Author: IBM

Hot Weather? Be Sensible!

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England’s having a decent spell of warm weather right now. Some of us (myself included) love it.  Others hate any kind of heat,  or even sunshine. Having lived overseas for several years,  where the humidity was often higher than the temperature in summer,  I’m used to it,  and personally find all the fuss about it somewhat amusing.

Still,  to be fair to my fellow countrymen,  it’s the exception rather than a regular event to have more than the odd day or two with daytime temperatures topping out over 85 degrees.  (That’s 30 in foreign money).

There’s a few things to do to deal with it, whether you like the heat or not.

Drink plenty. Plenty of water that is. Alcohol is fine in moderation, but as it has a dehydrating effect, by only drinking alcoholic drinks you can easily dehydrate quicker and that can cause problems.

Use sun block if you’re outside in the sun for long. You don’t need sunburn, or worse, sunstroke on top of the dehydration!

Making Musical History

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Regardless of whether you are a fan of the Rolling Stones or not, (and I am) you have to admit that last Saturday’s performance at Glastonbury 2013 was musical history in the making.

Ok, so it’s just another ageing rock band trying to earn a few more bucks.

Nope, I disagree. They’ve made enough money down the years to be able to retire, and live on the royalties. They’re like the Warren Buffet of the musical world. They keep playing their game because they thoroughly enjoy what they do, it’s in their blood.

They’ve been together over fifty years. That’s impressive in itself. Many marriages don’t last that long. The Beatles didn’t stick together more than a decade.

They still have ‘it’ too. They still play well, and sing well, and present themselves well.

I’d like to say here’s to the next fifty, but somehow I think most of us will be pushing up the daises by then, not least the Rolling Stones themselves.

The Snowden Thing

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What do I think of Snowden?

I suppose the bottom line is that I do not know enough about his actions to make a value judgement on the issue.

I’m not sure that the guy is a spy in the usual sense of the word though, as, the way I understand it, he’s mostly been telling the world what the US (and other) Governments have been doing with regard to people’s private data, rather than passing secret information to some enemy.

Two thoughts though.

1. I am not surprised at ANY of his revelations. I suspect that most Governments have been spying on their citizens since time began. The electronic data trail we leave behind us, and the tools available to examine this trail, has simply made it easier for anyone to spy on us.

2. I don’t, for one minute, believe any of the US or UK politicians or intelligence service leaders that protest loudly that they are tightly regulated by the judiciary, and that they abide by those regulations. I believe that the intelligence services simply go and get whatever information they want when they want it. Period.