OneGuyFromBarlick

From BBC News site -

"Electric cars could be given priority at traffic lights and exempted from one-way systems, under new proposals."


File under 'What could possibly go wrong'.

Tripps wrote:From BBC News site -

"Electric cars could be given priority at traffic lights and exempted from one-way systems, under new proposals."


File under 'What could possibly go wrong'.

And be allowed to use pavements in the rush hour?

The bit about electric cars and traffic lights was repeated on the Today programme this morning. My first thought was how would a traffic light know an electric car from one powered by an internal combustion (IC) engine? My second thought was how would it react to an electric/IC hybrid? My third thought was would it give up if it met one of the new Hyundai Ioniq cars that are available in three modes of electric/IC power? Ioniq
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Now for a quote...
Also on the Today programme John Humphrys interviewed 94-year-old Professor John Goodenough who invented the lithium-ion battery and who is still working every day at a university in Texas. Humphrys said he was surprised to hear that Goodenough doesn't use a mobile phone but Goodenough believes they are used too much of the time and get in the way of normal human interaction. Humphrys said "But you made it possible by inventing the lithium battery". To which Goodenough responded "Technology is neutral; it's what you do with technology that judges us".

From his mouth to God's ear!

""To hoe one's own row diligently, thus seeking out the universal in the particular, brings more worthwhile satisfaction than the frantic pursuit of a largely jet-age internationalism""

Stan Barstow.

Sign of the times - surely 'peak celebrity' No me neither.
From the Daily Mail. . .

"It was a slap in the face': Blac Chyna 'believes her ex Tyga and Kylie Jenner stole her idea for a Ferrari-themed birthday party for son King Cairo' .
King Cairo was spoiled for his fourth birthday over the weekend with two lavish parties. But according to a new report, the tot's mother Blac Chyna thinks her ex Tyga, King's dad, stole her idea for a Ferrari-themed bash, leading to back to back identical parties."

Nicolle Wallace, speaking about Donald Trump's performance in the latest debate:
Nicolle Wallace, an NBC News analyst and advisor to Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, said on NBC: "He may as well have laid down in his own coffin with a hammer and nail and pounded it in himself."

Or even better a wooden stake through the heart.......

Diligence is the mother of good luck....Benjamin Franklin

This probably accounts for him not getting electrocuted in his lightning experiments. Wikipedia says: "Franklin was careful to stand on an insulator, keeping dry under a roof to avoid the danger of electric shock. Others, such as Prof Georg Wilhelm Richmann in Russia, were indeed electrocuted during the months following Franklin's experiment."

I forget who it was that said they were lucky because they worked hard at it!

A few more on luck...

• I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work, the more I have of it. Thomas Jefferson
• The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself. Douglas MacArthur
• Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. Seneca

You can choose from 30 quotes here! Luck

When Napoleon was picking candidates for promotion in the army he is reputed to have asked if the candidate was 'lucky'.

Just heard the American election described as

"The evil of two lessers"

Very true, Tripps! With regard to Trump, I think that Republican was hit the nail on the head when he said "What worries me most is that this is the best that the Republican Party can give us". I suppose many would modify that to "What worries me most is that this is the best that America can give us"

"Looking at the wreckage strewn about our political landscape today, we might use some “action political science.” Failing that, we may need in future to write some “action history.”

Uncle Bob in today's Bob's Bits.

Gerald Scarfe had a programme on radio the other day about Britain's relationship with the rest of Europe and our attitude to foreigners. It had lots of snippets from recordings and one of them was: "The trouble with German wine is that it all tastes of steel helmets".

The cartoon in The Times shows a couple at breakfast with him reading about the court's Brexit ruling in the paper. She's saying to him "You were the one who wanted our sovereignty back".

That point was made by Ian Hislop last night on HIGNFY. The Brexiteers shout about preserving the sovereignty of our courts and yet when they don't like the ruling they appeal against it. He suggested they appeal to Europe.....

From a website -

"As "injin" used to say, the ballot box is just a suggestion box for slaves. "

Concerning the footballer Wayne Rooney - from the Sun - bleak indeed .

"The father of three’s future at Manchester United looks bleaker than ever with only 20 months remaining on his £300,000-per-week contract."

But the bleakness pales into insignificance compared with Donald Trump having to survive on $1.

If only.......

On the Politics topic I mentioned how Trump's fabulous and often impossible promises mirrored those of African despots like Amin and Mugabe. That reminded me of a saying used by my South African mother (much to the shock of my dad's relatives!) when she first arrived in Britain. She got it from her brother who grew up playing with the African kids. When someone made impossible claims or promises they said "He'll work wonders and sh*t thunders". It sounds very appropriate for describing Donald Trump!

I am reminded of the no doubt apocryphal quotation from a man who was CEO of a company that made septic tanks. "The biggest turds always float to the top". (Sorry about that.....)