Showing posts with label bicycles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bicycles. Show all posts

Thursday 13 September 2012

Lamb leads us to slaughter: Terminal NHS: Show me your headlights: You must remember this: Cardboard Bicycle: and Bonktown.


Oodles of sunny stuff, just as much windy stuff, quite a lot of ex skywater and not a lot of lack of cold at the Castle this morn.
Just returned from the stale bread, gruel and his Maj’s food (which has gorn up again from £3 to £3.69 since Monday) run dahn Tesco, on the way out I popped into the go juice pump place and purchased a couple of cupfuls for twenty squids, it hardly registered on the go juice gauge (14.44 litres @ £1.389 pl).

 

Apparently the “new” health minister wants to help along the Piss Poor Policies Millionaires Club Coalition with their plans to privatise our dear old NHS.
Norman Baa Baa has backed greater private sector involvement in the NHS in his first public appearance since taking on the role.
Asked about greater private sector involvement in the NHS, he said: ‘I’m not a great fan of monopolies, in either the public or the private sector. If there’s never any challenge to the structure provided there’s a danger people can become complacent.
‘There is innovation from new insurgents. We need to embrace that.’
Mr Lamb went on to say that he hoped he could provide the ‘oomph’ from the centre of government to embed integrated care. He hoped to get a round table of experts together to advise him on how best it could work.
 

Who does he think he is-King bleedin Arthur?

 
 

Hospitals in England could be on the brink of collapse because of rising demand and the increasing complexity of patients' conditions, doctors warn.
The Royal College of Physicians' report said the number of beds had been cut by a third over the past 25 years.
It said at the same time emergency admissions had started rising and hospitals were seeing older patients with a wider variety of conditions.
And that standards were slipping in hospitals throughout England.
It cited the way older patients were repeatedly moved around wards, the lack of continuity of care while in hospital and tests being done during the night as some of the examples of how care was suffering.
The college also highlighted the results of feedback from its members, which showed concern about discharge arrangements and workload.
 

It’s taken them long enough to notice; standards have been “slipping” for years in hospitals, there are more consultants on the golf course and working in private hospitals than on NHS wards on a daily basis, and when the inevitable cock ups happen the medics, managers and the GMC rush to protect their own, their colleagues and their very well paid jobs.

 


A woman is behind bars after police allege she was stopping motorists in Uniontown and offering to strip for money.
City police Officer John Kauer said Jackie L. Hatter, 35, was charged before Magisterial District Judge Randy S. Abraham with possession of marijuana and disorderly conduct following the incident at 8:40 a.m. Sunday.
Kauer said Hatter was flagging down motorists near the intersection of North Gallatin Avenue and Lenox Street for a report of a woman, later identified as Hatter, stopping drivers and offering to take off her clothing for cash.
 

Never happens to me at a junction...

 

According to new research published in Nature Neuroscience, scientists have invented a method to induce memories in brains for the first time in history.
The study—published by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine’s Professor of Neurosciences and Physiology/Biophysics Ben Strowbridge, PhD, and MD/PhD student Robert A. Hyde—shows a method to store different types of short-term memories, which they have successfully tested in brain tissue stored in vitro.
Titled “Mnemonic Representations of Transient Stimuli and Temporal Sequences in Rodent Hippocampus In Vitro”, their paper describes how they used a piece of mouse brain tissue to form the necessary circuits to record a short-term declarative memory. This type of memory can be something like names, places and events.
These neural circuits—located in the hippocampus—retained the memory from different stimuli for ten seconds. The researchers were able to observe the recording of these artificial memories by tracing the activity of the brain cells. According to Hyde, “the type of activity we triggered in isolated brain sections was similar to what other researchers have demonstrated in monkeys taught to perform short-term memory tasks. Both types of memory-related activity changes typically lasted for 5-10 seconds.”
 

About as long as my short term memory then....

 
 
A new recycled cardboard bike has been created which can support riders up to 220kg and costs just a tenner.
Over three years designer Izhar Gafni created a number of prototypes of what would eventually turn into the bike that he has named the Alfa using the fundamental principles of origami.
While the average bike weighs around 14kg the Alfa weighs less than 10 and its belt-driven design requires no maintenance. It could even be adapted to house an electric motor to make those hills even easier to tackle.
 

But what do you do when it rains?

 And finally:
 



The Bavarian town of Poppenhausen, translated as 'Bonktown', has decided to turn itself into one of the sexiest sightseeing spots in the country.
It has rebranded itself as a dirty weekend resort after town hall officials voted to start embracing the 'saucy' title.
Officials in Poppenhausen have now decided if you can't beat them, join them.
'We had lots of people coming to the town because of its name, because in German 'Poppen' is a slang word for making love,' explained a town hall spokesman.
'In the end we decided if you can't ban them, at least make them comfortable.'
Day trippers are encouraged to take a stroll through a one mile long love lane situated in the middle of romantic woodland.
Should they get tired; couples can take a rest on one of many heart shaped wooden seats.
Alternatively they can test out the woodland's specially made sloped double benches for couples to do what comes naturally.
Other exhibits to get visitors in the mood include a notice with how to say 'I Love You' in 100 different languages and a giant four leafed clover to bring newlyweds luck.

 
Chance would be a fine thing...

 

 

And today’s thought:
What bicycle?
 

 

Angus

Monday 20 August 2012

Grimly dark takes orf: How to build a Brompton: Shit in Dahn Unda: Invisible air bag helmet: Auntie says sorry: and a nasty De-daw.


More lack of cold than you could shake a liquid metal gauge at this morn at the Castle, went dahn Tesco early to avoid the atmospheric perspiration-didn’t work, but they have now upped his fave food to £4 per box from £3.68 from £3.00 over the last week or so.

And I see that her Maj’s dog boy is in the doo-doo after the royal corgis took several lumps out of one of the ugly sister’s terrier, bet her Maj doesn’t get done for having dangerous dogs....


A £22m extension to a Surrey hospital is nearing completion with the testing of a new helipad for air ambulances.
Frimley Park Hospital staff and air crews have tested off-loading casualty trolleys into the resuscitation department below.
The emergency department opened in July and serves people in Hampshire, Surrey and Berkshire.
Until now, air ambulances had to land on school playing fields on the opposite side of the nearby M3.
Patients were then transferred to the hospital by road ambulance.
The hospital has recruited 23 helipad standby crew from within its existing staff.
The helipad is expected to become fully operational in September, the hospital said.
A dedicated lift links the roof to the resuscitation area.
The extension houses the new emergency department and day surgery unit, which the hospital said would be one of the best in the country.


Compared with what?



Building a Brompton bicycle is a labour intensive task. It takes a factory of 115 skilled people, some 1,200 parts and six hours to custom build each individual bicycle.
Every stage is inspected to meet the high standard and all the engineering, brazing, and assembly is done under one roof in West London, just a stone’s throw away from where the bike was first conceived by owner Andrew Ritchies 1975.
Brompton currently export to 38 markets worldwide with their biggest demand in Japan and South Korea. The main market is city dwellers, not just commuters but people who have limited space at home, at work and even on a busy train.
Brompton is part of the Making it in Great Britain campaign.


So now you know...





From the land of alleged extradition to America comes the 'Hovding' helmet which is the brainchild of Swedish designers Anna Haupt and Terese Alstin who received requests for a helmet which would not spoil your hair-do.
Now, eight years after starting work on the device, their vision is finally being realised and the bizarre helmet is going on sale for around £350.

The helmet looks like a scarf and only springs into action when accelerometers and gyro-meters inside detect sudden jolt. If the wearer is involved in an accident the helmet inflates in under 0.1 second to cocoon their head.


But will it work when something falls orf the lorry you are undertaking and clouts you on the bonce?







Twelve people, dressed in bowler hats and smart suits, carried their own toilets down to the beach, placing them in a line on the beach front before dropping their trousers and sitting.
The protesters said they were demanding public toilet facilities, of which there are currently none, in the local area.
Beachgoers often have to ask local cafe owners to use their toilets, disturbing customers and inconveniencing the owners.
But Kym Hewitt, a local business owner, said he sympathised with those beachgoers faced with little choice.
"The public toilets are not up to scratch at all and quiet often we have a lot of people coming through to the cafe, sort of not really dressed for the cafe," he said.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the local council is currently consulting the community about the best place to build the toilets

All sounds a bit potty to me...


BBC weathermen have been forced to apologise after ignoring computer forecasts predicting showers across South East England on Sunday.
Apparently they doggedly stuck to their own assessment that it would turn out hot and sunny again across the region - only for a series of thundery showers to put a dampener on many people's barbecues.
Their predictions, in defiance of Met Office models, meant many were caught unawares as they headed out to enjoy what they thought would be a fine, dry day.
Instead the heavens opened as a series of showers built up from 11am, firstly across Sussex and Kent, and later across the rest of the Home Counties, London and East Anglia.
At 1.30pm BBC weatherman Philip Avery apologised for the errors on the BBC News channel.
He admitted: “There are thunderstorms there which were not represented in our forecasts over the past couple of days or so.”

It seems that the populace of blighted Blighty are no longer capable of looking up at the sky...


 And finally: 


A fierce new breed of spider which has claws has been ­discovered, amazing ­experts that it has remained undetected until now.
Measuring three inches across it was found in the caves of Oregon, USA.
Scientists say the “cave robber” – which lurks in caves swinging on strands of silk snapping up prey with its oversized claws – is so ­significant it’s been given its own family name of ­Trogloraptoridae.
A spokesman for the California Academy of Sciences said: “That such a relatively large, peculiar animal could elude discovery until now suggests more species may be lurking.”

 Sod that....



And today’s thought:
Grimly Dark takes orf.


Angus