It seemed about to rain all day. Glad it didn't, we accomplished a lot.
Sorry, it's been a lame week for moblogging. I've been sick for most of the week.
This is classic and pretty much somes up Britain's mismanaged train network to a tee...
Network Rail, the company responsible for the country's rail network (as the name suggests) have discovered that sending 200 of their staff from Reading to Coventry is prohibitively expensive by train - so they're sending them by coach instead!
An open return ticket by train is a whopping £135. By coach, it's just £12. A bit of quick mental arithmetic tells me that the train costs just over 11 times more than coach. Yes, that's right - ELEVEN times!
Despite Network Rail being the company that maintains the rail system they aren't entitled to discounted services from the companies that run the trains on their network. Even if they were to receive a discount, it's hardly likely it could compete with the far more sensible fares provided by bus and coach (including the ones run by the same companies that run the trains!)
By choosing road over rail, the company has saved itself £24,000. None to shabby!
Remember a few days ago I posted about a bunch of luxury phones being sold on the streets of Basingstoke after being half-inched from a warehouse outside of the town a couple of months previous? Well it appears these are being flogged on eBay. Not only that, it would appear they're not making much of an effort to conceal what they're doing from Hampshire's finest.
I can't say I'm 100% sure these are the stolen handsets but, check the following out and I'm sure you'll agree there's some fishiness here, is there not?
Priced at £1,200 new, these aren't your common garden variety mobile handsets. Seems just a little suspect that someone based in Basingstoke should be selling one on eBay for such a considerable discount on the RRP (especially as it's listed brand new in box) not long after 118 were stolen from a warehouse near Basingstoke...
'Direct from Motorola UK' indeed!
Of course this could be genuine, in which case I apologise to 'Tanya' for thinking otherwise - and offer these words of advice for her: In future, tell the gift-giver how much you appreciate what they've given you but ask them to take it back to the store for a full refund. They'll appreciate that more than you flogging the £1,200 gift they gave you for a third of the price. Hey, you could split the difference and both be quids in!
Just up the road from Basingstoke, in Fleet, we have two more lucky people who received an Aura as an unwanted gift...
On the off chance that these were stolen and you naughty people get charged with handling stolen goods or whatnot - DON'T blame me! FFS, what do you expect if you put the items on eBay? Do you not realise that the boys in blue check eBay for such booty and a quick Google search brings up the Basingstoke seller?
I'm learning about (and paying for) an encroachment permit. I'd encroach more often but it's pretty expensive.
Like most of the country, I have sat by horrified and deeply saddened by the incident that took place at Ft. Hood last week. I have been further saddened by how Major Hasan has been portrayed as some fundamentalist Muslim on a religious mission of some sorts and the ensuing death threats against Muslims in the Ft. Hood area. Whatever the reasons motivating Maj. Hasan, of which I am sure there were many, none of them justify further killing or threats of any kind. Hate begets hate. If we all, or even a few of us, respond to this incident by targeting Muslims because one of them made a horrendous decision not in line with their faith, the chasm will grow and more horrible incidents will ensue. As Ghandi said, an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.
So, I am writing to propose a way to refocus those energies and to respond to the situation with love. Show our troops some love and get yourself educated on S.1963 - the Caregivers and Veterans Omnibus Health Services Act of 2009. The goal of the bill is to increase mental health services to veterans. Our veterans are suffering tremendously and the VA, and the rest of the country for that matter, are woefully ill-equipped to manage the severity of the problem. We are sending these people out on multiple deployments in a war zone unlike any other before. Whatever your political take on the wars, I think we can all agree that we need to take care of our veterans. I support this bill, but encourage everyone to do their own homework on it.
If you discover you support it, please call Senator Coburn's office and ask him to remove the hold from the bill. He alone is preventing the bill from leaving committee and reaching the Senate floor for a vote. The Committee on Veterans' Affairs has a statement about it here. Senator Coburn has his rebuttal here. If you believe the bill should be supported, please call your senators and ask them to support it. If you don't know how to contact your senators, go here.
I have hesitated for some time to post this because too often well-intentioned posts about how to offer support to our troops get thread-jacked by those wanting to debate the validity of the wars. I am the daughter of a veteran who served in two wars and I am proud of my dad's service. I am also a flaming liberal who vehemently opposes the wars. If I can separate the soldier from the action, then you can, too, and I respectfully ask you to do so here. If you want to say anything hateful, discriminatory, or negative, please make your own post. I don't post publicly very often because it's easier to deal with my small community. But, our troops are part of the larger community and we ALL need to come together to support them. It isn't enough to put a ribbon on the back of your car and wear an American flag pin. The heart of our country is action and I am asking you to take some positive action today to help support our troops and turn the events at Ft. Hood into a forceful, positive response from the country in support of our combat veterans. Many thanks.
Okay, so only one of these films actually revolves around the fall of the Berlin Wall and the impact it had on East Berliners. The other two are still worthy of a view too as they either feature attempts to cross the border or what life was like for those living in the former German Democratic Republic.
This is one of my all time favourite films. It can be appreciated even if you're usually not into foreign language films. Sorry about the sound quality of the trailer, 'twas the best I could find...
This gives you an idea of what it must've been like to live in the former GDR, how the state monitored every aspect of people's lifes.
And finally, back to something more light hearted and in English (for those of you not keen on subtitles...)
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
This is supposedly the real life story of US game show creator, Chuck Barris. He was responsible for 'The Dating Game' ('Blind Date' in the UK). He was also, apparently, an agent for the CIA - chaperoning winning couples from the show to Berlin...
Oh, and I said, games too, didn't I? Well make that one game, Tony Hawk's Underground 2 which, if my memory serves me right, has Checkpoint Charlie in it and the odd piece of the wall.
Nokia are instigating a product recall, swapping out faulty chargers. Apparently some have casings that can come loose, posing a risk of electric shock.
According to The Times, there's a whopping 14 million that need to be replaced!
Rather than list all the ones affected - head over here instead.
Thieves stole over one hundred Motorola phones from a warehouse near Basingstoke, Hampshire back in September. Now local police are claiming these are being sold in the town itself. Okay, so not exactly the most interesting story ever but, as you'll be aware from the title, these are no ordinary phones. No siree, Bob! These things are worth a whopping £1,200 each!
I'm a local and have yet to see or hear of anyone with one of these or to have been approached by someone trying to flog one. But the police claim these are doing the rounds and have warned people they face up to 14 years in prison if they buy one. Yeah, right. Recently a local man stabbed his wife to death and is likely to serve just 3 years. Strange world we live in, isn't it?
Here's Trusted Review's take on the Aura - as it's known. There's no 3G, Wi-Fi or GPS and only 2 gig of built-in memory with no options for expansion. Seriously, what the fudge?!?
I'm not in the habit of buying stolen goods and this phone wouldn't tempt me anyway. I mean really, £1,200 for that?!? Yes, a circular screen looks rather cool but can you imagine finding apps to work with it? No Opera Mini for a start!
She came in first place overall in her division.
