Friday, March 18, 2011

Cheap Flights with subtitles

Tsunami, Whaling, Employment, Tourism

Now I know why the Japanese opposed restrictions on whaling. The economy of an entire coastal town depended upon it. Unfortunately the sea which provided their living has also taken many lives. Three questions, first what's more important, whales or people? Second, are/were they over-fishing whales to extinction? Thirdly, solving the other problems, can the people be given alternative employment? In an area away from whales and tsunami? First step would be a Tsunami Museum, way back in safety on the hillside overlooking the area.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Japan tsunami breaks wall

Tsunami Rescue Prevention And Cure Problems And Answers

Question/Problem 1 Tsunami-proof buildings?

Answer 1 Pictures of Yamada/ Wakuya show buildings pulverised and swept away; but despite surroundings being demolished, multi-storey ones, some on higher ground, survived as safety islands. Copy those buildings.

Question 2 Government refuses help? Happens too often, dictators on small islands and big modern countries where top families are recluses who never speak.

Answer 2 U.N. must declare a disaster zone and move in.

Question 3 Can the UK help? We can't organise or distribute funds in priority to fix our potholed roads.

Answer 3 Armies should divert from war/unemployment to build roads and bridges.

Q/Problem 4 It takes time. But people buried under rubble don't have time. Nor do those without food and clean water. They need Medicines. Roads.

Answer 4 Have a central co-ordination service like the US wartime hospitals to prioritise needs and direct the assorted aid agencies.

Problem 5 We can't land planes because no airport.

Answer 5 We need helicopters. Need big ships you can land on. Launch small amphibious (land and sea) boats.

Problem 6 But can't risk rescuers because of risk of after-shocks, more tsunami?

Answer 6 Japan and other countries have volunteers in wartime, kamikazi pilots, suicide bombers - surely there are enough risk-takers who find the risk a thrill, or who are altruistic or want the accolade of being a living hero or dead martyr?

Question/Problem 7 But speed is vital.

Answer 7 Forget paperwork. Sukihara issued unappproved transit visas to save lives in WWII. Japanese and UK officials should send real or fake papers or risk government wrath to move in aid. Embassy should hotline to (UK) head of state.

Q/Problem 8 No phones! No info.

Answer 8 Back to basics like in Africa where the whole village is gathered in one building and one TV gives out information and one phone is shared by all.
Wind-up radio.
Satellite is used by newspapers to phone reports home.

Problem 9 Wind-up radios and satellite phones are costly.

Answer 9 Google, Apple, Buffet, aid agencies, public - help!

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Tsunami Safety For Cars, Boats, Buildings

Watching the horrific amateur videos of the Japanese tsunami March 2011 on the pages of national newspapers, I saw a ship swept under a bridge and crushed. Then cars swept into buildings.
Noah's Ark are the words which come to my mind. What is the solution? What could the boat designers do? Anchors? Submarines? Bumpers?
What could car designers do? Amphibious vehicles? Signals sent further inland when sea wall are breached. Cars with all round bumpers? But some were tossed upside down.
Oxygen supplies in cars for trapped drivers?
They've done research in London on how to design buildings on stilts so the water passes through. Now they need designers for cars and boats.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Why I like Country Music Stories

I love Country Music. Dolly Garton. Garth Brooks. Patsy Cline. All those wonderful stories told in three verses with a twist end to each one in less than fifty words. Especially tragic and humorous.

For example, unrequited love. Sylvia's mother (mother says she's getting married - punchline narrator sings, tell her goodbye).

Humour and revenge: The day my mother socked it to the PTA.

Humour: The man who steals bits of cars from a factory and makes an absurd car with bits of different models and makes of cars, gets caught and ends up in prison.

Tragic mystery: The song about the car crash and the puzzling ring in the glove box. The narrator realises it shows the woman was having an affair. The punchline says he finally understood and threw into the well the ring, to hide it, because it belonged to - his mother.

The trucker buying flowers to be sent to his Mum. The trucker pays for the flowers for the little impecunious little boy and follows the kid to see if Mum likes the flowers. The kid puts the flowers on his mother's grave. So the trucker goes back to the flower shop, reclaims the flowers and delivers them in person to his own mother.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

'What Does A Woman Want,' asked Freud. Listen.

What does a woman want? asked Freud. Many women tell a man exactly what she wants, but he doesn't listen. He tries to persuade her to do what he wants. That's like a salesman trying to sell you something different. Occasionally it will work. But not long term. The customer might change their mind within a week. Most sales courses tell the salesman to listen to what the customer wants.

A man needs to know a woman’s personality type. Is she looking for wild and exciting? (Many young women are. So are some older women ‘looking for a bit of rough’.

Or is she looking for security and safety? Even if she seems wild, she might have a hidden fear. She might be quite happy to get drunk, but be terrified of old houses with mice or spiders.

She might want to be excited by her fears in a horror movie. Or this might turn her off completely. Does she want to face her fears, or seek reassurance?

What Are Her Hidden Fears?
Maybe she doesn’t like remote locations, side entrances, front doors in the dark. (Better to leave a light on over the door if you are planning t bring her back after dark.)

She might not like basements.

She might not like heights. The penthouse is glamorous, he thinks. But not for Miss Timid or Miss Vertigo. When it has a sheer drop from the balcony on a day when the news is about somebody falling or being pushed off a balcony. So only invite her onto the balcony if she wants to see the view. Don’t keep insisting she comes onto the balcony if she looks scared when you suggest it.

Waterside. Seaside. Lakeside. Yacht. Marina. Canal. Great. Romantic. Lovely view of the passing boats in summer, you think.

But the news has three bad news water stories. First about the missing yachtsman. She or you will think, the missing man was more of an expert than you, but he was in a race, though you are talking about the fun of going fast. Second, the couple who died on the yacht near Somalia. But they were in a dangerous area. They said they wanted to die doing what they loved. You just told her the same thing. Finally, thirdly, children screaming as Dad drives the car into a canal. She now starts to think, is this an omen. Is somebody up there trying to tell me something. She is going off this water idea. The more you push it, the more you will bring up reminders.

Maybe she has a horror of canals. She might think they are low class, like her Granddad. Or her ex on a leaking houseboat, in the bad old days. She might think they are for toffs, like her old boss, who thought she would service him and get the bus home. Or maybe she thinks canals and rivers just dangerous, don't like the canal. It doesn't help to be sending pictures of a stormy sea, or a deserted canal at night, when the news is full of unpleasant stories.

A colleague of a friend might have just died in 'an accident'. For example, his family and lifelong friends have no idea why he managed to drive, through a major wall, into water. It could be suicide. But if his family and friends don’t know, how well can she judge an acquaintance. Same applies to potential terrorists. How does anybody in what they perceive as a war zone (this includes any place that’s had a bombing, Ireland, Israel, London, New York, Madrid, Turkey, Kosovo, Glasgow ....)

How do you know that somebody of another religion is not a terrorist, or that their spouse or child or brother is not one, unknown to them? How do you know that your date, if you’ve never met them, has not stolen the identity of somebody of your religion or sect?

Same as skyscraper hotels all found sales dropped after a major fire, no good protesting that they had sprinklers and this and that, sales still went down. Some of the potential customers didn't even realise why they were feeling negative. They instead put more emphasis on totally different reasons, and kidded themselves that what they really wanted was a beach holiday. After the tsunami holidaymakers were all booking holidays in city centre skyscrapers.

Some of them did not tell the beach locations why.

Others didn't even realise why they had chosen the city centre holidays. It was a case of once bitten (by news) twice shy. After the consumers had forgotten, the effect lasted.

Some had not even realised at the time of the earlier incident, what was programming their actions. Same with holidays in countries at war. You can persuade a few people to take the risk, but nine out of ten decide to play safe and stay home. Also a lot of people will book a holiday in a dangerous place and then fall ill at the last moment, their subconscious telling them not to do it.

Also she might not like the suburb or city he suggests. Hull, Burnt Oak, Milton Keynes, Blackpool. Her family might not know of any great attractions in or near his home. Has he offered to show her anything in a public place, or simply ‘Come Up And See My Etchings’.

Do you think mocking her and her fears will succeed? Probably not. Teasing could work. If it's too soon, or maybe any time, she might think, 'He doesn't understand me. He doesn't care. '

How about sympathising?

If they go out for a meal on a second date, he would still have the chance of persuading her to go back to his place after the warmth of the evening, after she'd had more time with him, which she might not agree to in the cold light of day on the basis of one evening's acquaintance.

***

She does like him if she engages in a long, tedious, time-wasting correspondence. When she should be working.

But he might be writing to two or twenty girls throughout Saturday until one agrees to call at his place.

If he really wants to see her he should take her to a local restaurant. Unless she has other ideas. (A sporty girl might prefer to be active. A dieting girl might like activity and a meal. After drink, neither of you will feel much like walking or driving.)

Compromise. Find out what both parties want.

She wants to eat out but he is on a budget. She might be quite happy at a carvery or other inexpensive place. Result, a successful date.

Drinking And Driving On A Date - Yes, No, Maybe, Maybe Not

Wetherspoons have a great steak lunch for two with a bottle of wine. However, it's not ideal if you want to be wide awake at work later in the afternoon. Watch out that you don’t get so drunk that you have a hangover.


What about the man who persuades a woman to drink with a meal or go for a drink, when she doesn't want to? Or go back to his place for a meal and a drink. What if the meal does not appear? The champagne turns into beer?


If you try to persuade anybody else to do something they clearly don't want to do, you run the risk that they will be forced into agreeing and then chicken out at the last minute.


If a man, or woman, is too pushy on date one or two, the other person might begin to feel they are being pushed around. They feel out of control and just too worried to enjoy themselves.

Try not to make too many demands. Remember the film When Harry Met Sally.

The man might not want the hassle and expense of booking a restaurant.

But the lady doesn’t want the hassle and expense of buying a new phone and making all sorts of background checks on the man’s address and phone and car and identity.


c) What is she supposed to tell the family? That she is going to a nearby restaurant which they know, which they could phone if it got to midnight and she was missing? A place which has a record of both of them on CCTV.


Or to admit that she has no idea where she’s going, she’s with somebody whose address she doesn't know, somebody she's never met nor spoken to, who does not belong to any club she belongs to, and she’s going back to his place on date two. How does that look to his family and hers if it ever gets in the papers?


Dating Safety First For Women On Blind Dates

Safety Advice For Women

If a man wants a lady to get in his car and spin down the motorway to an as yet unknown (to her) restaurant or his home, whether it’s a first date a second date, or a long term arrangement (remember Bluebeard) somebody should know where she has gone and with whom.

A lady should have his car number and make, plus his address and phone number so that she can keep these with her and leave these facts behind (not in the house which he can burgle, but via email so the server keeps a record) to show where she has gone.

In the case of an accident such as a car accident, an accident at his home, or her feeling faint or him having a heart attack she couldn't even phone for help without knowing where she was.

When women date men under 50 the problems are drink and drugs. Over 50s the problems are more often health. I know of two or three cases where a lady had a date with a man who later revealed he'd just had a triple by-pass and wanted to die happy in a woman's arms.

You can't know necessarily know in advance that you will have a car accident or a heart attack. Both are equally scary, the man behind the wheel who is drunk when the lady is sober. The men behind the wheel who is sober having got the lady drunk.

Once, long ago, a man invited me to lunch and opened a bottle of wine. He drank nothing.

So when he went back to the kitchen I poured the wine into the pot plant. Yes, if I were writing a tragedy - or a comedy, the poor plant instantly collapses!

However, some people they don't tell you their health problems until half way through date one or date two.

It’s still safer to stay in a restaurant. If a man’s budget is too small. (Is he spending on all those other ladies on the nights he is busy?) He could take her to a chain like Cafe Rouge, especially if it is running a special offer, or look for a place with a discount offer.

Safety First For Men On Blind Dates


Safety Advice From Websites

Most dating websites have advice on safety.



The Worried Man

For men the advice is don’t give out your identity nor send money to strangers on the web.


Okay, so he picks a woman in the UK (or wherever he lives). What could go wrong?



Here are my warnings.


He could find himself with a suicidal woman who wants him to kill her - she’s willing to write a note to the police saying she asked him to do it.


He might meet a woman who wants him to pretend to rape her in order to fulfil her fantasy. What a dream, but she wants this to happen on the staircase, and what if her elderly neighbour calls the police.


Then what if her tough spouse, who is an expert in martial arts, gets home unexpectedly and thinks this is for real? Or maybe she planned for her spouse to arrive in the nick of time and to feel sorry for her.


Or the new date could unnerve our good man by telling him about her four previous lives in other centuries.


Other problems from a man’s point of view are:

Going back to her home and her husband suddenly appears (angry heterosexual). Going back to her place and her flatmate / girlfriend appears (angry lesbian). Spouse could appear by accident. Or pre-arranged robbery or blackmail.


‘She’ could be a man in drag.


It can be tragic. It can be funny. I hope for you it will always be the latter.