Documentation

Can we make in mandatory for writers of man pages to include a simple example of the usage of the utility or function that is described, rather than just relying on the clarity of the description.

Eng-er-land

I am starting to wonder about my animosity to England banners as I've seen a couple of houses and pubs with the English flags on makeshift flagpoles, and it doesn't irritate me. It's only when they write England across the centre, or incorporate aspects of the football team's logo that it seems like bad taste.

Counting the calories

Some random ideas and facts, gathered together in one place because many of the diet sites don't like to confuse their clientelle with actual science or facts.

A gramme of fat contains 37 kJ of energy (9 kCal).
A gramme of sugar only contains 17kJ (4 kCal).

Lifting a kilogramme 1 metre uses 9.8 joules of energy. Working this out I calculated a man of average hight and average build will burn 1 gramme of fat every time he walks up stairs in an average house. Or to put it another way, 35 times to work off that Double Decker[1].

If you carry a double decker up a 2km climb, the energy absorbed eating the double decker will only compensate for the carrying of it.

There are two uses of the word calorie, one is an imperial unit of energy, the other is a measure of how much fat & carbohydrate you take in and expell. Confusingly a food calorie is worth 1000 scientific calories. Probably because the lowest common denominator get scared by scinetific terms like "kilo". Both are used interchangably on food packaging, so somthing that is there to sooth the nerves of a foolish minority, actually goes to further confuse the rest of us. I'll stick to the proper measurements in order to save confusion.

Obscure fact, Dr Pepper has fewer "calories" in it than pure Apple juice and about the same as pure Orange juice. True they are "empty" calories as Dr Pepper contains no protein or fibre. Luckily whole fruit has far fewer calories than chocolate bars or crisps, so maks healthy snack food.

So that'll be a Tomato juice please...

[1] That's the Cadbury's chocolate bar, not a large road vehicle.[2]

[2] That's humour not pedantry.

Chadridee

My original plans for this weekend have fallen through as I was unable to get time to speak to the people at Gillwell to clear up where I stood on the CRB situation.

So before I go out, I'll have some time to myself and update my blog. Yes I did make a whole month's worth of posts yesterday evening.

Had the latest Scouting email and was slightly embarassed to see the Scout Association ecouraging people to vote for it on the How To Give To Charity website.

There's a forum which is not very illumiating reading. Many Scouts and Guides post a one-off message about how great the Scout Association is. But sadly there have been one or two people who have posted some quite ignorant views.

A umber of myths are bandied about

• That Scouting and Guiding is Militaristic.


• That Scouting and Guiding has a lot of land and is therefore "rich"


• That Scouting and Guiding is not a worthy charitable cause.


• That Scouting and guiding is just a lesiure activity.

I wish Scouting was rich, but it is very much a cinderella charity, it's value not obvious to many. It's an image problem, and difficult to combat, because the answer to many of the points is either a long essaye no-one would have patience with, or the simply "No that's not correct." If the other three points were true I would give up tomorrow.

Many seem to think we're just having a jolly time. Which of course we are because without fun it's not Scouting. However if it is just fun, it ceases to have value and ceases to be Scouting.

Oh dear, whatever happened to taste.

Am I getting old or is football fever getting worse?

Sure there was hype over previous world cups- but right now 1 in 5 houses in my street have England banners hanging from the first floor windows. Was it always this bad and I just didn't notice? Or am I just being miserable.

Yesterday I was treated to rousing classical music of a "Last night of the proms" flavour, to find that it was drifting over from the Bradford Diosesean office. It's too much.

The news coverage is just symptomatic of broadcast news today, where a talking point will have a great deal of time devoted to it, even if there isn't much to say. I'm doubly glad Wayne Rooney has made a great recovery both because someone who was ill is now better and there won't be so much attention paid to his injury.

Doctor Who News

With 27 double sized Doctor Who episodes under her belt Billie is the longest serving Doctor Who companion since Janet Fielding, who played Tegan the Australian air hostess in the early 80s.

She's also beaten by Liz Sladen as Sarah Jane and narrowly by Katy Manning as Jo Grant.

Ach I'm so manly

I had a dripping tap, it got so irritating I went out and bought an adjustable spanner and some washers. The original washer was so perished, I managed to drain the cold water without opening any of the upstairs taps. I thought I hadn't turned the stop-tap off for a minute.

The job only took a few minutes, I was quite surprised at how easy it was.

But now the job is done, I've saved myself the scorn of a plumber and a little bit of money! And there's a great sense of achievement.

Me fixing the tap:



And here's a job I did earlier: