Warning signs

This post is all about plain packaging of cigarettes. So if you are affiliated with ASH (Action on Smoking and Health), you know where the exit is.

ASH are pressurising the government to bring in legislation forcing cigarette manufacturers to package their perfectly legal product in a plain box. There will be a standard font for the brand name, and the package is expected to be an olive green. The only thing that will be in glorious Technicolor will be gory graphics of blackened lungs (Wait a mo while I just take a peak at a packet to find what else), hideous growths, etc.

How many smokers actually even register these pictures? I certainly don’t. Part of the reason being is that in this day and age we are bombarded with a plethora of warning signs. We are suffering from Warning Sign Overload Syndrome^TM  in this present day.

A case to prove my point is what you find on a ship’s machinery space entry door. The list below contains some that you will see. There are so many, that your brain doesn’t really register any of them. 

Wear Ear defenders.

Authorised personnel only.

Machinery may start without warning.

Danger high voltage.

Hard hats to be worn.

Do not open this door in event of fire.

No smoking.

Safety boots to be worn.

Inflammable liquids

Freon gas.

No sex please, we’re British.

(OK I made the last one up).

My point is, we are becoming immune to warning signs (Well I am). All it needs on an engine room door is one sign.

This is a dangerous area, take care. 

The same with graphic images on cigarette packages. They just don’t register with me. I just open the packet without a glance.

ASH. You may re-enter.

A reader writes……

To her water supplier.

An open letter to Anglian Water

Anglian Water
Customer Services
PO Box 10642
Harlow
CM20 9HA

 
Dear Sir,
A neighbour has just told me that there is a hosepipe ban in force, with threats of £1,000 fines. As I don't take a newspaper, rarely watch television or listen to the radio, and have little interest in current affairs, this came as something of a surprise. Perhaps you would be kind enough to answer the following questions ...

(a) Is it true?

(b) If it is true, when were you going to have to courtesy to inform your customers?

(c) By what right do you tell me how I can use the water I pay you for?

I can think of no other commodity that comes with conditions imposed by the supplier, let alone threats of fines. For instance, if I buy a new computer, PCWorld doesn't tell me which ISP to use or place limits on the websites I visit. When I bought a secondhand car last year, the Ford dealer made no demands on my driving habits and did not tell me how far to drive or how fast.

What's so special about water? I presume that as I have a water meter and therefore pay for every drop I use, once the water enters my property it belongs to me and I can use it as I see fit. If, on the other hand, it remains your property, you are just lending it to me, and you continue to exercise control over it, why am I paying so much?

(d) If you find yourself with a shortage through your own failure to plan ahead and conserve stocks or take measures to obtain fresh supplies from elsewhere, why should I suffer? The energy companies aren't too popular at the moment, but at least they're constantly on the lookout for new oil wells or new countries to buy oil from. What have you done to try and find new sources of water? Have you even talked to the Scots yet, because they've got loads of the stuff?

It's a fairly simple task we all have, isn't it? I do my job conscientiously and thoroughly, so why can't you do the same?

And please don't tell me how hard you've been trying to stem the colossal wastage for which you are responsible. If it had worked, you'd deserve credit for it. But it hasn't, has it?

Yours faithfully,
R.E.Cluse (Mrs.)

Dedicated to Miss Pretorius (Skoolteecher)

If only more schools kicked out political correctness and employed the following as a first line of defence against idiot parents.

Think it might work?
I'm going to put something like that on my answering machine to deflate cold callers. *Press 1 for abuse*, Press 2................

If you want the UK to fail.

Swap America for Britain

Earth day

 

Bugger. I missed it.

A reply from the bubble.

The Westminster bubble that is.

I posted the below paragraph translated into Afrikaans (My son’s partner is fluent in the language. Hi Rialette), into a post at the beginning of the month, in reaction to this article in the Mail.

The Coalition is reviving Labour's ill-fated scheme to snoop on all British citizens online – despite the fact that it was opposed by Liberal Democrats and Conservatives when in Opposition.

All conversations over the Internet and e-mails can be recorded if the government is planning a massive expansion in surveillance.
The coalition is reviving Labour's ill-fated scheme to snoop on all UK citizens online - despite the fact that it was opposed by liberal and conservative while in opposition.
Internet service providers will be required to keep records of all e-mail messages on social networking sites and talks about Skype.
The content of the calls or messages will be recorded, but the authorities will have a court order to obtain if they want to hear or read the contents.
However, the police and security will be able to access details of the communication between and what time they occur without a court order demanding.

In the mail when I returned home today I found that I had received a reply to a letter that I had penned to my MP, about the above.

Dear Mr Filthy Engineer,

many thanks for your letter of April 3 letting me know of your concerns about the Government’s policy on surveillance.

My understanding is that the Government may be back tracking on the proposals put forward. I am nonetheless going to put your concerns directly to the Home Secretary whom I have asked for the latest position as far as the Government is concerned on it’s proposals in this important area.

I shall be writing to you again when I receive this reply.

I wonder what the further letter will hold.

 

I’m glad I’m now able to post from a computer rather than a smart phone.

Warning. Radiation & DIY.

I took my son to the hospital today to have his thyroid scanned for any cancerous nodules. On Wednesday he was given a dose of radioactive iodine and today he was scanned to see what would show up.

Interestingly he managed to get the scan pics onto his phone, and they make interesting viewing. It would appear that he has a small spot on his neck which would indicate that the last radiotherapy treatment may not have been one hundred percent effective.

Well we'll just have to see what the oncologist has to say.

One of the problems which you don't read about is that before he has the tests or treatments, he has to come off his medication for a couple of weeks beforehand. This leaves him with very little energy.

Mind you, It seems to coincide with the DIY joblist I get handed every time I go up there!

Just joking Chris. (I know you'll read this).

Behind closed doors.

I've been to supermarkets since the ruling came into hiding tobacco from plain view. Although the tobacco control lobby has always iterated it is all for the "Sake of the children", we all know that they just want denormalise smokers. The aim was to see lengthy queues of disgruntled smokers lining up in frustration to buy their packet of 20, and quitting in frustration.

This morning I saw the solution in action. Instead of buying a pack, everyone in the queue bought in bulk.

So stuff you Lansley and tobacco control.

Sorry for the poor quality and brevity of my posts, but not having access to my computer, I'm trying to get to grips with writing posts from my smartphone.

He's glowing.

As I type this by the green glow emanating from my radioactive son I wonder what the future will hold?

When I was younger, it was an indisputable fact that lung cancer was caused by the nicotine in tobacco products. Later this morphed into tar being the cause. Now it is other chemicals that are the killer.

I'm now seeing the same type of science being practised in the climate change debate.

Have we lost real science discipline in a search for a quick fix?

After all stomach ulcers for years were deemed to be caused by stress and dissenters vilfied. This illness was subsequently found to be caused by a bacterium.

Can science by concensus work, or is it killing millions?

I'm away.

Blogging will be light. I'm away at my son's place. He's having a radioactive scan to ascertain if he has any cancerous nodules left from his lastb treatment.