Relative orbits of the planets

This is one of these things that once you have seen it, you'll think to yourself... `Have I just assumed all the planets do the same thing as Earth just at different speeds around the sun.

Cause of Death

 What I find interesting about this list, is the lack of deaths due to mythical creatures. Clearly, by the 17th Century, Ghosts, Bugaboos, Wyverns, Witches, Werewolves, Vampires, Dragons etc were all extinct.

However, equally interesting is how their once-legendary nefariousness has stuck in the human psyche.

Pot Noodles

Today I had a Pot Noodle, Essentially, I have concluded that the flavour is fairly irrelevant, they all taste of Pot Noodle.

From muscle memory, I deduced that this one tasted pretty much exactly the same as the last one I had (though it was some years ago) and I further concluded that they should probably do away with names of flavours and instead name them after the dominant colours of the pot itself. The one I just had would have been Grey and Red pot.... noodle.

I'm fairly confident that sales would go up and that the management of peoples expectations regarding the `actual' flavour of the contents would allow more people to enjoy them, as their expectations would revolve around the packaging, not the contents... A bit like seeing a tidy bird in block and tackle versus one who is just in the nuddy.

The actual flavour of my Pot Noodle was allegedly Sticky Rib... there is a clue there that you are being sold a dream. Because as far as I can tell, sticky isn't a flavour, it's a sensation related to covalent bonding or van der Waals forces, respectively. However, ribs do taste of something, dependent on the animal they were harvested from, but it isn't Pot Noodle.

I rest my case.

PS: Bombay Bad Boy (a Pot Noodle flavour) sounds like medium-brown dildo. 

PPS: This is an observation on colloquial language related to sex toys, not a racial slur.

History is on repeat.

I recently got involved in a spat with my sons last employer Toolstation in Bridgwater.

In a nutshell, he was asked by his agency to take a new role at Toolstation. It paid more money, and the agency had to provide persons of a certain calibre. So my son was placed based on his ability and suitability, not his availability (he was employed already).

The job at Toolstation lasted one shift of eight hours. The reason, tribalism on the shop floor, a bullying culture operating on the basis of `shared information is a loss of power’. So common, so frequent and I suspect over time that it has sat at the core of a multitude of project failures in every sector in every industry.

I was livid, I don’t think I’ve been so poleaxed by rage in years. I wrote to the CEO of the Travis Perkins group and said the whole incident was unacceptable. I had a brief exchange with his executive assistant, who assured me that the matter would be investigated. A few hours later the head of HR at Toolstation Bridgwater assured me that there would be a full investigation.

Today that same head of HR has contacted me to say that the issues are being accounted for, but he can’t share details, for obvious reasons of employer/employee confidentiality. Fine and reasonable.

Below this, is the moderately edited text of my final email response.

It’s an employers market, as a population we saw exactly the same behaviours play out at the peak fallout from the financial crisis. Workers’ rights were overlooked on the premise that `there are plenty of other people out there looking for work’, minimum wage became the default position in out-of-town locations where low-quality warehousing and single operation manufacturing work forms a great deal of available employment. People lost their value, in exactly the same way as any commodity does when it becomes abundant.

Effectively at the bottom of the food-chain, those scratching around for scraps found they had to fight for them. An erosion of workers rights by default, and by dint of attrition, and with no real conscious input from management. It was and is a grassroots issue that is poorly observed at range. Coming out of the pandemic we are going see exactly the same behaviours again at the shop floor, as people vent their frustration and fear of uncertainty on their subordinates; to fortify their positions and to exert `some control’ over some aspect of their lives in an uncertain world.

It needs to be recognised and mitigated in advance `if you can be nothing else, be kind’, needs to be the maxim moving forward.

Ancient Egypt: How they built the pyramids.

 If you have three and a half hours of time on your hands, then this is an interesting watch.

I did it in three sittings. The last hour and a half became quite speculative, boarding on ` Oh do leave off''. However, having been up the Nile in 2007 and having seen the sheer scale of the temples and statues from Luxor to Aswan, you do have to wonder how on Earth they managed the stone-masonry?

I've seen the great unfinished obelisk at the granite quarry at Aswan, it is truly enormous (allegedly abandoned after an Earthquake cracked it before it was finished). The quarry itself is still working extracting granite and is at a relatively high elevation from the current bank of the Nile, and a fair step inland. In the Temples of Luxor and Karnak, there are Diorite Statues 3mtrs and more high. Everything about all the temple complexes from Luxor South to Aswan is monumental and massive. But there are also tiny objects in the museums so fine and yet so well carved and shiny you are just left wondering; `how on Earth did they do that'?

This film puts forward a theory, both for statues and for the building of the Pyramids. I'll say no more, just watch with an open mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMAtkjy_YK4