Only Humans

Leaving aside every bad trait that humans possess and exhibit, every negative aspect of our behaviours, our religious zealotry, political idiocy, our warmongering, our greed, our jealousies, duplicity, criminality and selfishness; none other than a human would create the follies, fancies, endearments and ingenious fripperies I show here. 

Some people step-aside from "normal" behaviour(s) to fulfil themselves, enrich their environment and by their acts of selfless betterment "lift" people around them. They may make people laugh, pick up litter, cut public grass, plant trees, hold doors for strangers, give up seats or give away money: anything is better than nothing as far as I'm concerned. Me, me, me must become us, us, then hopefully less of "us" (children) for the sake of our future survival on this planet; for we are truly now, "the elephant in the room".*

* A problem or difficult issue that is very obvious, but is ignored for the convenience or comfort of those involved. The root cause of the world's problems is too many people are being born (details here).

Man in the bin

Secret miniatures

Mini scenes

Mouse holes

Ron's place

Street art can lift your heart in many ways

Banksy changed a town

Kindness 1    Kindness 2    Kindness 3  

Amazing street art (43 pictures)  and 72 pictues and in South Africa

Public gardening

Public Gardening (in USA)

Good Deeds1    Good Deeds 2    Good Deeds 3

Word of the day - ELOCUTION

The word today is Elocution

Elocution is a noun and means the following:

- The art of public speaking with gesturing and good vocal delivery

- To speak publicly with care, clarity and emphasis where effective

Do not confuse elocution with erudition

Having good elocution does not mean you have good erudition

Without knowledge or great experience you are unlikely to be erudite

If you are able to do elocution you are said to be eloquent

If you need more start here, here or see what Wikipedia has to say.

There is an index of words of the day.

Word of the day - ERUDITE

The word today is Erudite

Erudite is an adjective and means the following:

- To have and to be able to show great knowledge or learning

- To show characteristics of extensive reading or learned instruction

- To have a depth of knowledge known only to few people

Do not confuse erudition with elocution 

Without knowledge or great experience you are unlikely to be erudite

Erudition is the act of proving how erudite you are to others

People may say you have great erudition if you impress them verbally

Being erudite is a relative term - eg 1-eyed in a room of blind people

If you need more start here, here or here to know when to use erudite.

There is an index of words of the day.

Lord FRANK FIELD M.P. - R.I.P.

I do not have respect for any current politician of any persuasion, either because I have not know them, or because of the simple fact that they are a (modern) politician.

There has of course been many UK politicians deserving of a virtuous eulogy, but sadly many warrant no more than a sterile resume of their life. Lord Frank Field, former M.P. and Labour Cabinet Minister was not such a person.

I first became aware of "Frank" with the introduction of televised parliament in the UK, when he was an M.P. advocating for the creation of a Pensions Reform Group, which he subsequently chaired. He came across as a plain-speaking, passionate and erudite man, for whom there seemed great respect in the chamber, such was his regard there. When Frank rose to speak there was usually very little "back-chat" and I admired his achievement of that with his calm and measured deliveries. 

Though he made it into a Labour cabinet and was later elevated to a Lordship, Frank remained steadfast in his lifelong lobbying for the betterment of the care and welfare of, dare we say it anymore, the common man. When Frank spoke I listened and was impressed, thus my personal remembrance here. Frank, R.I.P. and thank you for your service. Frank field frankfield

Lord Frank Field R.I P.

"Frank" (7th from left) amongst the 1997 Labour Cabinet

N.B. How many people can you recall from this photograph?
         I got Alistair "safe hands" Darling, (2nd from left)
         Gordon "posturing" Brown, (6th)
         Frank, (7th)
         David Blunkett (9th - only blind minister of state),
         Marjorie "Mo" Mowlem (10th humility + fame for N.I. peace talks)
         Peter "Mandy" Mandelson (11th contentious and good TV)

         Who the rest were I haven't a clue, such was their influence!

Here follow more information about Lord Frank Field, from SKY News, from the BBC, from someone who knew him and from Frank's own constituency page.

Truism about Train Drivers?

Striking train drivers and some on similar salaries are greedy.

You're angry? - You're passengers hate you!

Personal thought - UK train drivers are paid plenty of money and yet never stop expressing how entitled they feel. They are literally sitting comfortably for a skilled (though routine) job, and should get off their feathered arses and take another job if not happy with their current one. They think that by repeatedly guerrilla-targeting important travel times (hols, Xmas, sports, festivals, etc) they will somehow give more gravitas to their demand(s), but all they do is harden the feelings of the public (paying in many ways), toward them. As if to confirm this last point (in both ways), they are striking again, on a National holiday. 

Believe it or not, there is projected shortfall of trained drivers coming, probably explaining why they are so keen to raise their final salary now and thus their pension. To cover this the government is proposing teenagers to be allowed to drive trains.

Whilst I'm here, too many people overvalue their "contributions" to society and should always remember they have the freedom to leave one job to take another. They could even try a different "career", for when AI kicks in many will be redundant; think on you nurses, G.P's, doctors, consultants, solicitors, lawyers, diagnosticians, teachers......,  (Anyone in a knowledge retrieval type job.)

Truism (for leaders)

Followers can be the most destructive component of a leader’s influence.

Personal thought - The principles and ideologies of many leaders are ultimately denigrated or returned to a lower order of influence following the actions of followers transposed into zealots.

Zealots, extremists, fanatics - all alienate supporters, devotees, believers and members alike and true leaders have to be mindful of the diminution of their "public" franchise and the potency of their word(s).

There are many words written about the greatness of leaders, but not so much about their struggles with their own followers, whose visions/motives/ideology evolve and undermine those of their leader.

One simple example could be a leader doesn't like the colour green, so after various pathways of mutation, their zealots start shooting people with green eyes and painting foliage brown.

Trump has balls, but hers are bigger!

Wow, this Vietnamese woman really has some "cojones" but she's about to lose them, with her death sentence an' all.

Before I continue I have to admit absolute nothing, zero, nada, nil, nowt, bugger-all came to mind to write about today and I just can't be bothered with any efforts at all. I am lazy-boy numero uno today.

I will not condone what she has done to Vietnamese banking, but admit a sneaking admiration for her ability to "stick it to the man", for a 44 billion dollar fraud is perversely impressive; even Trump couldn't match this and he's good!

Anyway, here's the article and here is her fate.

Truong My Lan and her $44 billion

Dirty money is everywhere. $2Billion in Singapore.