Contractors in your House? Hints and Tips

During my working life as an engineer I have often had to deal with contractors and sub-contractors. These have ranged from from major international contractors to local builders and plumbers. Jobs have ranged from new chemical factories and oil platforms down to minor modifications.

In this same period of time, (being a married man) I have spent many happy hours/days and sometimes absolutely miserable ones, doing work about the house. This has included plumbing, drainage, joinery, brickwork, electrical wiring, central heating and almost every aspect of home modifications and repairs.

The combined experience of both commercial contracts and the problems of house modifications and repairs has enabled me to help friends with the problems of having contractors in their homes.

If you are having work done on your home, there is in principle, a contract in operation. The contractor will carry out work, for which you will pay him. However, both you and the contractor need to agree the amount of work entailed, and the amount of money to be paid. Usually a contractor will supply an estimate based on your discussions with him. This is not normally very helpful, because he may forget things that you mention, and you may have forgotten to tell him some things that are important. Plus the estimate may state something like ” To building 10 metres x 5 metres extension as per your instructions. – Estimate £15,000″. This is of no help to you because the final price could be £30.000, because it was only an estimate.

A more rigid contract is required so that both you and your contractor know exactly the extent of the work and the actual cost.

Type of contract.

Daywork.

This is where the contractor specifies an hourly rate for his men and you pay for the total man-hours spent times this rate. Materials and deliveries etc. are added at cost plus a percentage. Generally not a good system, because you have no idea how much the job will cost you. This is only used when the time required for part of a job, (such as excavations)  is unable to be accurately determined before commencement.

Fixed Price.

The best method  but requires a good amount of preliminary work by you. It should be remembered that a ‘fixed price’ only applies to a fixed amount of work. Too often customers change their mind about aspects of the work which can rapidly increase the cost of a ‘fixed price’ contract. Always ensure that you clearly itemise exactly what you want doing, where you want things fitted, what type of doors, (including number of hinges and which side they should open on.)

Changing something can cost more than fitting it in the first place, and fitting a door will normally cost more than the door itself. Once hinges and locks have been fitted, it is unlikely that the contractor will be able to reuse the doors again, and you will be charged extra for the doors plus fitting, and also for removing the hinges and locks from the original doors.

Positions of lights and electrical sockets should be specified, because relocating them once fitted can be quite expensive, and would be a legitimate extra on a fixed price contract..

Schedule of Rates.

Not really suitable for household contracts, although 40 years ago you could buy data books that gave the costs of any type of work carried out. (Schedule of Rates). Still used on commercial contracts.

General Hints

There is usually a degree of suspicion by householders of any contractors carrying out work for them.

This is partly due to having strangers within the household environment, partly to uncertainty as to the competence of the contractors, and partly due to the uncertainty of the final cost of the work.

It is clear therefore, that there can be a considerable amount of worry involved in having work carried out in the household.

Let us consider having strangers in the household. It is better for both parties if certain areas can be declared to be out of bounds to the contractor, but this could be a problem if the job entails rewiring the whole house, or installing a new central heating system. If possible remove all valuables and breakables from areas where work is to be carried out, or access required by the contractor. If these can be locked away somewhere all the better for both you and the contractor, as he cannot then be unfairly accused of breakages or stealing something that has just been mislaid.

Toilet & washing facilities will have to be provided for the contractor. If the householder is unhappy about the workmen using the house facilities, then the contractor will have to supply his own. However, his price will have to allow for these facilities.

Water & Electricity. These services will normally be supplied by the householder. It should be remembered that access to these must be available during the working hours of the contractor, even if the householder is not at home. If you are normally out during the working day, it may be advisable to have external water and power supplies fitted prior to the work commencing.

Children can be a major problem and worry for a contractor. He is unlikely to have included for a child-minder in his price, and he could legitimately claim extra for time lost due to the presence of children. A workplace can be a very dangerous place for children.

Access. There may be times when the contractor needs to be denied access to certain areas, i.e. the kitchen when preparing meals, possibly the bathroom and a child’s bedroom, at other times. Thought should be given to defining these times, and the contractor informed.

Storage. If storage facilities are available for contractors tools, equipment & materials, ensure that your own tools & equipment are not stored in the same place. The person clearing the contractors equipment may be unaware of which tools belong to the contractor, and remove all the tools etc.

Holiday Snaps & Memoirs. Remember that time spent showing workmen your holiday snaps, or discussing your wartime exploits, is time added to the job. The workmen get paid by the hour, and they get paid the same rate for looking at holiday snaps as for digging drains etc.. Which would you rather do ?

Clean up. It is the contractor’s responsibility to clean up after the work is completed.

Scams. There are millions of people around the world attempting to steal from the unwary. Many are involved in scams relating to work in and on houses. Never agree to have work done without a proper agreed price, in writing.
Avoid gangs who arrive in unidentified vans, with no proper identification. Many have no skills apart from ripping you off. Never pay for work claimed to be ‘extras’ unless agreed beforehand.
If you feel vulnerable always get a knowledgeable friend or neighbour to help out.
Generally it is better to get a known local builder or handyman. [ Even I got caught out a few years ago. I was going to replace the felt on my roof, when a gang came round and offered to do it, using my materials, for a reasonable price. When most of it had been completed, (under my watchful eye), I had to go out on an errand. When I arrived back the men had gone and the job was finished. However, my wife said they had had to fill in the gaps in the brickwork above the windows and requested a further £15.00, which my wife had paid. These gaps were the vent holes over the windows, which I had clear out again over the next two days.]

Payments.

1. Never pay contractors any money before work commences, a good contractor will not ever request that you do. You cannot be liable for work not carried out, or goods not supplied. However, if you agree a start date for work to commence and you later change your mind about having the work done, you will probably incur costs.
2. See BBC news item Builders Scam.
3. For a small contractor it may be reasonable to use Stage Payments to help his cash flow. This means that he will be paid for sections of the work that have been satisfactorily completed. This should be discussed with the contractor to determine the completion stages, however, avoid situations that would leave you with problems if he was unable to continue further. If fitting a central heating system was part of the contract, then the completion of the complete system to a fully operational state would be subject to a stage payment. The partial completion of the central heating system for (say 3 bedrooms) would not justify a stage payment. The complete decoration of a room would be OK for a stage payment.
4. It can be advantageous for you to purchase high price equipment if you have suitable storage available. This can save you money and help the cash-flow for small contractors. This only applies if you know exactly what you want, Light fittings, plugs and sockets, cookers, fridges, doors are typical items, but check sizes with the contractor before you buy them.

More to come on this post.

Author; Brian Williams

Plea to Programmers and Instruction Manual Writers.

Instructions: Open packet, Eat nuts.

On an  American Airlines packet of nuts.

Rather silly, because everybody knows this.  However, the main problem with the above is not that it is silly but that the writer has missed the most important part of the instructions, which is “How to open the packet”.

How many times have you seen crisps or peanuts flying in all directions, due to people struggling to open a packet.

I would imagine that a good proportion of the time spent by clean-up crews, is finding and removing peanuts and crisps from inaccessible places on the aircraft. This means that many $1,000s are wasted each year, and probably a few tons of peanuts and crisps are wasted.

All because of incompetent instructions.

The same type of silliness is endemic in the computer industry. From the classic Microsoft silliness of having to press the ‘Start’ button to ‘Stop’ the the computer, to far more serious lapses of intelligence that costs $millions every year.

Too many ‘technical writers’ assume that the reader knows as much about the subject as they do. Obviously this is silly, because if they did they wouldn’t need to read the instructions. As an engineer I have spent a lot of time over the years writing instructing manuals for all types of equipment.

Very early on in my career I determined that any instructions that I wrote should be understandable by my grandmother.  (Not literally as both my grandmothers died before I started work.)

Tips on writing instructions.

1. Know what you are writing about.
2. Assume that your reader does not know anything about handling or using the equipment or system.
3. Do not use abbreviations for anything unless there is clear information on the same page to explain the meaning.
4. Avoid using obscure (to the public) technical terms, it may seem clever to you but it brands you as a lousy technical writer.
5. Try and stay with a common vocabulary. Almost anything can be explained by using less than 500 commonly known words in any language.
6. None of the above mean that you have to treat the readers as idiots. That fact that you can’t understand your wife’s knitting pattern does not mean that you are an idiot. Give the same consideration to your readers.

Most computer related instruction manuals  contain parts that are mostly ‘gobbledegook’ ( a word or series of words that are meaningless) to the reader . Get your grand mother to check all your work for gobbledegook, because you won’t be able to recognize it yourself. Someone at the next desk to you may understand what you are trying to say, but real people won’t.

As a good guide to technical writing you should read the computer technical guides by David Welsh Pogue. A master at his subjects and a super sense of humour. No, he is not paying me for saying that, I just think he is the best technical writer on computers I have read, and it is pertinent to this posting. Just borrow one from the library to read irrespective of your particular computer preference.

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Many years ago I was urgently requested to handle the technical information department of a wire and cable making machinery company. The first few weeks were very hectic because they were months behind in their delivery of instruction manuals, and I was unfamiliar with the machinery. After about 6 weeks I started to get involved with the engineering departments to get familiar with the equipment, and to study the “standard” sections of the manuals that I had been sending out. I found that I could not reconcile the information in these “Standard” sections with what I had learned in the engineering and manufacturing departments.

I then had a meeting with the companies commissioning engineers to discuss my problems. I found that they could not make sense of the “standard” documentation either. Checking up later I found that some of these inaccurate “standard” documents had been issued over a period of 10 years without anyone, even clients, complaining about them.

Over the next few weeks I had to rewrite all the standard sections, and create graphics where I thought necessary.

It is clear therefore, that because no-one had complained over a period of 10 years,  nothing had been done about the problem.  $1000s must have been wasted over this 10 year period due to people having to work out for themselves how to operate equipment. Another problem here is that if people cannot understand a particular set of instructions, they tend to consider that it is their fault for being stupid.  In almost all cases it means that the writer of the instructions was incompetent.

How many times have you read the following or similar, in computer operating manuals, ” It is better if you spend a little time playing about with your computer”. Generally this means that the writer himself is totally confused and would rather you worked it out for yourself.

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A further problem I discovered was with translations. Translating technical subjects is full of pitfalls for the unwary. Is it a bolt or a set-screw? Is it a cog or a sprocket?  Having the correct definition makes it more likely that the translation will be correct. Sometimes it may be necessary to supply photographs or diagrams with the English text to enable the translator to supply the correct words.

In many cases I found it necessary to produce separate “Translatable English ” versions of operating instructions.

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From the WordPress Help Pages.

“If none of this make sense and you have someone to administrate your system for you, show the above to them and they should be able to figure it out.”

Maybe!!!!!!!!!! And what if I don’t?

WordPress writers do have an excuse, because they write these from the goodness of their hearts, and most of them have other jobs to do.

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If you find words in my web site that do not appear to be be sensible in none-English languages, please send information and I will try to re-word it.

Author – Brian Williams

Boil or Carbuncle?

1. Painful and throbbing from first day.
2. A head will be evident at the infection site on a boil.
3. Bursting the head on a boil will relieve the pain.
4. Bursting the Head will release pus from the centre of the boil
5. The pus leakage will be followed by blood leakage.
6. After bleeding stops, healing starts.
7. Penicillin, antibiotics will rapidly cure the problem if needed.
8. Boils may have multiple heads.

1. No throbbing or pain.
2. No head visible for a few days or even weeks.
3. Swelling in the general area.
4. Tapping on the head of the carbuncle when it forms gives a burning sensation.
5. When carbuncle bursts, pus leaks out around a central jelly-like core.
6. Leakage of pus and blood may continue for weeks or months.
7. Penicillin/antibiotics have no curative affect.
8. I have never had a multi-headed carbuncle.
9. The pus from a carbuncle has a distinctive smell (Stink).

Finally my mother told me to go our local chemist who had a very good reputation. After telling him the whole sad story, he said that he needed to check exactly what is was and then removed the bandages. On revealing the ‘boil’ he immediately said that it was not a boil, but a carbuncle.

He also said that it was easily treated!

He then went around to the back of the shop and returned a few minutes later with a small bottle containing lots of small grey pills.

It cost me 2 shillings (10 new pence). That included supplying his own bottle, the label, his time spent on examinations and profit.
He told me to take all the tablets according to the instructions, and to return when the swelling had gone down.

The following morning the swelling had reduced considerably, and by the third day all the swelling had gone, just leaving the original ‘boil’.

Re-examination by the chemist revealed a 1″ diameter open wound with 3/4″ diameter yellow core of Jelly like consistency, which he immediately dug out with some difficulty.

By the end of the week the only sign of the carbuncle was a small scar, which I still have.

What did I learn from our local chemist about carbuncles?

Most of the knowledge about carbuncles came from experiences in the two world wars. He did say that the ‘Multi-headed boil’ description was false and that carbuncles could be single or multi-headed. (I managed to work out why later.)

I have had many carbuncles over the years. One possible reason is that I am susceptible to them. The main reason is that in the early days I got them by being in the wrong place, which is old attics. During the First World War many British soldiers were fighting in old houses and other buildings, many of which were severely damaged. They were covered in the dust from attics and roofs. and quickly infected with boils and/or carbuncles. In the Second World War people in bomb damaged areas were infected with boils and/or carbuncles.

Before this carbuncles were not unknown, but were considered to be just another type of boil, the main difference being that in many cases the carbuncles proved to be fatal.

The first five times I got them after doing work in old attics. but these were rapidly cured without much bother by stannous oxide tablets. Since then I have been unable to obtain the necessary remedy and so have had to go through months of aggravation, changing dressings 2/3 times a day. My last one (about 8 years ago) lasted 16 months and cost me £100’s in dressings plus £100’s in subsidised antibiotics plus continual supplies of vitamin supplements.

Update 30th October 2011. My latest one, started late September 2010 (under my right arm) has now been with me for 13 months. This is probably the one that will kill me, due to my age.

Up date March 11th 2015. The one under my right arm is still with me (3 years and 5 months) One in my groin area has reactivated. At my last of 3 visits to ‘experts’ at local hospital 5-6 months ago, I was told that “….it doesn’t matter what you call it , you can only have antibiotics”. This from the senior consultant.

How to Identify a Carbuncle.

Simplest and quickest test is just to tap on it with your finger. If there is a sharp pain it is probably a boil. If it gives a burning sensation, similar to that caused by holding a cigarette end close to the skin, it is almost certainly a carbuncle.

Carbuncle: [L. carbunculus, dim. of carbo, a live coal, a carbuncle]

Source: Stedman’s Medical Spellchecker, © 2006 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

You would think that this would give a clue to the medical profession!!!

A boil is nearly always more painful than a carbuncle. This is one of the reasons for the ‘multi-headed boil’ problem. You can have a carbuncle for many days without realising it, but a boil makes its present felt immediately. A carbuncle can reach the bursting stage before you become aware of it. When a carbuncle bursts the infection gets smeared across the skin which then creates more ‘heads’. The human body creates a protective film around the site of a boil or carbuncle to prevent the infection spreading and to confine the ‘safety valve’ nature of it to one location. If any of the infected pus from a carbuncle is smeared outside this protected area, new carbuncles start. Contact with this pus can start infections in healthy people, as happened once with my wife. (Luckily for me, the cure was still available at this time.)

If the first infection head is properly ‘dressed’, further heads are prevented. Note; I was advised to do this by the chemist. I personally have never had a multi-headed carbuncle. I have had multi-headed boils.

A second identifier is that boils ‘throb’, carbuncles don’t, another reason why they get ignored.

A third identifier for carbuncles is the ‘core’, the yellow hard jelly like centre. In boils the yellow centre remains liquid and normally comes out first on bursting. In carbuncles the yellow centre remains until you physically extract it.

Treatment

The only effective treatment is no longer available in Britain.  I have had a prescription for 8 years that I have been unable to have made up despite trying many pharmacists, medical supply companies and even one of the companies that used to manufacture them. (They did not even have a record of ever having made them, even though I have an old empty bottle of theirs.)

The original treatment was a compound of  tin and tin oxide in tablet form.

Each tablet contains the following:-

• Tin Powder – 0.10625grammes
• Stannous Oxide – 0.01875 grammes

1. Day 1 – 16 tablets (4 + 4 + 4 + 4 )

2. Day 2 – 14 Tablets (4 + 4 + 3 + 3 )

3. Day 3 – 12 Tablets. (3 + 3 + 3 + 3 )

4. Day 4 – 10 Tablets. (3+ 3 +2 + 2 )

5. Day 5 – 8 Tablets. (2 + 2 + 2 + 2 )

6. Day 6 – 6 Tablets. (2 + 2 + 1 + 1 )

7. Days 7 /8/9 and 10 as Day 6

The bracketed numbers indicate the number of tablets to be taken at intervals over the day. It is always best to space them at 6 hour intervals, but it is not crucial.

Why the Cure has been missed by the medical profession.

• Manufactures started marking the the tablets   “For use against boils and carbuncles”, but they were totally ineffective  against boils. So much for the manufacturers ‘expertise’. Even today they still use the term “for Boils and Carbuncles” on commercial products. Tin and its oxide do not work on boils, antibiotics do not work on carbuncles.
• Doctors were using them for boils, found they did not work, therefore stopped prescribing them. Doctors did not know the differences between boils and carbuncles. It is possible that some doctor had diagnosed a carbuncle as a boil (because it only had a single head) and prescribed stannous oxide, found that it worked, and advised other doctors of this. Later it became obvious that it did not work on real boils and was discontinued.
  Having spent many hours over the years discussing carbuncles with members of the medical profession, including dermatologists, I have still not met one who knew the difference. Nor have I met one who had ever had a carbuncle.
• Doctors, like many people, generally only learn what they are taught, and what little I have found about carbuncles in medical publications has been very sketchy. Case studies are almost non-existent ( Who wants to read a case study on carbuncles? Therefore why should I do one?)  To be honest I’ve not managed to find one yet.

General.

The use of metallic oxides in medicine has received a lot of attention in recent years, particularly in regard to viral infections.

The fact that streptococcus (the claimed cause of boils and carbuncles) is unaffected by tin oxides, clearly indicates that carbuncles are not caused by streptococcus. (This from my experience that anti-streptococcus injections and pills had no effect on carbuncles.)  Note that they may have been helpful in that they cleared a lot of streptococcus from the system.

There is a bit of confusion here. When the body is attacked by ‘nasties’, its immune system goes into overdrive. The white blood cells move into action attempting to destroy every kind of ‘nasty’ they can find. The white blood cells will, if possible, kill everything they recognize as a ‘nasty’. Streptococcus is something they recognize and can usually destroy. If you are infected with anything, streptococcus will be found, if only by collateral damage, (they may not be what is causing the problem but will be killed anyway.)

The white blood cells may not even recognize what is actually causing the infection, and therefore ignore it. It is possible that carbuncles are caused by viruses. It may be that streptococcus are carriers of viruses.

It is also possible that the virus responsible for Legionaire’s Disease is the same virus, or similar, to that causing carbuncles. The similarities in origin, attic dust and ventilation dust, would indicate that some further investigation is needed. It would also give the possibility of stannous oxide as a cure for Legionaire’s Disease. Modern ducting systems, using inert materials like plastics or stainless steel, do not have the advantage of having a inner coating of metal oxides (Zinc Oxide) that the traditional galvanised steel has.

It would be nice if Stannous Oxide was available again. because I’ve always had the feeling that carbuncles would eventually kill me.

The only side effect I ever had was that I had to do household tasks sooner.

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Medical Importance of Tin.

TIN by trapper/kcmo .....

Date:   4/29/2011
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Tin – Health Effects
Acu-Cell Analysis Acu-Cell Nutrition Acu-Cell Disorders Tin – Health Effects Mineral Ratios
The Clinical Research Resource for Cellular Nutrition using Acu-Cell Technology ™

Health Benefits & Toxicity of the Element Tin, and its Effect on Adrenals, Depression and Fatigue

While Tin (Sn) has been established to be an essential trace element for some animals (they won’t grow well without it), some researchers are still unsure of whether tin is essential to human health. Daily dietary intake of tin from various food sources is in the 1 – 3 mg range, which is less than 1/10th of the daily intake obtained years ago before lacquering tin cans, switching to aluminum cans, or, in the more distant past, when tin cups or tin pans were still in use. Since bronze contains copper and tin, the use of tin has been established well past the Bronze Age, several thousand years ago.

Rat studies have shown that tin-deficient diets resulted in poor growth, reduced feeding efficiency, hearing loss, and bilateral (male pattern) hair loss. Tipton and Shafer examined tin in human tissue after accidental deaths.

They noted that tin was found in the aorta, brain, heart, kidney, liver, muscle, ovary, spleen, pancreas, testes, stomach, and uterus, but none was found in the thyroid of any victim, while the prostate, which usually shows no other trace element, had tin.

(Is this lack of tin the cause of erectile dis-function and prostate cancer? Brian.

Average concentrations were the same range as cobalt, iodine, chromium, and selenium, which are known vital nutrients. Inorganic tin is capable of entering into biological activity at saline pH, and it is far less toxic than other known vital trace elements such as copper and cobalt. In addition, tin levels do not vary statistically with age, gender, or geographical areas. Misk found traces of tin in the fetal heart and spleen, and higher levels in the liver, while Schroeder and others reported no tin in stillborns.

As mentioned on the Acu-Cell “Tin & Iodine” page – where additional information about tin is found – Tin is associated with iodine in the same way as calcium is associated with magnesium. Tin supports the adrenals, and iodine supports the thyroid, with both subsequently affecting cardiac output: Tin + adrenals control the left side, and iodine + thyroid control the right side. In addition to low Vitamin C and/or Vitamin B1, low tin is a common nutritional cause of low adrenals, which can lead to left-sided cardiac insufficiency. While fatigue or depression may be experienced with cardiac insufficiency of either side, breathing difficulties or asthma are more common with left-sided cardiac insufficiency, and swelling of hands and is more common with right sided cardiac insufficiency, regardless of the cause.

Comparing thousands of patient records since the mid 70’s showed that better than 90% exhibited below normal levels of tin when referenced to the status of all other essential trace minerals, making it the most deficient element compared to any other trace mineral measured. Symptoms associated with low levels of tin typically include depression and/or fatigue, and others.

I had 285 individuals taking part in evaluating tin, some on a short-term basis (about 3 weeks), and others on a long-term basis (1 – 2+ years), resulting in some valuable feedback on various responses encountered, including side effects, although the poor absorption of stannous oxide was a limiting factor in being able to achieve optimal increases of cellular tin in all subjects.

Of those who experienced changes after supplementing tin, negative reactions, e.g. stomach / digestive upsets, or skin reactions were at par, or less compared to the best tolerated trace minerals such as calcium, chromium, or magnesium.

Positive health effects were numerous and included improvements with fatigue, and some forms of depression, with a general increase in energy, well-being and mood. There were also benefits with certain types of headaches, insomnia, asthma, or improvements with digestion, skin, or various aches and pains.

Tin toxicity documented over the last 200 years in humans has been associated with the consumption of foods or beverages that were stored in tinned, un-lacquered containers under long-term, low-pH conditions, and where levels of several hundred to several thousand mg / kg were ingested. Symptoms were limited to mostly gastrointestinal complaints such as nausea, abdominal pain and vomiting, with excess tin being rapidly excreted, and no long-term negative health or toxic effects reported.

There are many causes of depression, some resulting from abnormal brain chemistry, while others are associated with low blood pressure, low thyroid, or low (or high) levels of various essential nutrients such as lithium, calcium, magnesium, copper, sodium, protein, Vitamin B1, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, manganese (low blood sugar), among others. Many of these nutrients are well documented in affecting mood, but I have not previously come across any reference to tin until starting to do research on it, and after it helped some patients with depression where any other drug, nutrient, or intervention had failed.

Tin is not a panacea for depression — it will not work when other chemical imbalances are involved, but it can be the missing link when most other attempts to resolve depression have failed; essentially involving low, or malfunctioning adrenals. For the same reason, some cases of asthma – particularly when related to low adrenals and subsequent left-sided cardiac insufficiency – respond to tin as well.

Tin (as stannous fluoride) is found in some toothpastes, and it has been used in the form of stannous chloride as a chemical preservative. It is also added to asparagus to improve its taste, while in some countries it has been utilized as a remedy for intestinal parasites.
Some herbal sources of tin (in the highest to lowest order) are doggrass, juniper, bilberry, milk thistle, dulse, lady slipper, althea, valerian, Irish moss, nettle, barberry, yarrow, blessed thistle, red clover, yellow dock, kelp, licorice, devils claw, pennyroyal, and senna. ¤

General recommendations for nutritional supplementation: To avoid stomach problems and promote better tolerance, supplements should always be taken earlier, or in the middle of a larger meal. When taken on an empty stomach or after a meal, there is a greater risk of some tablets causing irritation, or eventually erosion of the esophageal sphincter, resulting in Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD). It is also advisable not to lie down immediately after taking any pills. When taking a very large daily amount of a single nutrient, it is better to split it up into smaller doses to not interfere with the absorption of other nutrients in food, or nutrients supplemented at lower amounts.

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Copyright © 2011 Acu-Cell – Element Tin: Health Benefits & Toxicity

Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) is the latest term replacing daily dietary reference values such as:
Adequate Intake (AI *), Nutrient Reference Value (NRV), Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL), Estimated
Average Requirements (EAR), and Recommended Dietary Allowance / Intake (RDA / RDI).

Tin – (Stannous Oxide):

DRI (RDA): none

18 years + (suggested minimum) 10-20mg

Therapeutic Range: 25mg – 250mg

Estimated daily intake of tin from food and water (excluding canned food) is 1mg – 3mg per day.

Cellular / Intracellular Attributes, Functions and Interactions:

Tin Synergists:
Nickel, iodine, Vitamin B1, Vitamin C,

Tin Antagonists:
Iron, calcium, copper, chloride,
Vitamin B2, Vitamin E, [bismuth, zinc].

Low Levels / Deficiency – Symptoms and/or Risk Factors:

Fatigue, depression, low cardiac output (left side), low adrenals, shortness of breath, asthma, headaches, insomnia.

In Animals: Low tin results in poor growth, alopecia / bilateral hair loss, hearing loss, and reduced feeding efficiency.

High levels / Overdose / Toxicity / Negative Side Effects – Symptoms and/or Risk Factors:

Skin rash, stomach complaints, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, headache, palpitations.

Tin Sources:
Tinned / canned foods, cereal grains, dairy, meat, vegetables, seaweed, licorice, some toothpastes. ¤

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Extract from BBC news item. 1 October 2011

Copper fixtures could help hospitals combat infections such as MRSA, scientists say, because of its anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties.

In Trafford General Hospital, copper door handles and work surfaces are replacing stainless steel in the fight against the superbug.

Combined with meticulous hygiene, the new fittings have contributed to the hospital’s MRSA-free status for the past two years.

Copper oxide, zinc oxide, stannous oxide. For over 100 years Metal oxides have been known for their medical properties. When I was a child we knew that it was safe to suck copper coins. Zinc oxides were used in dressings and ointments and tin oxide was used for carbuncles. Why has the medical profession been so slow?

SEE ALSO;

Brian Williams

Author

Dinosaurs and the Expanding Earth – 2 The Earth Mechanics

Although I am writing this with a particular point in mind, I do not expect it to be right, it is only hypothetical. You can add your arguments against it, which, if pertinent I will add into the post itself. Or you may add your queries that I will attempt to answer, or a reader may be able to answer. (Please state if you want your name included in the additions). Although there has been a lot of research done on this subject, most of the conclusions published are, at best, guesses. We just do not have enough evidence. Possibly, between us, we can arrive at a better hypothesis that will help the science along.

Dinosaurs and the Expanding Earth.

One point that is occasionally brought up relating to the dinosaurs is the problems that they would have due to the force of Earth’s gravity. The argument is that their bodily structure was insufficient to allow them to function successfully. We are therefore forced to conclude that one of the following must apply:-

1. They were unsuccessful

2. The assessment of their bodily structure is wrong

3. The gravity was different then than it is now

Archaeological finds indicate that the dinosaurs were the most successful category of animal life on Earth. I cannot comment on the arguments relating to their biological structure, but I assume that competent people were involved. (See Stephen Hurrell’s web site “Dinosaurs and the expanding Earth”) He is offering free downloads of much of the background to his book, worthwhile looking.

plus http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11815320

(I have recently come across an item on YouTube that is quite interesting.  This is a video showing the probable course of Earth under expansion.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kL7qDeI05U. Although not really addressing the mechanics it is a very useful video, that I wished I’d done. 13/05/2011))

We are left with the argument that Earth’s gravity was different.

To satisfy the requirements of the dinosaurs Earth’s diameter would have to be about 4,300 to 5,000miles.

This means that Earth would have to have increased its diameter by approximately 3,000 to 3,700 miles since the dinosaurs died out!

But, the remains of the dinosaurs were found in the Earth’s crust, so how could they be there, they should be buried under 1,850 miles of new soil or rock (Assuming an original diameter of 4,300miles!

However, the accretion of space debris is an unlikely cause of the increase in diameter, even the occasional meteorite would not make more than a minor difference. The meteor that is blamed for destroying the dinosaurs hardly caused much of an increase in the Earth’s diameter, and the dinosaurs survived for millions of years in which no comparable meteor landed on Earth.

An alternative hypothesis.

What if the Earth’s crust floated on top of the increasing diameter?  The scientists state that the landmasses are moving apart. OK, but the only way they can spread out is if the Earth is expanding. The present hypothesis is that all the present land was part of a single land mass surrounded by a large ocean.

Let us assume that the present land mass was approximately equivalent to the total surface area of the Earth millions of years ago. There would still be lakes of varying sizes and small rivers.  This would give the Earth’s diameter as 4,300 miles, about the same diameter as Mars, with a gravity of about (Very roughly) half of Earth’s present gravity. This would make the dinosaurs quite happy and be close to their ‘design’ parameters.

If the landmass ‘floated’ what would happen on expansion of the Earth? Well, the crust would crack like an eggshell. As the Earth expanded the crust sections would tend to try and retain their original curvature, but would start to sag under their mass. They would crinkle, bulge and shear. Water in lakes and streams would gradually be displaced and run off the damaged landmasses. Water would fill the cracks surrounding the landmasses. As the Earth continued its expansion these cracks would widen until they became seas. The original lakes would leave evidence of the fish and reptiles that originally inhabited them.

Of course all this would need some action that would create the excess stresses, otherwise the Earth would just accumulate space debris over many billions of years and just gradually increase its size and end up as just another rock ball such as the moon or Mercury.

A likely culprit is the Moon. It is possible that the acquisition of the Moon coincided with the acquisition of the meteor that destroyed the dinosaurs. Possibly the meteor was a satellite of our moon! Another possibility is that the ‘meteor’ that destroyed the dinosaurs was actually an Earth satellite itself, displaced by the acquisition of the moon. There are many possibilities. The arguments for saying that the Moon was created at the same time as the Earth is a very weak hypothesis with virtually no scientific evidence.

To return to the time of the dinosaurs. There is plenty of evidence that at that time the Earth was lavishly covered in plant life, and that there was an abundance of animal life. This situation had been around for millions of years during which the Earth was not plagued by millions of meteors intent on destroying Earth. In other words the Earth had a very stable environment for many millions of years. Since then the Earth has almost doubled in size. It requires a huge change in circumstances to bring this about.

If the dinosaurs were destroyed 64 million years ago and the Earth is 4.5 billion years old, this means that the Earth has doubled in size in the last 0.014% of its existence! Admittedly, the claims and mathematics of the scientists are highly suspect, but even so, this is an explosion in geological terms.

Although the time scales are probably wrong due the many ifs and buts involved in geological dating, even if the Earth is only 1 billion years old, it is still an astounding increase in the Earth’s diameter. You would have to push back the date of the dinosaur’s demise to about 3 billion years ago to arrive at an ‘acceptable’ figure for the rate of expansion of the Earth, i.e. a figure that would probably not be so worrying.

Of all the scientific research into geological time scales, the change in size of the Earth as required to account for the dinosaurs success is the most important, the most scientifically sound, and gives the most accurate assessment of what is happening. The main doubt is whether the date of the dinosaurs demise is accurate.

Whether or not a pterodactyl could fly under specified conditions is an engineering question, involving aerodynamics and structural analysis. There is a lot of proven expertise and knowledge about these subjects. The specified conditions include both gravity and atmospheric density. Could a greater atmospheric density than our present one help with solving the problem. Only marginally, a greater percentage of oxygen would help but not enough. Possibly the dinosaurs operated on a different chemical mix than we do today but this would only made a small difference. No, the atmospheric density would have to be significantly higher, which would mean a higher gravity not a lower one.

Accretion of space dust and debris would not account for much of this in the 64 million year time scale. Assuming that the Moon has been around for the same period, the space dust there is less than 20cm, and there is no reason to assume that the Earth would receive 1850 miles thickness in the same time period. If the solar system had passed through a gigantic cloud of space dust over a long period of time, there would be signs on both the Earth and moon that this had happened.

What is the greatest depth that man has penetrated? To date, this is a depth of about 7.5 miles (the Russian Kola Superdeep Borehole). (The deepest ocean depth is 6.22 miles.) [The Deepest Hole by Alan Bellows – from DamnInteresting.com]

In the Kola hole only micro fossils were found, indicative, but not conclusive, that at this depth that life forms were not very advanced, and they long preceded the dinosaurs. It can therefore be argued that all life-form fossils are likely to be contained in the outer 10 miles of the Earth’s crust. We have the situation that any increase in the Earth’s diameter apart from a (possible) 10 mile skin, must have occurred below the Earth’s crust.

The Earth/Moon gravitational attraction exerts billions of tons of stress force on the Earth.

For the Moon this not much of a problem, because this force is relatively constant, the Moon keeping one face always towards the Earth. Note that there are statements on some technical sites that the Moon suffers from ‘tidal stresses’ due to its interaction with Earth. This is extremely unlikely as the tidal effect would require that the Moon rotates relative to the gravitational forces, which does not happen with the Moon, although there are some tidal stresses due to the Sun but these are quite small. Note; There is a ‘tidal’ affect due to the small oscillation of the moon relative to Earth but this is too small to be significant.

On Earth the force sweeps across the Earth’s surface creating varying stresses, not just on the seas causing the tides, but also on the land surfaces.

These ‘land tides’ are lifting and dropping the Earth’s crust every 24 hours.

The crust doesn’t lift as much as the water, the crust being a lot heavier than the water, and doesn’t have the same flexibility. Without this flexibility the crust is subjected to enormous stresses.

As the crust lifts, water and gases and many other elements are sucked under the crust. As the crust falls these are subject to very high pressures that can change their atomic structure. Gases will be liquefied, sand and silt will be compressed into a rock like consistency, helped by the high temperatures and pressures. (Note: – At a depth of 7 miles the Russians found that the rock became plastic and tended to seal the borehole up again.)

This happens every day, 365 days per year. If we say that 1 million tons/day are treated this way, this means that 365,000,000,000 tons are added under the Earth’s crust every 1000 years.

Note: – The microfossils found by the Russians could have been drawn in their position due to the above actions, their small size enabling them to pass through small crevices without difficulty.

In 64 million years a total of = 23,360,000,000,000,000,000 tons would be added below the Earth’s crust!

Note that 1 million tons/day is a very conservative guess; it should be a considerable amount more than that. (This equates to about 0.6kgs for every square kilometre of the Earth’s land area, a very miserly amount.

We only need an average lift in the Earth’s crust of less than 0.001mm to arrive at the above figures.)

Note; I have found various figures for the actual crust lift on Earth, one sensible one being being about 13centimetres.

It should be remembered that although the Earth’s gravity 64 million years ago may have been half of what it is today. it is doubtful that the Moon has changed much in that time. This means that the Earth’s crust would weigh approximately half of what it weighs now and therefore the lift on the earth’s would be much greater many millions of years ago..

Vacuum

Some of you may be considering that if all this liquid and silt etc was sucked under the crust on the crust lifting, then it would all be forced out when it drops. It just doesn’t work that way. Under suction the flow is made easier because the material at the suction end is cleared first, making way for the following material. Under pressure the inertia of the silt and liquids drastically reduces the flow, in a similar way that happens with a sink plunger. A sink blockage is usually cleared on the upstroke (suction), the down-stroke (pressure) only compressing the blockage and making it worse.

If you have worked on vacuum systems you will realise how difficult it is to seal against vacuum. A joint that will retain pressures of 5.000psi will leak like a sieve under a vacuum of a few pounds. [See Understanding Pressure and Vacuum]

Also, we are not considering huge apertures under the crust, but billions of small cracks and cavities through which liquids and silt will travel through quite quickly under suction. This acts like a one-way valve (Non-return valve) allowing material to pass under the crust but preventing its return.

Is there another option?

It would be possible for the Earth’s gravity to increase without adding much to the Earth’s diameter. This would depend on how the effect of the Moons gravity acted deeper within the Earth. If we consider that the Earth is a huge butter churn, with the core as the butter, the churning action would tend to create very heavy material under the high temperatures and pressure. This would increase the density and therefore increase the gravitational forces.

Scientists have a hypothesis that the Moon was a lot closer to Earth in the past. If so, the gravitational forces would be a lot higher and the effects would happen more rapidly. However the evidence is rather weak. It should be remembered that the geological sciences are at a very early stage and evidence is very sketchy. Most published information is based on very weak hypotheses, (very much like mine on this subject, but I am at least trying to find a way through the confusion).

The Russian scientists were confused at what was found in the Kola hole, which was not as expected by the present hypotheses about the structure of the Earth. When considering the billions spent on geological research to find oil, it is obvious that current knowledge is extremely limited even to just a few miles below the Earth’s surface. Yet we are constantly presented with hypotheses masquerading as facts. The Kola hole showed that the scientists were wrong about the Earth’s structure at a depth of 7 miles,  only 0.00175% of the Earth’s diameter. We really don’t know anything about the structure of the Earth.

Unfortunately, this lack of knowledge is then applied to the other planets in the solar system, of which we know even less.

Yes, I am aware that you want to know where all the material came from to build up the Earth. At this stage I will just say that it comes from the same source that created the suns and stars, and is in ample supply.  Hydrogen has been claimed to have been ‘discovered’  in a few places, but the fact that rest of space itself is not a vacuum means that there must be something there. Note;- I have serious doubts about the accuracy of optical experiments relating to colour, especially relating to optical spectra. The physicists interpretations of optical phenomena are quite ludicrous in many cases, as demonstrated elsewhere on this web site. The Fraunhofer lines in spectra are certainly not caused in the way stated by physicists, and these are the main ‘proof’ of their hypotheses.

NOTE:-SEE ALSO STEPHEN HURRELL’s WEB SITE Dinosaurs and the Expanding Earth, that I have just spotted on the web. (2nd September 2010).

At present his web site has a lot of the background information on this subject and is certainly worth visiting, (and no, he is not paying for saying this.) (13/05/2011)

Extract from BBC News 4th Jan 2011

21/06/2011

Extract from

Dinosaurs and the Ancient Earth:

Science Avoiding a Mystery by G. Lee Zimmerman, PhD (zim2918@q.com)

Originally written October 2006

In the summer of 1972, a graduate student from the University of Texas, Douglas A. Lawson, made a discovery in Big Bend National Park. He found the fragmentary fossilized remains of a wing. It belonged to a giant pteranodon — twice the size of any previously found. This beast was probably the largest flying animal that had ever lived. It had a conservatively estimated wingspan of 15.5 meters (about 50 feet) – about half the wingspan of a Boeing 737.[1]

Lawson published his findings in 1975 and immediately started a controversy. Aeronautical engineers had recently shown that the physics of flight set a hard limit on the size of a flying animal. They had calculated the maximum limit was a 25 foot wingspan and a body weight under fifty pounds. According to this, if an animal were larger, it simply couldn’t fly.[2]

This limit seems to ring true. The heaviest bird able to fly today is the great bustard. It can weigh up to 46 pounds but can only stay aloft for very short time, much like a chicken. The longest wingspan of a bird living today is the albatross, a little over 11 feet from tip to tip. One of the largest creatures able to take wing today—the Berkut eagles of Kirghiz, Russia—weigh a maximum of 20 pounds with a 7-foot wingspan. Tellingly, at this size, the Berkut eagle can only take off from flat ground with great difficulty. It has been bred close to the point at which flying creatures need more musculature for flying than they are able to carry.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-12109625

Britain also feels the effects of earthquakes in the North Sea. Here, the crust is much thinner and it is also marked by large numbers of faults.

The earth beneath our feet is never completely static. The crust is constantly on the move. For example, much of the UK is still rebounding after the melting of the great mass of ice that covered the country thousands of years ago.

And even on a daily basis, the crust will move up and down by many millimetres as the tides roll around the island nation.

The Deepest dinosaur bone Ever Found

From the News 24/04/2011

To claim the country’s first dinosaur discovery, Norwegians had to dig more than a mile down.

An oil drilling operation uncovered the knuckle-bone of a Plateosaurus. Well, actually, the knuckle-bone is now crushed. And it’s not actually in Norway proper, but below the North Sea.

Whatever the case, it’s a neat piece of record-setting, accidental paleontology. The fossil is the deepest dinosaur remain ever found. The knuckle-bone was found in a hollow gravewithin sediment 1.4 miles (2,256 meters) below the seabed. The area was once dry plains with rivers running through them.

Researchers said it’s quite possible there are many more fossils down there.

The finding was announced today by the Research Council of Norway. The work was led by Jorn Hurum, said to be Norway’s only dinosaur researcher.http://www.livescience.com/4101-norway-dinosaur-sets-depth-record.html

Comments From Brian.

North Sea Max Depth = 2300ft = 700 metres, Average depth = 312 ft. = 95 metres.

Therefore the fossil was found at a depth of

A, 2.256 + 700 = 2.956 km below present day sea levels.

or

B, 2.256+ 95 = 2.361 km below present day sea levels.

There is enough evidence to say that the present North Sea was dry land long after the demise of the dinosaurs. The bone “was found in a hollow grave within sediment It could therefore have arrived there by being sucked under the crust in the same way as previously stated.

Obviously, if they find a complete dinosaur at the same depth this would present a problem. I cannot visualise a complete 9 metre dinosaur passing through 13 mm crevice.

Author, Brian Williams

General Interest Dinosaurs, Expanding Earth, vacuum

The Hero

THE HERO.

At a fund-raising dinner for a school that teaches children with learning disabilities, the father of one of the students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended.

After praising the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question:

”When not interfered with by outside influences, everything nature does, is done with perfection. Yet my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is the natural order of things in my son?”
The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. “I believe that when a child like Shay, who was mentally and physically disabled comes into the world, an opportunity to realize true human nature presents itself, and it comes in the way other people treat that child.”

Then he told the following story:

Shay and I had walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, “Do you think they’ll let me play?”

I knew that most of the boys would not want someone like Shay on their team, but as a father I also understood that if my son were allowed to play, it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging and some confidence to be accepted by others in spite of his handicaps.

I approached one of the boys on the field and asked (not expecting much) if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance and said, “ We’re losing by six runs and the game is in the eighth innings. I guess he can be on our team and we’ll try to put him in to bat in the ninth innings.”

Shay struggled over to the team’s bench and, with a broad smile, put on a team shirt. I watched with a small tear in my eye and warmth in my heart.

The boys saw my joy at my son being accepted. In the bottom of the eighth innings, Shay’s team scored a few runs but was still behind by three.

In the top of the ninth innings, Shay put on a glove and played in the right field. Even though no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be in the game and on the field, grinning from ear to ear as I waved to him from the stands.

In the bottom of the ninth innings, Shay’s team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base and Shay was scheduled to be next at bat.

At this juncture, do they let Shay bat and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn’t even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher, recognizing that the other team was putting winning aside for this moment in Shay’s life, moved in a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least make contact.

The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly towards Shay.

As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball right back to the pitcher.

The game would now be over.

The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could have easily thrown the ball to the first baseman.

Shay would have been out and that would have been the end of the game.

Instead, the pitcher threw the ball right over the first baseman’s head, out of reach of all team- mates.

Everyone from the stands and both teams started yelling, ”Shay, run to first! Run to first!”

Never in his life had Shay ever run that far, but he made it to first base.

He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled.

Everyone yelled, “Run to second, run to second!”

Catching his breath, Shay awkwardly ran towards second, gleaming and struggling to make it to the base.

By the time Shay rounded towards second base, the right fielder had the ball, the smallest guy on their team, and who now had his first chance to be the hero for his team.

He could have thrown the ball to the second-baseman for the tag, but he understood the pitcher’s intentions so he, too, intentionally threw the ball high and far over the third-baseman’s head.
Shay ran toward third base deliriously as the runners ahead of him circled the bases toward home.

All were screaming, “Shay, Shay, Shay, all the Way Shay”.
Shay reached third base because the opposing shortstop ran to help him by turning him in the direction of third base, and shouted,

“Run to third! Shay, run to third!”

As Shay rounded third, the boys from both teams, and the spectators were on their feet screaming, “Shay, run home! Run home!”

Shay ran to home, stepped on the plate, and was cheered as the hero who hit the grand slam and won the game for his team.

” That day”, said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, “ the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of true love and humanity into this world ”.

Shay didn’t make it to another summer. He died that winter, having never forgotten being the hero and making me so happy, and coming home and seeing his Mother tearfully embrace her little hero of the day!

This came by e-Mail, original source unknown, I have re-typed it to ensure that it is clean. No other comments necessary, but it may help you in some strange way.

Brian

NOTES ON COMMENTS.

This site has only two primary functions,

1. To sell my book.
2. To disseminate scientific knowledge.

I am not interested in selling other products or services and I will not have any advertising for other products or services on my site.  To maintain the integrity of this site even family web sites are excluded even though I trust them.

At one time goods sold due to their obvious good quality, and generally by recommendations from other people.

My spam detector is fairly fierce but I occasionally rescue a comment from the scrap bin.

Any subtle attempts to pass spam through are checked by me. If they have something of interest despite being spam, I delete all sales or spam content and publish. The only changes I ever make to text is to correct any spelling mistakes or faulty grammar. In other word what you see on my site is what I received less the spam. Most of the spam I receive at present is pornography  related (which is rather sad really).

On bad days when a lot of spam arrives I will check for technical comments and just delete the remainder.  (It takes a lot of time to check out the validity of comments. They have to be copied to another computer, converted to text only format to check for embedded nasties, web sites checked and e-mail addresses verified)

Generally, if you are posting comments from an obviously commercial web site, the chances are that they will deleted. If comments are posted that are obviously just ‘standard’ comments, then again they will probably be deleted.

If you send comments through your own web site and your web site includes adverts for pornography or obvious scams, they are automatically deleted, because by allowing this type of advertising you have become part of the world-wide web’s worst problem.

Preferred comments are for or against the contents of my posts from a technical point of view. Both types will be given the same importance and are very helpful, both to me and the readers. Any other type of comment will be published if I think it of interest or amusing. Many comments have to be deleted because I have been unable to read the contents due to my limited command of foreign languages and I have been unable to get them translated. Most Spam is deleted before I see it.

Comments relating to help relating to computer related problems on this web site should be submitted through the ‘HELP PAGE’, this ensures that readers who need help and readers who are able to help, have a forum.

Technical queries relating to to the web site content I am happy to answer.

Brian

Strange Wasp Behaviour.

Head Hunting Wasps.

Many years ago, (here he goes again), we became plagued by wasps, and my wife forced me into the bathroom, (which was the worst effected) with a rolled up newspaper. After about 10 minutes of valiant efforts, I emerged triumphantly, having killed about 20 wasps. About halve an hour later, I re-entered the bathroom to clear away the bodies.

On arriving at the window area where most of the dead wasps were, I noticed about 6 more active wasps which seemed to be foraging amongst the dead ones. Closer scrutiny showed that these wasps were cutting off the heads of the dead ones and carrying them away, leaving the bodies behind for me to clear away. On the assumption that the wasps were not carrying out head transplantation, has anyone come across this behaviour and has a more logical explanation?

Wasp Survival.

This happened not 8 feet away from my above battle with the wasps, and happened about the same period. My first ever vehicle was a WW2 Ford Jeep. This had been fitted with a van body. After a few years I decided to strip off the van body and put the jeep back into its original condition. After stripping off the body I detached the windscreen assembly. Underneath the this assembly I found a wasp, apparently dead, that had been trapped beneath the Sorbo rubber seal.  I left the wasp where it was and carried on working.

After about an hour and a half I noticed that the wasp was twitching. Some three hours later the wasp was capable of flying away.

I did some checks on the jeep assembly to see if the wasp could have got into its position after the van body had been fitted, but there was no possible access. This meant that the wasp had been trapped under the seal for just under 5 years!

No water, no light, no food!  High temperatures from the sun and engine in summer and freezing temperatures in winter.

For 5 years! Tough eh.

Why Stereo?

I have over 3000 recordings on records, CDs, tapes including reel to reel.  Out of all there is only one track that benefits by being played in stereo. This track is Duelling Banjos, in which the audible separation of the two banjos is crucial. This leaves 2999 tracks for which stereo recording and playback is of no benefit. Stereo was (and still is) a gimmick without any logic

Are we claiming that all the musicians from orchestras to the Beatles have been getting it all wrong over the last 200-300 years? Should they scatter themselves around the various venues so that we can get a stereo effect? Should the opera singer stand at the opposite end of the concert hall to the orchestra? If they did I think you would find it very aggravating.

For over 20 years I used a KT 66 push-pull mono amplifier for parties, general get-togethers etc, and my guests included many stereo enthusiasts. yet I was never asked why I was only using mono. This was not because my guests were too polite to say anything, it was because they were listening to the music, or criticising the music or oblivious to the music. Whether it was in stereo or mono was irrelevant.

For those of you old enough to remember the introduction of stereo players will also remember the demonstration records in which you heard all sorts of unusual effects like footsteps walking across your room etc. Did you ever buy a recording with this type of effects on it? Apart from the original demonstration records very few were ever made.

A few years ago the BBC ran a demonstration of quadraphonic radio broadcasting and it was quite impressive, with people apparently walking and talking behind you. However, clever as it is, it really has no practical application to the public. Possibly about once a year some program could be broadcast that would benefit from this, but for 99.9% of the time it would be useless.

Stereo and quadraphonics in television are actually aggravating because they distract you from the program because if a parrot apparently speaks behind you, you have a natural tendency to look towards it, thus missing something more important on the screen.

It really is time we got back to common sense in general as well as physics.

Quantum leap

Did you know that if you had a quantum leap in your annual salary and your original salary was £20,000, then your new salary would be £20,000.01, i.e. a one penny increase. A quantum is the smallest quantity possible, one penny in England, one cent in America, etc.

A quantum leap in your annual corn yield would be one grain of corn. A quantum leap in the annual production of nails would be one nail.
Strange how a phrase coined by the physics establishment relating to a vague hypothesis on the structure of the atom, has been taken up by the press and advertisers, and is now considered by the public to have the opposite meaning.

A major problem with physics is that when something is discovered or hypothesised, the public pick up only the most ‘sensational’ aspects of it. Einstein’s fame really came from the ‘time dilation’ hypothesis relating to his interpretation of the Michelson-Morley experiment. This got so embedded in the public mind that even the physicists started to believe it. This problem was made worse when the science fiction writers picked up on it, and it is now almost a constant in science fiction books, and is now even considered by many people to be ‘real’ physics.

Author – Brian Williams