Nut Psychology

Overheard in a local kitchenware shop:

Hay: "Do you like these sandwich boxes?"

Chairman: "No - there's no separate compartment for things like a banana and your nuts."

Hay: "It's a sandwich box, not a pair of boxer shorts!"

The mind is a wonderful thing and can dupe you. As part of my weight-loss regime I've started using a much smaller glass for my weekend wine intake, which has resulted in a reduction of about 1/3rd over the weekend, amounting to a full bottle - which is a good number of calories.

Similarly, when doing my weight lifts I've found that trying to do 20 vertical lifts of the 10kg weights is only just achievable, but if I do the lifts in sets of 5 - counting 1 to 5 and then 1 to 5 again another 3 times - it's not only achievable, but I feel I can actually do one or two more by the time I reach 20.

I've increased the exercises by 25%, but still do 6 sessions a day and am maintaining the one meal a day regime. Each set is now 1.5 minute plank, 25 forward arm curls, 25 side arm curls and 20 vertical, overhead arm lifts (with the eventual objective of 25 verticals).

The result has been a reduction of my waist from 34 inches to a very comfortable 32. The weight has stabilised at 82kg, despite the fat melting away, which can only be due to the increased muscle mass in my upper body.

Had to go through my entire trouser and jeans wardrobe over the weekend and chuck out the 34 wait stuff. The charity shop has been doing a roaring trade from me buying new trews and even my T shirts are starting to get a bit tight around the shoulders.

Ever wondered why some charity shops sell clothes that still have the shop sales tag still on them? I used to think it was people with more sense than money buying stuff on-line and then giving it to charity shops when they find it's the wrong size. Apparently they are mainly 'returns', which account for over 60% of the clothes shifted, it being cheaper to donate them to charity than put them through an inspection process and put them back in the sales chain. Some high-end brands will actually destroy returns rather than sell them cheaper through alternative outlets as it diminishes the brand cachet.

I'm a Travellin' Man

Overheard:

Hay: "Why are gypsies called gypsies?"

Chairman: "People used to think they came from Egypt, but they actually came from northern India. And Ireland..."

Hay: "So they are nomads?"

Chairman: "No, the Nomads invaded England in 1066."

Gypsies. The ideological position of any town council, left or right, is that they cause a mess wherever they go, so they should be moved on. What happens though is that the problem is just shoved to somewhere else because no-one can think laterally.

Councils spend fortunes policing and clearing up traveller caravan sites, only to have to do it time, after time, after time. Gypsies are not going to disappear from the face of the UK - the most sensible solution therefore is to provide them with a number of permanent camps with some basic amenities. These can be policed and placed in areas where there is little disruption to community life around them.

Yes, there will be a cost involved, but far less than continually having to battle gypsies and their detritus year after year after year. Far too sensible though.

The ironic thing is that we're a nation of over a million caravan or motorhome owners, so a whole swathe of the population aspires to the travelling lifestyle. It's not so much the lifestyle that upsets people though, as the mess travellers leave behind. Mind you, some of the people driving along our road are not much better if the stuff they chuck out of their cars is anything to go by.

We were out for a walk in the Slad Valley over the weekend and on passing a farmhouse I spotted a kid of about 8 or 9 playing in the garden. I felt like telling him to get inside and play on the internet, just like other normal kids of his own age...

Aspiration

I aspire to political agnosticism - political nirvanah and enlightenment - a letting go of ideology and political dogma. Buddha said; "Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings -- that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide."

Ideology, which isn't falsifiable, pervades politics. Whole areas of political thought are fact-free zones. You've probably heard of mindfulness - well, it's about time to develop something called factfulness, which is the ability to criticise daft, dogmatic ideas, no matter which party espouses them - and even if all tout them.

The problem a lot of people get into is that they will dogmatically follow a particular party, which inevitably ends with them having to defend some policy which is manifestly idiotic. You can always identify the partizan - just throw them a stupid party policy, bereft of any evidential support, and watch them tie themselves in knots trying to defend the indefensible. I've been guilty of this myself in the past, but have made a concerted effort to overcome the urge and divorce myself from any party and vote only on policies and trustworthiness to implement such policies.  I consider myself neither right nor left and more of the middling sort.

Politics, like religion, becomes enmeshed in your view of yourself and it's hard not be become biased once a decision to support a particular party is made. Essentially it's a form of tribalism. Once the untrained mind has made a formal commitment to a philosophy - and it does not matter whether that philosophy is generally reasonable and high-minded or utterly bizarre and irrational - the powers of reason are surprisingly ineffective in changing the believer's mind.

Giordano Bruno, a 17th C. Italian philosopher once said; "It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."

Auguste Comte, a 19th C. French philosopher said; "All good intellects have repeated, since Bacon's time, that there can be no real knowledge but which is based on observed facts."

Some political philosophies are nothing more than opinion, and no opinion is right or wrong. I may like blue cheese, but you hate it. It's an opinion and opinions can be ignored, in my opinion...

I see Boris Johnson is defending his ineptitude by accusing Jeremy Corbyn of peddling an 'avalanche of lies and disinformation' over the Skripal affair. A bit like Boris' Brexit 'avalanche of lies and disinformation' then. All I see Corbyn (who I have no particular like for) doing is standing up for British principles in relation to accusations, evidence and condemnation. Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye (the Bible is full of this kind of handy stuff). It would have been far better for Boris to say; "I understand where Corbyn is coming from, but....."

There seems to be a narrative on the right of the political spectrum that it was wrong to arrest the pensioner who stabbed and killed a burglar. I was under the impression that the police had the task of ascertaining the facts before reaching a conclusion. Part of ascertaining the facts is to arrest someone who has killed someone else, no matter the circumstances, or am I missing something? Kill someone in a road accident, even if obviously not your fault, and you will be arrested - it is simply the procedure.

It may seem I'm repeatedly attacking the right, but it's simply that it's those on the right who keep putting themselves in the firing line through pure stupidity.

Nostalgia

Does anyone remember those little bottles of olive oil you could buy at the chemist? My dad used to heat a small amount and pour it into his ears to loosen the vast quantities of ear wax he produced. It was a popular remedy in before the '70s. He'd occasionally visit the doctor to have them syringed too.

Not sure olive oil would be recommended by a doctor these days - in fact, I'm certain it isn't. There is an old remedy for hair loss that uses shampoo and olive oil, so using it to get rid of your ear wax may result in a profusion of ear hair, although I doubt it.

Anyone remember when absolutely no-one took their kids to a restaurant? Those were heavenly days; we spent about 15 years of our lives not going to restaurants, or else used a solution that was developed specially for parents - it was a rather innovative solution called a babysitter. If only people would use them more these days...

Antisemites, Poisoned Spies & Hope

I find it rather strange that there are calls for anti-semites to be chucked out of the Labour party but no-one is the least bit concerned about the racists and xenophobes in Ukip and the Conservative parties. The calls for anti-semites to be expelled from Labour is coming, tellingly, from parts of the Labour Party itself, which shows there's a recognition of there being a problem and a discussion is underway. There is no such discussion going on within Ukip and the Conservative parties, who have based almost their entire Brexit strategy around the question of immigration. It's a funny old world.

The same illogicality surrounds the Novichok debacle; Corbyn is accused by the government's Liar-in-Chief (£350m a week to the NHS) of siding with the Russian propaganda machine when what he's actually doing is adhering to a basic principle of British law - innocent until proven guilty. Yes, Russia is the most likely candidate, but there has to be evidence before engaging in knee-jerk reactions that may come back to bite you in the bum. Has the Conservative Party learned nothing from Iraq? It's just common sense - but Bojo isn't noted for that faculty.

I use Flipboard a lot, as it draws content from a wide variety of sources. You can create your own Flipboard magazines and add content to it for others to see. I have had a long-running battle with a Flipboarder who aggregates pro-Brexit stories on his magazine, which he shares; however, he's finally barred me from commenting as I've debunked every story he's added to his magazine and I believe he feels threatened within his cosy, fact-free bubble.

Lies were spread by both sides in the Brexit debate; however, the Remain lies were nothing more than an over-exaggeration of the downside economics, whereas the Leave lies were factual lies – Turkey joining the EU (Vote Leave publicity), £350m a week for the NHS (Boris Johnson), it will hurt the EU more than it will hurt us (every Brexiteer having no knowledge of percentages), we will trade with the rest of the world (Liam Fox), we will still have access to the single market (Daniel Hannan), etc. Despite the mounting evidence that Brexit will be a disaster (which is why the government is desperate for a deal on access to the Single Market), Leavers cling to their discredited mantras like an alcoholic does to a bottle, or a heroin addict to a syringe.

Here's my armoury, every item of which I can debunk with facts, evidence and/or logic (if you require clarification on any of these, then just ask):

Leave Lies:

• We send £350m a week to Brussels,
• We can’t stop Turkey joining,
• We can’t stop a European army,
• We are still liable to pay eurozone bailouts,
• The UK rebate can be changed against our will,
• Our VAT exemptions will be ended,
• Cameron’s deal was not legally binding,
• EU law is adopted by unelected bureaucrats,
• We can’t control our borders in the EU,
• Criminals arriving in Germany can get EU passports and come over here,
• Health tourism costs us billions,
• EU needs UK trade more than vice versa,
• Past referendum results have been ignored,
• Auditors still refuse to sign off the accounts,
• CAP adds £400 to British food bills,
• British steel suffers because of the EU,
• Irish border will be unaffected by Brexit,
• UK can’t deport EU criminals,
• UK is always outvoted,
• 60-70% of laws come from EU,
• Renationalisation of industries is impossible,
• We get no veto on future treaty change or integration,
• The budget ceiling can increase without our consent,
• We thought we were only joining a free trade zone (EEC).

Remain Lies:

 • It’ll be very, very, very, very bad (rather than just very, very bad).

You may believe some of the Leave lies are straw-men, but I assure you they are not and are arguments that have been put to me many times by Brexiteers in the Lion's Den of the Get Britain Out and Leave.EU Facebook pages (not to mention the Tory press), where I regularly take on the Ultras. These sites are where I have honed my counter-arguments and thickened my skin, as well as learning about the mind-set of Ultras, which is based on nothing more concrete than dogma and hope. Forecasts, however inaccurate, are a better guide to action than plain hope. That's not to say that hope hasn't sometimes triumphed, but it's rare; business and war are littered with the casualties of hope.

I see John Redwood promised punishment a few years ago for firms that are sensible and daring to speak out against the Tory, Eurosceptic group-think.

Comment

I do wish that online media outlets would design their systems such that when people comment on articles they can't do so unless they've read the article in question. You see so many comments from people who have splattered into action having either just read a provocative headline, or failed to grasp anything other than the most rudimentary understanding of the article.

An example is a headline I saw on the BBC News website saying; "N Korean missile could reach UK in months." Now without reading the story I could be forgiven for thinking it would be travelling very, very slowly and could be shot down quite easily. Another interpretation would be that the N Koreans are sending us one to test as a prelude to an international arms deal...

Protectionism

Trump and steel/aluminium tariffs - although it pains me to say so, I have a degree of sympathy for him a bit on this. Competition is all well and good, but China dumping excess production on the market is not fair competition when Chinese wages are much lower than those in the US and the steel and aluminium is being sold at below the Chinese domestic price. Putting tariffs on all steel, including the EU, is over the top and isolates the USA. A punitive tariff of over 200%, however, is plain daft and is not creating an even playing field and is inviting a trade war,

The Chinese practise is an object lesson in why no nation can simply drop tariffs on all imports, as Rees-Mogg and his cronies are advocating. Protectionism has its place, especially where the competitive field is not level.

Trump should be gathering global support for reasonable tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminium, as that's the only way in which unfair dumping can be brought under control. In 2016 the EU imposed import duties of between 13.2% and 22.6% on Chinese hot-rolled steel, which is used in pipelines and gas containers, and 65.1% and 73.7% on heavy plates, which are used in civil engineering projects. There didn't seem to be as much of an uproar about this, probably because the EU tariffs we not as punitive as the US ones and were part of a negotiated deal.

In early March of this year the levies were renewed for a further 5 years. Perversely, the UK government lobbied against these measures, which did not go down well with UK steel producers, and Tata Steel in particular, whose very existence in Port Talbot was under threat over Brexit when potential new buyers pulled out following the referendum. It's only the EU tariffs that have led Tata to continue to support the Port Talbot plant.

It's amusing that the Daily Mail is garnering support for the new blue passport contract to be given to the British company, De La Rue (ironic name), as a patriotic act that will result in an extra £120m cost to the taxpayer - which will be used to plug its pension fund gap. This is when the DM is an arch proponent of Brexit and dropping import tariffs a la Rees-Mogg and Mindford and risking British jobs in the process. Their argument is couched in philanthropic (aiding 3rd world farmers) and overall economic terms (lower shop prices), but ignores the effect of lost jobs and increasing wealth inequality.

There's nothing wrong with a bit of protectionism where there's an imbalance of competition in terms of wages, labour conditions, state aid, specification and product safety - that's what the EU is all about. That is also why the EU is against state aid, as indeed is the WTO - it distorts the market.

Poor Auntie

Apropos of yesterday's post - men's profusion of eyebrow, nose and ear air beyond a certain age must obviously be of some evolutionary advantage to men, but what that could be escapes me. Cushioning? Microbial filtration as the efficacy of the immune system diminishes with age?

Poor old Auntie Beeb: She started off being perceived as pro-Remain (as that was the Establishment view) and was accordingly accused of bias by the Brexiteers; however, since the Conservatives narrowly won the election Auntie is perceived as more pro-Leave and has consequently been accused of bias by the Remain camp.

The fact is that Auntie reflects the Establishment position - and the Establishment is currently the Conservative government; he who pays the piper calls the tune. It has always been thus and privatisation would lead to even greater accusations of bias by one side or the other, depending on who was in charge of the newly privatised corporation. Yes, it would be free of the Establishment Group-think, but imagine if Murdoch got control of it.

Polls concerning bias are as reliable as a sunny day at Easter, as those being asked are naturally biased themselves and will reflect that bias in their vote.

The BBC makes infinitely better flagship programmes than independent television, which seems to have gone into a race to the bottom in terms of quality and intellectual content. They're usually some excruciating, cheap-to-make, fly-on-the-wall nonsense posing as documentaries about bin men, sewer cleaners, or a contemporary remake of Opportunity Knocks.

The BBC is hamstrung by the demand that it is balanced in its news reporting, which has the unfortunate consequence that the most ridiculous and outlandish views get equal billing (and hence weight) with commonsense and truth. That's not balance, it's pandering to a minority. It results in Nigel Farage, who has failed twice to get a parliamentary seat, is no longer the leader of Ukip and hardly ever appears in the European Parliament, getting 32 appearances on Question Time - he's joint top for number of appearances. It results in pseudoscience getting equal billing with real, peer-reviewed science. Factual reporting tinged with commonsense is fading fast.

I have heard it said that Channel 4 News is better than the BBC, so I may overcome my deep distaste for adverts and give it a whirl.

Ear & Nose Hair

My nose and ear hair trimmer gave up the ghost a couple of months ago, leaving me bereft of stray hair control. I therefore treated myself to a new Phillips hair trimmer, which combines both the orifice trimmer with the standard hair trimmer, complete with several attachments for varying lengths. My old trimmer had only 2 attachments - very short and just too long.

It's absolute heaven to be able to trim the eyebrows to just the right length at any time - they simply grow uncontrollably and, if left too long between chops, sweep across my eyes like a curtain. The orifice attachment is quite novel too - it's like the one in the image below - you just ram it up your nose or in your ear and away it goes, flailing all the hairs like a scythe.

The Meaning of Easter

I was most disturbed when buying my grandchildren some Easter eggs that those on sale at Lidl don't mention Easter at all. Religion is slowly being eradicated from traditional celebrations - it's disgusting.

Here we are in a country with a fine pagan heritage and not one mention of the dawn goddess, Eostre, on the very symbol of her fertility cult and for whom Easter is named. I know Christians like to claim Easter for themselves, but the symbol of the egg has nothing to do with them. Chicks, eggs and newborn lambs are symbols of spring and fertility, predating Christianity by millennia.

The mere movability of Easter, being the first Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox, shows the reliance on the ancient lunar calendar of the ancient pagans. Christians added the Sunday business and perverted the calendar.

The ones on sale at Lidl are called Belgian White Chocolate Eggs, which is very obviously a ploy by Christians to get their St Belgian in on the act - I can't quite remember whether he was a martyr to Type II diabetes or died after being pushed into a vat of molten chocolate.

We really need to get back to the true meaning of Easter and Easter eggs...