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Grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked anyway, the good fortune to run into the ones I do and the eyesight to tell the difference.

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A sideways look at life by an Irish Grandad

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The Theory of Relativity

Head Rambles Posted on 27th May 2022 by Grandad27th May 2022 8

Ben Dhonau posted an interesting comment on my little brainfart yesterday:

Cop yourself on: the dangers of accumulation in radon in confined spaces, especially houses, have been proved, known about, and publicized for many decades. If you want to ignore the risk that’s your lookout, but these paranoid conspiracy theories of yours are pretty silly. In incidentally it would cost about €50 to find out whether or not you have a problem.

I say it’s interesting as it goes to the very heart of what I was trying to say.

“Cop yourself on“. I’m not sure of the message here. I would consider myself to be as copped on as most. If anything I’m frequently too copped on.

“the dangers of accumulation in radon in confined spaces, especially houses, have been proved, known about, and publicized for many decades“. This is indeed true to a point. The subject of Radon gas has indeed cropped up over the decades and I am well aware that it is caused by the decay of Uranium which occurs naturally in the rocks we call home. However, Ben makes his first critical error here when he talks about the dangers being proved. The dangers are theorised at best, and theory is not proof. The best they can say is that there is radiation from Radon gas and radiation causes cancers, ergo Radon causes cancers. Does that take into account the levels of radiation involved? Their claim of 350 deaths a year is risable nonsense as it is purely a number on a spreadsheet calculated using various formulas.

“If you want to ignore the risk that’s your lookout” That is true and is the point I am making. I am being presented with a theoretical [and miniscule] fear and I am choosing to ignore it. Life is crammed with risks from birth to death. My own house is a deathtrap if I were to worry about risk all the time. There are sharp knives, glass, flammable materials, stairs, numerous poisons and mains electricity everywhere. I never ignore risk; I just take appropriate precautions. The risk from Radon is so small [even though I’m apparently in a Red Zone] just I just think precautions are unnecessary, especially as it would cost a couple of thousand to just potentially reduce an already minimal risk.

“but these paranoid conspiracy theories of yours are pretty silly.” There is nothing paranoid nor theoretical there. The panic induced into the populace by fear of “second hand smoke” and Covid-19 is fact not theory: Just ask anyone whose business has gone to the wall as a result of either. I never said there was a conspiracy. You may have taken that implication but I was suggesting as fact that there have just been a constant string of events which caused fear in the population.

Life is full of risks. I have heard it said that the most dangerous place you can possibly be is your own kitchen, and I would well believe it. The key factor though is relative risk. There is a risk a knife may slip and slice a vein or artery but while that risk indeed exists, it is relatively minimal [I have lived with kitchens for well over seventy years and it hasn’t happened yet].

We live in a risk averse society which is building up serious consequences for the future. I dread to think what adult life will be like for those kids who are brought up in an atmosphere of risk avoidance. Kids should be taught about risks and taught which are seriously dangerous and which aren’t.

“incidentally it would cost about €50 to find out whether or not you have a problem.” Why on earth would I spend €50 to see if I have a problem when I know that problem probably exists and where I have no intention of lashing out a couple of grand to mitigate a minimal risk?

It’s all relative.

 
Posted in Health, Rambles | 8 Replies

Breathing the fresh mountain air

Head Rambles Posted on 26th May 2022 by Grandad26th May 2022 8

I really have to admire their ingenuity.

Their first attempt was many years ago when they persuaded the world that smoking a single cigarette would cause instant death from cancer.

Then they broadened their scope by declaring that merely passing a smoker in the open air meant instant and excruciating death. That one really worked and they realised that yes, it is possible to scare the shite out of an entire population. They were on a roll.

Next they tried food, alcohol, salt, fat and God knows what else, but the Plain People of Ireland were getting tired of this instant death lark and the vast majority did the sensible thing and ignored them.

They decided to switch tack. If people are tired of predictions of cancer then try something else. A Virus! Yes, that worked perfectly and the Plain People were terrified again.

And along came Monkeypox, but people just yawned and declared they had had enough of viruses. Time to change tack again.

Their latest claim is that the ground we live on is killing us. They did try this one before with little effect so they are bumping up their figures and adding 170,000 homes to the list of death traps where Radon will surely kill us. And if you smoke and breath Radon then you are truly fucked. In fact you are so fucked that you were probably dead before you were born.

They have stuck up an interactive map which of course doesn’t work. This of course convinces people that if they could only see the map that they would be in a Radiation Hazard Death Zone. Maybe they’ll get around to fixing the map but the damage [hopefully] will be done by then. I’m not going to panic as I know I’m in a high risk area [lots of lovely Granite under me] which just adds a bit of zest to life

So if I have to live long and prosper I have to give up smoking [and so will Herself], stop eating, wear a mask and keep washing my hands and now I have to fork out a couple of grand to take Radon out of the air and pump it … into the air. Or stop breathing?

Fuck it. I’ll take my chances.

 
Posted in Health, Smoking, The Nanny State | 8 Replies

Meh

Head Rambles Posted on 25th May 2022 by Grandad25th May 2022 3

Fun and games here at Rambles Manor.

Most of my sites are, well…… fucked.

You probably won’t notice anything unless you try to edit a page or post a new one on one of my little clutch of fledglings, in which case you’ll see the problem – a blank page.

It took me a few hours just to get this scribble up. As for Anna Raccoon… it’ll have to wait.

The reason behind all this chaos is simple. There is a new version of WordPress out last night which is giving me grief in spades. And resorting back to the older version doesn’t seem to work either.

I found a fix, but it means going through every site so I’ll be busy for a while.

Hey ho and back to the engine room………….

 
Posted in Rambles | 3 Replies

Ignoring injunctions

Head Rambles Posted on 24th May 2022 by Grandad24th May 2022 7

An email landed in my Inbox yesterday.

This in turn landed a somewhat onerous task on my lap.

As some of you may be aware, I had the privilege of restoring Anna Raccoon’s site a while back. This involved combining multiple files from multiple sources into one coherent form. It was reasonably successful and I would estimate that I got the vast majority back in readable form.

As websites go, it’s a quiet little backwater with visitors in the double figures each day. It’s not the busiest site in my little nest but it’s not the quietest either. I’m glad that people are reading it and that Anna’s work still lives.

The email yesterday was from some legal crowd in the UK and was about Anna Raccoon.

It appears that some nasty little troll has been up in court, or rather one of his victims; I’m not quite sure which. Anyhows an injunction has been obtained and all the Troll’s work has to be removed. And that’s where Anna becomes involved as he was somewhat active on her site.

The problem is simple. Or rather it’s very complicated, depending on which way you look at it.

The simple view is to go in and delete all the Troll’s comments.

The complicated view is that there are thousands of files where each has to be searched and paragraphs of coding removed without disturbing the surrounding code, as comments [contrary to appearance] are now actually embedded in each post.

On the other hand, I have a deep antipathy towards Trolls and hate to see them get away with anything. I have a nasty feeling my conscience is getting the better of me.

This is going to take awhile as our Troll friend was prolific in the extreme.

I’ll be back.

 
Posted in Anna Raccoon, Law | 7 Replies

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