Dumbing dahn: Boomers “costing” the NHS: Big Tablet: Don’t piss orf Icelandair: and her Maj wants a dishwasher.

A middling amount of lack of warm, a massive amount of lack of solar stuff, meandering amounts of atmospheric movement and missing amounts of skywater at the Castle this morn.

I have taken advice from those who visit this piss poor blog and am using Google “Chrome” to post this, don’t really like it because it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles I am used to on IE but needs must.

Bloggers “advice”:

The photo upload icon is not appearing for some users on Internet Explorer. We're investigating the issue and will update this post as soon as we have more information.

In the meantime, you can workaround this issue by using a different browser (such as Chrome or Firefox) or temporarily switching to the Edit HTML mode of the compose editor.

Thanks for that.

Just a comment on the “Ronseal” clones-You do get what it says on the tin; a pair of rich, useless, overeducated, inexperienced mind numbingly arrogant twats.

According to “experts”

The male of the species is getting dumber, Dr Gerald Crabtree, a biologist from Stanford University in the US, thinks that human intelligence peaked at the time of hunter-gatherers and has since declined. He says “genetic mutations” have slowly eroded the human brain’s intellectual and emotional abilities.

According to Dr Crabtree, whose hypothesis has just been published in the journal Trends in Genetics, our ancestors had to think more critically and creatively to survive. When the right decision could mean the difference between life and death, they always had to be at the top of their intellectual game.

With the advent of industrialisation and our mastery of the natural world, that need became less apparent. As a result, natural selection has been weakened and the door opened to genetic mutations that leave us just a little bit dumber.

Dr Crabtree’s hypothesis suggests that all humans are getting dumber. But other research finds that really, it’s mainly just men.

For 100 years men outperformed women in IQ tests, right up until the latest figures were released this July. They showed that women had caught up with men and in many countries had taken a slight lead.

One possible explanation is that women’s lives have become more demanding as they juggle raising a family and doing a job. Another is that women may have a slightly higher potential intelligence than men but have only been able to fully realise it in the last few years.

The research, by renowned IQ expert James Flynn, does offer one crumb of comfort for men. It contradicts Dr Crabtree’s assertion that people are becoming progressively dumber.

“In the last 100 years the IQ scores of both men and women have risen but women’s have risen faster,’ said Flynn. “This is a consequence of modernity. The complexity of the modern world is making our brains adapt and raising our IQ.”

We are fucked guys......

And according to Tory MP Dr Phillip Lee

The NHS can't go on being free if selfish baby boomers consult GPs for the slightest aches and pains and
bother the doctor with minor complaints when their grandparents would have grinned and borne it, and have unrealistic expectations of what the health service can provide.

And his solution is that we are going to have to start paying for some medical services at the point of delivery.

And according to Andrew M Brown who edits The Sunday Telegraph's Comment pages and also writes about mental health and the influence of addiction on culture.

We should applaud Dr Lee’s courage in stating politically unpalatable truths, and his common sense. (He is refreshingly honest, for instance, about how difficult a job dispensing prescriptions is: “It’s like counting Smarties.”) We need to accept reality rather than hand over even more problems to the next generation: if we want to continue to enjoy the sort of health service where GPs are on hand to fuss sympathetically over every twinge, and dish out expensive medicines in vast quantities as well, it is going to cost us more money. Either that, or we will have to learn to be as tough and lacking in self-pity as the wartime generation, and that’s unlikely to happen.

And according to Angus Dei-fuck orf you Twats, we pay our “national insurance” and are entitled to treatment whether you like it or not, if you don’t like being a doctor then go and get a job that you enjoy, and if you want to pay for medical treatment join BUPA.....

Lenovo has got a big one

Lenovo's new PCs have screens the size of eight iPads and can respond to ten fingers touching them at the same time.

The IdeaCentre Horizon Table PC is allegedly the first "interpersonal computer" - as opposed to a "personal computer".

At first glance, it looks like a regular all-in-one machine in the vein of the iMac: it is a 27-inch screen with the innards of a Windows 8 computer built into it and it can stand up on a table.

But you can pick it up off the table, unhook the power cord and lay it flat for games of Monopoly.

It is big enough to fit four people around it and the screen can respond to 10 fingers touching it at the same time.

As a tablet, it is a monstrosity. The screen is the size of eight iPads stitched together and it weighs 15lbs. It is almost as homebound as a flat-panel TV.

The Table PC will include plastic "strikers" for Air Hockey, and joysticks that attach to the screen for other games, including multi-player shooter Raiding Company.

Lenovo, a Chinese company that owns IBM's former PC business, said the Table PC would go on sale this summer starting at £1,060.

Spiffing, I’d like to see the case and keyboard for that.....

High above the big salty thing on the left

A passenger who became unruly after allegedly drinking too much alcohol had to be taped to his seat on a trans-Atlantic flight, witnesses and authorities said.

A photo of the subdued man ended up on a blog run by New York businessman Andy Ellwood, who said he received the picture from an acquaintance who witnessed the incident.

“My friend was on the flight and he sent me the photo because we like to trade travel war stories,” Ellwood told NBC News.

His friend did not want to be identified or talk with the media, Ellwood said, but he recounted the story to him in detail.

The passenger “drank all of his duty free liquor on the flight from Iceland to JFK yesterday,” Ellwood wrote in his blog post.

“When he became unruly, (i.e. trying to choke the woman next to him and screaming the plane was going to crash), fellow passengers subdued him and tie (d) him up for the rest of the flight. He was escorted off the flight by police when it landed.”

Icelandair did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but a spokesman for the airline confirmed the incident to Icelandic media, adding that plastic ties and tape are standard on board flights to help in such situations. 

Aerobatics?

And finally:

Her Maj is looking

For a dishwasher prepared to travel from palace to palace to accompany the Royal Family around Britain.

The travel to royal residences – including the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh and Balmoral on ­Deeside – is a “mandatory requirement” for the £14,200-a- year-job. The general catering assistant (wash up) – as it has been formally described – will mainly work in the staff restaurant of the Royal Household but also wash other ­royal dishes too.

“You must be willing to work away from London for up to three months of the year,” says the job advert on the royal website. “You will join the team responsible for maintaining the cleanliness of the staff restaurant, wash-up areas and equipment in accordance with the health and hygiene regulations to ensure the smooth operation of the staff restaurant.”

Although based at Buckingham Palace, the successful ­applicant must “be happy to travel and work at other royal residences in the UK and at weekends”.

The 40-hours-a-week job is an official position paid for from the Civil List. Experience of a similar job is “desirable”. The closing date for ­applications is 15 January.

Be cheaper to buy old Liz a pair of marigolds....

That’s it: I’m orf to give a Sony a bath

And today’s thought:

Message to Dave and what’s his name.

Angus