premises and went online and found exactly what I wanted, at half the price and delivered directly to my door.

Jewsons did not only lose a one-off sale but also the opportunity of selling me all the other bits I needed his particular project.

Thank God the Internet

Going Around in Circles

I was kicking back and watching a repeat episode of MythBusters where Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman were experimenting swimming, walking and driving while blindfolded. 

In all these experiments they discovered that, without visual clues, they continually went round in circles almost ending back at the same spot they started.

At the end of this particular feature, Adam and Jamie discussed the results but could not determine any reason why this happens.

I do not have a definitive answer but it got me thinking. I wonder if we have a predilection for this from a time we are very young, particularly at the early crawling stages?

Could we have this tendency as an inherent internal safety feature to make sure that we do not stray too far from an original spot so that we can be found easily by adults if we get lost? 

Just a thought.