Help

Is there anyone else out there that is having a problem with Google Reader?

Since I got back from my son’s place I’ve been driven to distraction by that heap of shit.

It’s programmed to RSS feed me up to 100 bogs that I read daily. These are displayed  in chronological order, newest first. Normally I would get up in the morning and start reading down the list until I get to one I’ve already read.

Blogger has decided that I’m being far too pedantic and has deemed that I’m too slow.

I find that after, say ten minutes, without any action by me, it refreshes the page. Thus putting be back to the top of the scroll. I then have to scroll down for what seems for ever to get back to where I left off.

Anyone had the same? And if so is there a fix?

Is there another RSS reader I can use?

YOU SHOULD KEEP AN OPEN MIND TO EVERYTHING

Reasons to keep an open mind

"Man will never reach the moon regardless of all future scientific advances."

-- Dr. Lee DeForest, "Father of Radio & Grandfather of Television."

"The bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives."

- - Admiral William Leahy , US Atomic Bomb Project

"There is no likelihood man can ever tap the power of the atom."

-- Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize in Physics, 1923

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."

-- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

-- Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."

--The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

"But what is it good for?"

-- Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."

-- Bill Gates, 1981

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us,"

-- Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"

-- David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible,"

-- A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper,"

--Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make,"

-- Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out,"

-- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible,"

-- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this,"

- - Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy,"

-- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."

-- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University , 1929.

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value,"

-- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre , France .

"Everything that can be invented has been invented,"

-- Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents, 1899.

"The super computer is technologically impossible. It would take all of the water that flows over Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of vacuum tubes required."

-- Professor of Electrical Engineering, New York University

"I don't know what use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of documents. It certainly couldn't be a feasible business by itself."

-- the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea, forcing the inventor to found Xerox.

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction."

-- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse , 1872

"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon,"

-- Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

-- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

OMG it’s nearly summer

The worst time of the year. Years and years ago Mrs FE conned me into buying a house with a huge garden. Mrs FE is a keen gardener.

She of course does the creative bits such as growing little plants in the greenhouse and carefully planting them out. Wonderful for her.

Of course the owner of this blog, me, has to carry out the more manly tasks.

I get the pleasure of cutting a 10 foot high, 300 foot long hedge on one side of the garden, and a fifty foot one on the other side. I spend a lot of my time as well, mowing the sodding lawn which with our climate of wet and dry, emulates the pampas of Argentina. Then there’s the Apple tree. This year there is an abundance of blossom which will mean a surfeit of apples. That means we will be infested with wasps, and those apples that are not eaten by said spawn of the devil will fall onto the verdantly mown grass. These are then hurled out of the mower causing your host to simulate an Irish jig to avoid serious ankle injuries.

Then there’s the painting to do on the outside of Chez FE. herself casually drops into the conversation that the barge boards are not looking too good and need a rub down and repaint. My immediate repost is, OK, up the ladder you go. That doesn’t work. just gets me banished to the living room sofa for a week.

Then there are the fences. Where there are no hedges there are fences. Now Mrs FE in her wisdom (Peace be upon her), has cultivated climbing plants to cover the panels. She will of course complain that the panels are in dire need of re-treatment. If I could get away with it I would spray plants and panels alike. However that would end up with me sleeping in the garden shed and not the living room sofa.

That’s the minor trauma dispensed with. This year is different.

The worst is. Wait for it. I HAVE TO MAKE A SPEECH.

My eldest daughter is getting married, and as father of the bride, I have to mouth platitudes, congratulate them, thank the attendees, and generally make a fool of myself. This fills me with a stark dread akin to jumping out of an aircraft and descending on a parachute. I’ve done that and believe you me, I’d rather do it without a parachute than make a Father of the Bride speech.

On the seventh of July I shall be standing up to explain why my daughter is so lucky to marry her sweetheart. Trouble is I have speechwriter block.

CAN ANYONE HELP ME? Any ideas?

Engineering 101

 

* Still trying to learn Engineering 102*

The Power of Beer

A man goes into a bar and drinks beer.  After every glass of beer he pulls a picture out of his pocket and looks at it. After the 4th  beer the waiter asks him why after every glass of  beer he pulls the picture out and looks at it.

Then the man says:  "It's a picture of my wife. When she looks good to me I'm going home."

That is an example of the "The Power of Beer"  Be sure to click where it says "click here" (That's the neat part.)

Beer goggles - click here

I found it

Last night I was frustrated. I’d found out that the Co-Op had commissioned a report by Manchester University, on the subject of Shale gas. When I followed the link I was given, all that was to be found was the executive summary. What I wanted was the real facts and figures about the quantities that might be available. I searched this morning and have now found the whole document.

it was quite interesting as it gives proven natural gas reserves and a breakdown of Shale gas reserves.

Now to me 566 billion cubic meters to me is not to be sniffed at. And these are only onshore reserves.

And that is a lower estimate than Cuadrilla  Resources estimate. They put the amount of recoverable gas in their drilling area to be 1,132bcm.

Island Gas Limited have estimated that there maybe between 2.5bcm and 131bcm in their area.

Eden energy estimate a recoverable volume of 362bcm.

f you would like to read for yourself the article is here. However the article has been produced for a warming agenda.

Chicanery

I wrote a post on Frakking yesterday. Interestingly the document I was looking at has been drastically reduced from 50 odd pages to 7. Something stinks. And it’s not the gas. This was from a well known warmist institution.

All the source material has disappeared. All there is, is an executive summary. However all is not lost.

All hail google cache.

Sleep well.

Mundane Monday

A sure fire way to get out of jury duty is to say "yes I will be delighted to attend. What’s the bastard done, anyway?!!!"

It is such an unfair world. When a man talks dirty to a woman its considered sexual harassment. When a woman talks dirty to a man its £5/min (charges may vary).

I got stopped in the street outside Boots today by a woman with a clipboard asking "What products do I use for grooming?" She was a bit taken aback when I replied, "Facebook".

I just booked a table for me and the wife for the evening of our Wedding Anniversary. It’s bound to end in tears though- she's crap at pool.

I met a beautiful girl down at the park today. Sparks flew, she fell at my feet and we ended up having sex there and then. God, I love my new taser!

I got a new Jack Russell puppy today. He's mainly black and brown with just a small white area - so I've called him Bradford.

They say that sex is the best form of exercise. Now correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think 2 minutes and 15 seconds every 3 months is going to shift this beer belly.

I’ve just watched a documentary about children being beaten and abused in Indian sweatshops. Then I looked at the quality of the stitching on my new trainers ..... I think the little shits deserved it!

I don’t frakking understand.

According to the Independent Newspaper, frakking for Shale gas has been turned down by the Government.

The Government has rejected shale gas technology as a solution to Britain's energy crisis, conceding it will do little to cut bills or keep the lights on.

However the reverse statement was made by Reuters that the Government had given the Green light  for shale gas extraction.

(Reuters) - The government on Tuesday (17th May 2012) backed the exploration of shale gas nearly one year after it temporarily banned the drilling method which triggered two earthquakes in Britain but that has also revolutionised the U.S. energy market.

Who to believe?

Estimates of Total UK Shale Reserve Potential
In terms of shale gas potential, according to the British Geological Survey (BGS)26, the UK has abundant shales at depth but their distribution is not well known. BGS and the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) published the report Unconventional Hydrocarbon Resources of Britain’s Onshore Basins - Shale Gas in December 2010. Making some assumptions and applying analogies with similar producing shale gas plays in America, BGS estimated the UK shale gas reserve potential at 150bcm. The report identified significant potential areas in northern England, including the Widmerpool Gulf near Nottingham and a large area centred on the Elswick Gasfield, near Blackpool.

And there are other reserves not mentioned.

Australia-based energy company Eden Energy said this week that a study of some of its UK exploration licenses in south Wales shows they could hold 12.8 trillion cubic feet of recoverable shale gas reserves (362 billion cubic meters).

Strange.

Oh and Kent, Surrey, and Sussex have Shale formations. And of course offshore as well..

If there is indeed such a supply of cheap natural gas available and the government is trying to block the production of this resource, then I would suggest you contact your MP and get him to ask. Why?

Home sweet home

I’ve just spent the week up at my son’s house. The reason being was that he was due for another three day course of radiotherapy. The radiotherapy is the easiest part of the affair, except for the three days of boredom he suffers from being in isolation during it. The biggest problem is that he has to go off his Thyroid medication which leaves him exhausted and somewhat confused at times. Quite rightly he takes the sensible decision that driving would be stupid, and therefore I disappear up there to do the driving for him.

However I digress from the point I was going to make. My son brought up the fact that what most cheered him up after leaving hospital for his home, was the freedom  living in your own home gives you. You make the rules. (Except in my case, Mrs FE. Or so she thinks. Why else do I send her out to work in the week?).

Your home at present is pretty free from government control at the moment (Although the Tobacco control industry have ideas on that one), and so it should remain. In my home I can get up when I want, wear what I want, eat what I want, drink what I want, set the thermostat at what temperature I want, decorate it how I want, Beat the wife when I want etc, etc,etc.

It’s the last bastion of freedom in this benighted country of ours. Consider if you will, how the rules change once you set foot of your own property.

Surveillance, petty officialdom, no smoking in public places, harassed for taking pictures in a public space, etc. You know the score. In fact add your pet favourite in the comments and I’ll write a post about some of them.

Home sweet Home

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