Formula 1.. An expensive reality show?

Did you watch the Malaysian Grand Prix today?

Sebastian Vettel won the race even though he was given orders not to challenge his team mate, Mark Webber, for the lead. 

Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton, placed third in the race, admits that his team mate, Nico Rosberg, should have been allowed to pass and take third place.

Hamilton in the post race interview told how he turned down his car to save fuel, but Nico Rosberg was told on the car radio during the race that Hamilton had also been ‘turned’ down too.

So, do drivers turn their own car down or is it done from the pit wall? If it can be done from the pit wall, why wasn’t Vettel’s car turned down to prevent him passing Webber?

Incidentally, this is not the first time that Hamilton has had his car turned down. He complained during one of the races last year.

It wasn’t too many years ago when the championship looked like it was going to be taken by Felipe Massa, and it would have been had Timo Glock not inexplicably stopped before the finish flag. This event pushed Lewis Hamilton up the finishing order just enough that he could ‘pip’ Massa on points won.

Ferrari completely lost the plot during 2005/6 re reliability and knowing how to run a pit crew team to the point where Ferrnando Alonso and the Renault team won two years in a row. At the Italian Grand Prix of 2006, Michael Schumacher announced that he was retiring. I don’t think to this day that the decision was his. Many didn’t like the fact that Schumi kept on winning, so were the Ferrari team problems of 2005/6 a set up to get rid of him? Constantly changing the rules hadn’t done any good.

Strangely, the next year,2007, with Kimi Raikonnen at the wheel, Ferrari remembered what Formula 1 was all about and won again.

Schumi was always in trouble for using devious tactics like overtaking, blocking etc. Ayrton Senna. claimed by many to be the greatest driver of all time, did this to the point of almost being lethal. Why were Senna’s tactics ok but Schumi’s weren’t?

I used to like watching Formula 1. Now I just watch the start to see how many cars crash out on the first corner. The ‘telemetry’ thing where car performance can be altered from the pit wall has taken more away from racing than ever traction control did.

I want Kimi Raikonnen to win, but will Formula 1 politics allow it? Who knows?

Happy Bloody New Year..

.. to all of the selfish, greedy, thoughtless bastards who contributed to the global economic crash..

.. to all of the dictators who cling onto power by decimating their own people..

.. to all terrorists who hide behind religion, women, children and the elderly while they fire rounds indiscriminately at anybody they do not like.. 

.. to all politicians who knowingly lie through their teeth when they make promises to the people in order to get elected..

You have all done a great job thus far, and I don't doubt that none of you see fit to change your sleazy ways for 2009 and beyond..

Keep up the good work and we can maybe save a forest somewhere by not bothering to print diaries and calendars for 2010.. 

A Dictionary Definition..

Hope..

.. is a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. Hope implies a certain amount of despair, wanting, wishing, suffering or perseverance — i.e., believing that a better or positive outcome is possible even when there is some evidence to the contrary.

The key word here is 'some'..

Two blondes..

.. with hammers, Ann and Susie were doing some carpenter work on a Habitat for Humanity house.

Ann, who was nailing down house siding, would reach into her nail pouch, pull out a nail, and either toss it over her shoulder or nail it in.

Susie, figuring this was worth looking into, asked, "Why are you throwing those nails away?"

Ann explained, "When I pull a nail out of my pouch, about half of them have the head on the wrong end, and I throw them away."

Susie got very upset and yelled, "You! moron! Those nails aren't defective! They're for the other side of the house.

Phantom Hope..

It is said that the world is warming up. As it does, animals like the Polar Bear will disappear because their habitat will no longer exist. It is difficult to imagine a world without the North and South polar icecap. One can't help but feel that something cataclysmic would happen along the path to total meltdown, something really BIG. If you think about it, the rising ocean levels swamping what are now coastal low lying areas is bad enough.

You may think that you are sitting pretty if you live on high ground, but you would soon lose that smug grin. Where do you think all of the people in coastal cities like Montreal, New York and London England are going to be displaced?

Who, exactly is going to pay for the removal of infrastructure away from the areas which will be hit hard? How and when will it be moved?

As the oceans rise, so does the level of water in estuaries, and what is attached to all estuaries? Yes, you guessed right. The small river not too far away from you is also going to rise. Today's fields, farms, golf courses, business parks and domestic housing areas are going to be lakes.

Wild animals, their habitat fast receding, will come into conflict with the escaping hordes from the large coastal cities, whose only interests will be getting someplace to live, be it on a high ground farmers field, or vast tracts of previously forested land, all of the trees about to be cut down to allow for space and building materials.

Fishing fleets will have nowhere to bring back catches unless they fix wheels to the fish processing plants and centres, so no more Sole Meuniere at your favourite restaurant, or cod and chips out of the paper while watching the waves gently roll up the beach.

Meanwhile, up on the high ground, you can't go out in the sun for longer than fifteen minutes unless you smother yourself in sunblock with a rating of '2000', which is probably just as well because there are marauding bands of displaced city dwellers looking to take what you have got, and I don't just mean the sunblock. Better to lock yourself in at night and maybe daytime too.

Living on what is left of the surface will be no cakewalk. Ecosystems contained under glass shields are still very much in the trial stages. Billions of dollars are being poured into space research, but space is a long way from here, and from pictures sent back of our sister planet Mars, unless we are in the market for red rocks and dust, there is not much hope coming out of the research at all.

In the meantime, billions of dollars are being spent on the war to decide whose god will ultimately save us. Salvation is in our own hands, yet we do not seem to have the mind set to realize it

I woke up this morning, still holding what I see a the glimmer of hope that life will improve, but as days pass, the glimmer is like the expectation of watching a forest burn in the belief that, when the flames are extinguished, it will immediately transform into the lush green that it was just before fire took a hold.

Home Economics - Lesson One

Scenario

A husband and wife are doing their grocery shopping.

The man picks up a case of beer and sticks in into the shopping cart.

'What do you think you're doing?' asks the wife.

'They're on sale, only $10.00 for 24 cans', he says.

'Put them back. We can't afford it,' says the wife and they carry on shopping...

A few aisles later the woman picks up a $20.00 jar of face cream and sticks it into the cart.

'Whoa, what do you think you're doing?' asks the man.

'It's my face cream. It makes me look beautiful,' she says.

The man replies...'SO DOES 24 CANS OF BEER, AND IT'S HALF THE PRICE!'

Lesson learned

The introductory letter from the lawyer handling the subsequent divorce costs way in excess of the beer AND face cream combined..

Thought of the day

Those who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it!
Chinese proverb

All Points Of The Compass..

North

Polar Bears are still in trouble as their world melts away. It is known that when the top predator disappears, the rest of the food chain goes West too.

The warmer temperatures have resulted in faster thawing, and some places have been in danger of washing away. In response to this, a whole town was evacuated South until their hometown conditions improved. The people were flown out in military Hercules transport planes and anything else that would fly. Two days later, the threat had subsided and the people are being flown back. The whole operation must have cost a great deal, emergency bedding and food supplies having been appropriated in the temporary housing. However, the Hercules transports will not be used for the trip back. They can only be used in emergencies, and getting these displaced people back is not considered an emergency.

So what the hell is it?

East

Some Quebecois seem intent on driving a wedge between their province and adjoining Canada. There has been tension between Quebec and Canada for a while, and now it has hit the Ottawa buses. The extremists say that bus drivers should be perfectly bi-lingual. When asked if they ever talk to bus drivers, they all say 'no'. So does it make any difference if they can speak French, or English for that matter? As long as they know the route, stopping where they should and drive safely, who cares?

Further East, the Maritimes have flooding problems too but they are used to living under indifferent conditions. The most important item on the agenda is keeping the gains from mineral rights to themselves.

West

Highway 401 is being extended from Windsor, Ontario to the US border. It will take five years to complete, and will be the biggest road project Ontario has ever seen, as it involves tunnelling. The way gas prices are rising, it will be interesting to see who uses the completed section five years hence.

The oil producers in Alberta screwed up recently as a large flight of ducks landed on a toxic lake, quickly succumbing the to effects of waste from extracting oil from the oil sands. Apparently, the oil companies forgot to set up devices that would normally scare birds away. What has surprised people, I think, is the speed at which perfectly healthy ducks died. The oil sands industry has come under scrutiny re the effects on the environment lately, and I have a feeling that scrutiny will become a whole lot more intense now.

South

The people south of me are in all kinds of trouble. The country is in recession, the incumbent President is on his way out, but his legacy will live on for years. The pretenders to the 'crown' are slugging it out among themselves now, but one has to feel sorry for the one who gets elected. The worst is that whatever happens to the south will have huge repercussions in Canada.

Canadians have a tough enough time working together when everything is looking like a well oiled machine.

And Beyond..

Don't expect sympathy from me. Now is not a good time..

How Can People Believe That Anybody Cares When They Live In A Society Where The Only 'god' Is Money?

The paper stuff or coins are not what is revered. It all comes down to the 'over the top' possibilities which the possession of money allows.

I have watched TV programs where..

• parents are paying out for plastic surgery on teenagers. Not reconstructive surgery either.
• people try to put back aging by as many years as they can through plastic surgery
• people go to huge lengths to plan weddings etc. In one case, almost an entire small castle was lit with candles.
• people buy up cheap properties ideal for those who do not have much cash, and then renovate them to the point where only somebody with huge money can afford to buy them.
• people trade currency as a commodity.

Reality TV? Good for sponsors maybe because they hope to get money from the constant advertising. How do they get it? Have you watched 'Reality' TV? How real do you think any of it is? Real or just sensationalist, it certainly panders to those who like to peep through the keyhole at what only the butler might otherwise have seen.

There was a time when, if you could see it, it was real. Do you remember those days?

Israel Is So Desperate For Housing..

.. that eleven hundred new homes are going to be built in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. The country absolutely can't do without them, and it is just unfortunate that the move will annoy the Palestinians and all of the other countries involved in getting a peace deal together. The housing situation is so desperate that the decision to build can't be reversed, a decision taken back in 1999.

Hello? That decision was made in 1999!! That's eight to nine years as the crow flies, and now you pick this time to start construction as other nations are trying to establish peace for you people that may just last?

Pardon me for thinking that you are not looking for peace at all. While we all sympathize with what happened to your people over the ages, there are limits, ya know. How about working with others who are taking the time and trouble to overcome the problems of the Middle East?  

Out Of The Blue? I Think Not..

Kick up enough sand, and a sandstorm will follow. Kick up enough snow, and a snowstorm will follow. Kick up enough water, and a rainstorm will follow.

Do you see a pattern emerging here?

That's right. Kick up enough of anything, and a storm will surely follow..

How Good Am I, Says I..

Personal taste is just what it says it is. PERSONAL. Your personal taste may not be to everybody's taste, and it does not put everybody else's taste into second class. Some people have a better sense of color and co-ordination than others, so how do you rate yourself? if you were to enter into a competition with others, do you think that your house decor or fashion sense would stand out from the crowd for all of the right reasons? Do you think that everybody should have the same taste as you?

Dining out with a group of friends or associates is always difficult, especially if you are having to organize it. Personal food tastes for ALL of the dining party have to be accommodated, so it is important to find out if there is a finicky eater amongst you, or maybe a vegetarian or Vegan. Do you always take the time to find out what everybody likes, or do you just book in at your favorite eating hole, assuming that because you like it, everybody will have to like it or that's just too bad? Have you ever looked across at what one of the party has ordered, and then proclaimed publicly "Yuck, that looks awful. How could you eat that stuff"? Do you feel comfortable watching one of the party pick at something because their needs were dismissed under the 'well you can't please everybody' maxim?

Do you see friends as equals, or do you covertly patronize them? How good a friend are you? Do you willingly give up your time for others? Having done so, do you then moan to others about having done it? When you help somebody, do you ask how they want you to help, or do you just do what you think is right regardless of the thoughts or feelings of the person you are helping? Do you get upset if they tell you that you are not doing it the way they want it done, and then just stalk off?

Looking beyond the instinctive reaction to go into denial, how much effort do you truly put into being a friend? If you don't honestly put much effort in, or you moan to others about it, then why do you expect anybody to be a good friend to you? If you want others to think good of you, give them a good reason so to do. It is not enough that you think that you are the 'cat's whiskers'. Remember that what you see of yourself is only personal perception.

Nobody wants to know a person who is always negative, always denigrating everything that anybody else is or has? Nobody wants a friend who always appears to be talking behind the backs of others, and you can understand this too because there is a very good chance that the friend talks behind your back.

They say that what goes around comes around. So what is coming at you? And where do you think that it started? By the time that the cock crows, will you have denied yourself thrice?

Treat others the way you would like to be treated and do it regardless of race, color, creed or income.. yours or theirs.. 

It's All Too Easy To Scoff..

Omar Osama Bin Laden wants to be a Peace Envoy between Al Qaeda and the West. He maintains that his father, the notorious Osama Bin Laden, wants a truce. To bring some publicity to his cause, he has decided to ride across North Africa on horseback, accompanied by his British born wife. To the right is a picture of the two of them doing a sterling job within sight of the Giza pyramids.

OK. Somebody needs to take up the position of Peace Envoy, so why not young Omar? And Daddy Bin Laden must be really sick of being in hiding all of this time. Lets face it, he can't even book into a cheap motel for a night without the chance of being captured and then put through the fun questioning technique of 'water boarding'.

Now some of you will think that anything is too good for the guy, BUT the alternative is a constant state of urban war somewhere.

The 'no way, not until hell freezes over' has to come to an end at some point in time or none of us will ever be safe again. The postulating by both sides has to stop.

Instead of voting 'no way', let us all be sensible about everything and try to work out a plan whereby all people get a chance to live and work without the threat of being blown to pieces. We can all start by looking into what the other side thinks, and then educate the people who have it all wrong about us. We can also quit provoking each other because, quite frankly, it is getting us all nothing except a fast track to the local cemetery.

How about it, people?   

Cruel Irony..

Bobby Fischer died on Thursday, January 17, at his home in Reykjavik, Iceland. He was 64 years old.

Bobby Fischer was a bright kind of guy. By the age of 14, he was US Chess Champion and he brought the World Chess Championship title to the US during 1972 after beating Boris Spassky in one of the more peaceful Cold War face offs.

He was also an outspoken critic of his native country to the point where he denounced his US citizenship, becoming a citizen of Iceland instead. When the US administration talked of the 'Axis of Evil', he talked of the 'Allies of Evil', those being the countries which fully supported the present troubles in the Middle East. Was he wrong in what he said? Well, if you look at some facts, you may find yourself agreeing with him.

Allegedly, Bush and his playmates had a plan in the making to invade Iraq BEFORE the events of September 11, 2001. Bearing in mind that it is hardly de rigueur to invade a sovereign country with no pretext, it must have been seen as the biggest stroke of luck that the Twin Tower attack took place. If ever there was a reason to wage war on a country, this had to be it. Of course, Iraq and Saddam Hussein were not responsible for September 11, but hey, who cares! Bush and Co didn't like the guy anyway.

So Bush commands the US military to charge into Iraq, using 'Shock an Awe' tactics. This is similar to Hitler's Blitzkrieg except that the only shock and awe about it all is the way in which Iraqi civilians and US/Allied military personnel were and still are dying like flies.

Having brought down Saddam Hussein and his evil government, it became clearly obvious to all that Bush and Co had no follow up strategy in Iraq other than to instruct Hallliburton, a company in which some members of the US administration may or may not have a vested interest, to safeguard and maintain oil supplies out of Iraq.

What of finding the real culprits behind September 11? We were told that the Al Qaeda leader was hanging out in Afghanistan, but the US needed soldiers for the Iraq invasion so, Canada and one or two other countries were left holding the Afghan baby. It must be noted that in past years, the Canadian military has been a non-aggressive peace keeping force. The change in function has not impressed Canadians a whole bunch.

The Middle East crisis predates anything that ever happened to the Twin Towers. The biggest problem was the way the state of Israel was created. Many Jews had migrated to Palestine because of persecution by the people of other nations. After World War II, the major Western powers elected to form a Jewish state but shuffled the responsibility onto the United Nations who gotten it all wrong by allocating more land to the new state than would be left for the Arabs whose homeland Palestine was.

Needless to say, the United Nations forced the plan through with the promise of aid and full military backing from the US, Britain and France. And here lies the overriding problem. In order that we can preserve our economic interests abroad, we feel that it is our duty to enforce our ways on people who neither understand or want them. One has to note that any country lacking in resources wanted by the West, or that doesn't pose a threat by the spreading of communism, is left completely alone.

The US is not alone in acts of International vandalism. Britain has left messes behind it after pulling out of territory previously governed as part of the British Empire. Pakistan is a good case in point, where the British supported one faction until such time as they were ready to pull out. At this point, they changed allegiances. leaving Pakistan in political turmoil, a state from which the country has never really fully recovered.

We have seen the same after the fall of the Soviet Union, none more so than in the former state of Yugoslavia which completely fell apart, former hostilities between Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia rising like the blast from Krakatoa.

Until we stop forcing our ways onto others, there will always be problems.

It is said that Bobby Fischer had his fair share of idiosyncrasies, and it is true that his chosen lifestyle was somewhat reclusive, but he was a man who had his eyes open, and he looked beyond the 'national' emotion that seems to grab some.

The West is looking for ways to bring peace to the Middle East, but Bush and Co will not be the ones to do it, especially as they are trying their level best to get the world and his dog to turn on Iran. Why Iran? Well, busting Iraq apart did no good at all, Iran is close by and it would be relatively easy to move troops there.

Here is a quote from somebody famous...

"No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it".

The author of the quote was none other than the great problem solver himself, Albert Einstein.

A Modern Parable..

A Japanese company ( Toyota ) and an American company (General Motors) decided to have a canoe race on the Missouri River. Both teams practiced long and hard to reach their peak performance before the race. On the big day, the Japanese won by a mile.

The Americans, very discouraged and depressed, decided to investigate the reason for the crushing defeat. A management team made up of senior management was formed to investigate and recommend appropriate action. Their conclusion was the Japanese had 8 people rowing and 1 person steering, while the American team had 8 people steering and 1 person rowing.

Feeling a deeper study was in order, American management hired a consulting company and paid them a large amount of money for a second opinion. They advised, of course, that too many people were steering the boat, while not enough people were rowing.Not sure of how to utilize that information, but wanting to prevent another loss to the Japanese, the rowing team's management structure was totally reorganized to 4 steering supervisors, 3 area steering superintendents and 1 assistant superintendent steering manager.

They also implemented a new performance system that would give the 1 person rowing the boat greater incentive to work harder. It was called the 'Rowing Team Quality First Program,' with meetings, dinners and free pens for the rower. There was discussion of getting new paddles, canoes and other equipment, extra vacation days for practices and bonuses.

The next year the Japanese won by two miles. Humiliated, the American management laid off the rower for poor performance, halted development of a new canoe, sold the paddles, and canceled all capital investments for new equipment. The money saved was distributed to the Senior Executives as bonuses and the next year's racing team was out-sourced to India .

Sadly, The End.

Here's something else to think about: Ford has spent the last thirty years moving all its factories out of the US , claiming they can't make money paying American wages.TOYOTA has spent the last thirty years building more than a dozen plants inside the US . The last quarter's results: TOYOTA makes 4 billion in profits while Ford racked up 9 billion in losses. Ford folks are still scratching their heads.

IF THIS WEREN'T SO TRUE, IT MIGHT BE FUNNY NEWS FLASH

Why I Shouldn't Like You..

As an English Brit, I was brought up with many concepts of others, some of which dated back centuries. Let me tell you now that I do NOT discriminate at all. What I was taught, and what I have learned are two very different animals.

'Never trust the Welsh' came from a diary written by Bishop Gerault of Monmouth, who toured Wales recruiting for the Holy Wars way back in history. He had little good to say about them other than they were savages who could fight well.

The truth is that Welsh people are an ok bunch, and fiercely proud of being Welsh. I have never had a problem with them, so why the continued discrimination?

Scots came in for the same kind of bad press, the Romans having built a wall to stop the savages from roaming south. It didn't stop the English enlisting the help of Lowland Scots in the defeat and massacre of the Highland Scots at Culloden Moor, 1746.

Scotland has produced more than its fair share of very smart people, writers, inventors etc, and one has to admire anybody who can write and invent or have enough imagination in a country as wet and grey as Scotland can be. Like the Welsh, they are fiercely proud of their nation and rightly so. The Scots I know personally are great people, so why the continued discrimination?

Not all Scots and Welsh people are amenable to the English, and they have good reason in my opinion. I took the time to find out for myself what these people were really like, because I couldn't understand the inbuilt dislike that so many English showed. After all, I had a Welsh mother and Scottish grandfather, and they were ok..

Nations across the sea also had honourable mentions.

The French had been traditional enemies for centuries, despite the fact that England owed more to the Normans than anybody else. But the Normans weren't really Gallic at all. They were actually Norsemen who had taken up living in North France. The worst is that the French eat frogs, snails and cheese which smells like old socks, and didn't have proper toilets for the longest time.

Well, hello!! How much worse can frogs, snails and 'old sock' cheese be when compared to Black Pudding and well matured Stilton cheese? Proper toilets didn't see the light of day for a while in England either unless one was 'bloody well off'!! It was a trip out to the end of the back yard in all weather for most Brits, and what was concealed in many a 'backhouse' could not be considered a proper toilet regardless of how far one's imagination stretched.

Germans were and still are a dour bunch who eat Sauerkraut and weird sausages with a very tough skin. They strut around like they own the place and start wars.

Whoa up. That's the Queens family heritage you are talking about. They weren't always called the Windsor's, ya know!! The Brits have strutted every continent on the face of the planet in a style which indicated to natives that they now owned the place. Brits may not have started every war, but they made sure that they had top billing in as many as they could. And anybody who has sampled a great British pickled onion will know the true meaning of sour.

The Spanish eat greasy food, ugly fish and everything tastes of garlic.

This is what comes of the sister of King Philip II of Spain annoying Henry VIII, and the unwillingness of the Spanish to hand over Aztec and Inca gold on demand to the pet pirates employed by Elizabeth I of England. Regarding greasy food, the Brits are champions coming in at first place with the Great British fry up and 'fish and chips', over which one smothers 'red' or 'brown' sauce (tomato ketchup and/or spiced sauce).

Italians can't control their emotions and spend their leisure time picking pockets and offering 'protection' to small business.

Were it not for 'Italians', we would still be living in caves, washing in cold water, and would have no idea what to do with ice cream and a Cadbury Flake. Italy is just brimming with culture, and they have a flair for life that wet and dreary Brits couldn't muster if their lives depended upon it. What is more, Sicilians are not Italian, and it is a brave, 'wannabe dead' Brit who pushes the point. We are just plain jealous. 

As for the rest of you, you must have been too far away or just plain boring to even deserve a mention, but I have heard of fairly gross behaviour by a good many of you. Well, at least we have something in common, and when we finally meet, there will be much to talk over.

Black Pudding? You can use any farmyard animal blood almost, and what you do is add filler like meat, fat, barley, whatever with the blood and you cook it until it is in a state where it can congeal when cooled. Nice, eh!! Want some?

Public Roads?

'Public' roads were not 'invented' for the public. They were not painstakingly funded and constructed by governments such that you or I could easily transport our chickens to market, or make it easier for us to paddle in the sea for a week.

The picture to the right is of a Roman road in Britain. It is now locally known as Blackstone Edge. The Romans would not have quarried the stone or laid any of it, but they would most certainly have overseen construction. They would not have used slave labour either. That would have been far too dangerous. The Romans left Britain around AD 43, and this road is a tribute to their knowledge and ability. You have to wonder how they cajoled the locals into doing this work.

For the public good? Maybe so, but it also enabled them to move troops around quickly if some of the population ever became restless. Unfortunately for the Romans, roads were not enough, resourceful Brits removing the cobbles to use as building materials for small domiciles, hence the lack of Roman roads remaining. They did the same to Hadrian's Wall, it being more important to keep warm in winter than stop marauding bands of Scots as the Romans had endeavoured to do.

The technology was not completely lost, and the Brits re-introduced cobbles later in their history. Cobbles, as pretty as they look are not ideal for road construction, being difficult to walk over in anything but dry conditions for humans and horses.

The breakthrough for transporting heavy stuff and men came with canals. The Industrial Revolution made possible chattels of war made from iron and steel, and the only way these things were ever going to be transported around the land was by using man made rivers, better known as canals. Yes, I know that commercial goods were the main loads carried, but make no mistake here. The primary use would have been to move military stuff.

Canals would have lasted longer had it not been for the adaptation of horse drawn, wooden railroads, to iron rails and the iron horse. However, both means of transport had a major drawback: the incline. Canals needed 'slow to operate' locks to get over obstacles, and railroads were dogged with iron to iron contact between wheel and rail, not good in wet or icy conditions, requiring the construction of cuttings and tunnels in a bid to get over the lack of climbing ability.

The invention of rubber tires, the steam/internal combustion engine and tarmac changed everything. They gave governments what they needed most, a reliable and easy way to move the military around while convincing the people to build them in the belief that it was for all good reasons like moving produce from one place to another.

Germany is a prime example of this. Hitler commissioned the 'Autobahn' system primarily to facilitate the movement of the military. Constructed in the 1930's, much of the system was so well laid down that it didn't need repairing for decades. This is in stark contrast to highways built in Britain during the 1960's and since, which have required constant repairs, sometimes only weeks after opening.

In fairness, roads in Europe and North America have been used more for commercial good than anything else, and we can be excused for forgetting the original purpose. So, what do you make of the picture below? It is a highway in a country where private vehicle ownership is virtually non-existent, where the movement of commercial goods is virtually non-existent by virtue of the fact that most of the people can't afford anything.

Remove the two vehicles and the cyclist, and what you are looking at here is a temporary airstrip or a road designed for moving either very large vehicles or masses of smaller ones packed with 'military'.

This is a highway near Pyongyang, North Korea. Imagine spending so much on a road which the public do not use. What were they thinking? Maybe something along the same lines as the Romans, almost 2000 years ago?

Job Dedication..

The CIA had an opening for an assassin. After all the background checks, interviews and testing were done there were 3 finalists, two men and a woman.

For the final test, the CIA agents took one of the men to a large metal door and handed him a gun.

"We must know that you will follow your instructions no matter what the circumstances. Inside the room you will find your wife sitting in a chair. Kill Her!!!"

"The man said, "You can't be serious, I could never shoot my wife"
The agent said, "Then you're not the right man for this job. Take your wife and go home."

The second man was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about 5 minutes.The man came out with tears in his eyes, "I tried, but I can't kill my wife."

The agent said, "You don't have what it takes. Take your wife and go home."

Finally, it was the woman's turn. She was given the same instructions, to kill her husband. She took the gun and went into the room. Shots were heard, one after another. Then, they heard screaming, crashing, and banging on the walls.

After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood the woman. She wiped the sweat from her brow.

"This gun is loaded with blanks" she said. "I had to beat him to death with the chair."

THE BOTTLE OF WINE..

For all of us who are married, were married, wish you were married, or wish you weren't married, this is something to smile about the next time you see a bottle of wine:

Sally was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road.

As the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo woman if she would like a ride. With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.

Resuming the journey, Sally tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with the Navajo woman. The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Sally.

"What in bag?" asked the old woman.
Sally looked down at the brown bag and said, "It's a bottle of wine. I got it for my husband."

The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two. Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said:

"Good trade....."

And Still There Are Some Who Maintain That Spelling Is Not Important..

Deer Sir,
I waunt to apply for the secritary job what I saw in the paper. I can Type real quik wit one finggar and do sum a counting.
I think I am good on the phone and no I am a pepole person,  Pepole really seam to respond to me well.
I´m lookin for a Jobb as a secritary but it musent be to complicaited.
I no my spelling is not to good but find that I Offen can get a job thru my persinalety.  My salerery is open so we can discus wat you want to pay me and wat you think that I am werth,
I can start imeditely.  Thank you in advanse fore yore anser. .
hopifuly Yore best aplicant so farr.
Sinseerly,
Peggy May Starlings
PS : Because my resimay is a bit short - below is a pickture of me taken at my last jobb.