Volunteer work

A bit of news today about Brown being keen for teenagers to have completed 50 hours of voluntary work before the age of 19.

I'm not against it, it sounds a good idea. Unfortunately some parts of the press have connected "compulsory" and "voluntary work" in their headlines. This shows how hard it is to do anything right when the chips are very much down as leader.

The headlines did make me smile, bought back memories of teachers at school "right I need 3 volunteers, you, you and you".

Book read: Trafalgar the biography of a battle by Roy Adkins

I always feel I do not read enough history, and I was lent this book. I had tried reading other books around this era (Napoleon, and the Great Game) and this book describes the battle of Trafalgar where the Spanish and French combined fleets were defeated.

It was a surprisingly emotional read, describing both the battle, some of the characters, and the death of Nelson. Although Nelson knew this was his last battle at sea the book gives the impression he knew he was not to return to England alive.

The author gives a detailed description drawn from various accounts of the battle. Some of the signals such as the famous "England expects" are described in detail. Nelson had wanted the signal to sound like a personal message so had wanted to have "confides" but the flags were too complex!

Life at sea was very brutal and conditions were harsh on board ship. However it gave some extra comforts as life back in England was also not good for the average person. The author uses a good technique of tracing the death of some of the participants years after the battle, their obituaries often made national news.

Mention also goes to Collingwood who stayed at sea to enforce the blockade of ports. He died some years later, but never set foot on land after the battle.

Health Checks for Over 40s

This was an interesting news story at the weekend. The NHS is to start to offer health checks for over 40s. When you think about it we do this for other areas of health (dentistry and eyesight). Both of these areas have far better early warning systems too (tootache and poor vision), whereas general health you wait for symptoms before going to see your doctor.

There was some doubt as to whether this would create a flood of new cases. Maybe initially but surely treating early symptoms is better than treating more established illnesses.

Of course this news story struggled to get much airtime, what with the Home Secretary getting the tax payer to pay for adult movies!

Tech Company Consolidation

Plenty of press about IBM's possible take over of Sun. I'm not sure what I think yet but I suppose my main feeling is that less competition would be a bad thing.

Sun have some good technologies of late, but spent too long at the end of last century and the beginning of this drifting. I can remember Solaris being taken off x86 and then coming back that must have lost customers. Although Java is successful they do not seem to have benefited that much from it - which is a real shame. Maybe the success serverside was not their original intention for it as it struggles as a browser based technology.

The hardware business probably does well although they seem to have cut prices to stay in the game. The open source acquistions and the support of open source has yet to pay off - and again this is a real shame.

So what do IBM want, the thinking seems to be Java, some features of Solaris, with MySQL and other acquired technologies just a nice to have. Will have to wait and see whether the deal is made.

Listening: Test for Echo by Rush

A Rush album from 1996 that I've been listening too. I remember not liking it that much when it first came out - but it does have a few good tracks on it Test for echo, Half the world, Driven, and Resist.

Also from a band perspective this was the album before all the sad events for Peart and so happier times. It really goes back to their rock roots and keyboards are largely missing.

Film: Gran Torino by Clint Eastwood

Eastwood directs and plays a disgruntled war veteran in a US neighbourhood that has mainly migrant families. The film starts with the funeral of his wife, and the wake back at the family home. There we meet his family and the estrangement he feels from their modern way of life and taking of all their freedoms for granted.

The film then takes on the racial divide with him slowly getting to know his neighbours and their traditions, and the problems of street gangs by providing a begrudging role model for their wayward son who had attempted to steal his 1972 Gran Torino.

The film has a showdown ending with Eastwood taking on the problem gang in a sacrificial way to obtain justice after the gang had drive by shot at son's home.

Saw this at the cinema and it was a chance to pay homage to what will probably be his last film appearance.

A good well paced film 8/10.

Film: The Hustler by Robert Rossen

The classic 1961 film of Paul Newman playing Fast Eddie Felson as a pool hustler who meets his match in Minnesota Fats having had the beating of him. He loses everything and has to build his way back acquiring a love interest who is troubled by alcholism, and a manager who is looking to take his cut from his winnings.

A really good film, great dialogue and scenes - simple sets and settings, allowing the script and acting to shine through even more.

A 9/10 must have seen film.