Not Exactly Rocket Science

Once again the North Koreans are showing the rest of the world that they are worthy of respect, by firing millions of dollars that they don't have into space, then exploding them into the sea ... thus proving that their missiles do occasionally get off the ground.

North Korean Rockets Often Explode ... And Not Always On Target.

Piped Down

Apparently Marks and Spencer that most venerable of UK shopping institutions, are to trial no background music in 300 of their stores.

Kylie Wasn't Listening To Chantelle's Requests ...

 

This, after research showed it to be amongst the top pet hates of people while shopping. Strangely, for a man who likes his peace and quiet, I am not so sure this will be a success.

The Last Voice Of One Nation

Well the people have spoken, a Prime Minister gambled and lost .... and now the rows and the inquests will commence. But even before those analysts pore over the result, there are some striking observations to be made:

1. Scotland and London are very different countries to the rest of the (dis) United Kingdom.
2. The result swung, not on the Tory areas, but in the Labour Party's former heartlands.
3. The relentlessly negative Remain campaign drove many into the out camp.
4. If you ignore the Scottish and London results, the vote to leave would have been more emphatic. 
5. We are a very divided and angry nation - half are upset and the other half are somewhat fearful.

EU Referendum - Disaster Or Providence. Only Time Will Tell.

Scotland will certainly demand another independence referendum based on its wholehearted (well 3/5ths to Remain, and 2/5ths to Brexit ... if that counts as wholehearted), vote to Remain, but how that vote goes may not be completely cut and dried. Oddly if the vote is to stay in the UK, then the Scottish Nationalist Party may regret the rush to call it, as it could end the question for decades.

Plastering Over The Facts

General Practitioners (Doctors), want to add to the sick note culture of the British (noticeably not the East Europeans or Asians who are replacing them in the workplace), by allowing 'self-certification for up to 14 days'. Now for those of you who are not familiar with the practices of UK employment, self certification is a practice, whereby anyone who tells their employer that they are 'too sick to work', does not have to go to their doctors for up to 7 calendar days to prove that they are actually ill.

How Doctors See Themselves ....

This can't directly be challenged by employers, although the number of such absences in a year can be. This replaced a system where by you went to the doctor for a sick note after a day or so of absence. Some employers fight back, by making employees ring an occupational nurse directly to explain that they are ill .... un-remarkably this produces a reduction in sick leave.

Black and White Outcomes

In Louisville USA (birth and burial place of the recently deceased Mohammed Ali), the Eastern and the Western parts of the city are divided by what is locally known as the "Ninth Street Divide," aka occasionally as 'the Berlin Wall'. On either side of this divide there are different races and different life outcomes.

The city as a whole is one of the few in the USA, where the school desegregation policies of the 1960's are still enforced (with a city wide 'schooling zone' which prevents white parents avoiding have black kids being bussed in), but despite this there are stark contrasts in the lives being led in the two sectors.

West and East Louisville