22 January 2013 (Tuesday) - This n That

I had an early night last night and was in my pit by 10am. I woke at 1.15am, and saw every hour of the night from then on. There was a rather loud vehicle which came past shortly after 2am. There was a lot of shouting up the street at 3.40am. I gave up trying to sleep and got up at 5.15am. Fudge was in such a really deep sleep that he didn't hear me coming down. I did feel a pang of jealousy, but didn't wake him. He eventually woke as I was watching "South Park" over my Bran Flakes, and he came and sat with me. And he went back to sleep on my lap and was soon snoring.

I scraped the frozen snow off of the car and set off to work. Despite the recent snows, the roads were clear. However there was very thick fog as I drove this morning. The news was all a-twitter with Prince Harry's revelations that he had killed insurgents during his military service in Afghanistan.
Personally I feel he's been a bit daft to have made this admission. Surely the Royals are a big enough target for these extremists without him giving them more reason to take a pot shot at a family member as some sort of a revenge killing?

And then I couldn't believe what I heard. Researchers have found that patients are ten per cent more likely to die when there are fewer medically trained staff about. Can anyone be surprised by this revelation? How is this newsworthy? Isn't this why we have hospitals rather than leaving ill people just anywhere? Interestingly as I drove home there was an article on the radio about trying to have consultant grade staff available in hospitals at all times for this very reason.

"er indoors TM" will have the hump over another snippet of news. For Christmas she was given a book "Fifty Ways to Cook Mackerel" and has been looking forward to boiling some up. I've never been a mackerel fan, but if I didn't like it, Furry Face could scoff it. Or so I thought.
For years mackerel were the vermin of the seas. You only had to mention the phrase "mackerel fishing" and the finny fellows would walk up the beach. But not any more. Their numbers have dwindled so much that apparently the international bunch who says what we can and can't eat have decreed that mackerel stocks are unsustainable, and mackerel fishing should stop. Apparently herring and sardines make an adequate substitute. One lives and learns..

And then I read something which on reflection has come as a surprise. The news that asteroid mining is to be taken seriously.
For myself the surprise is that it's taken so long for anyone to decide to make a go of it. For all that the Chinese are having a go at space exploration, and for all that this will provoke the Americans, the long term future of space exploration will be commercially driven. Which is... if not a shame, certainly not how as a child I imagined it would be...


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