h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You're right, Witty. I should have mentioned that not all unions work for the, ah, workers.

One of the many despicable things about Bush is that having engineered the Gulf war, he has completely ignored the dead, the bereaved and the wounded.

I heard a superb podcast entitled "It's your ship" by William Perry (the link's at the bottom of: http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?author=238 ) former Secretary of Defense. He's now a professor at Stanford. When he was Secretary of Defense, he met every single flight bringing a dead service man home, and spoke with every family.

That makes it real.

I'm sorry for bringing party politics into the Salon, but this isn't about parties, it's about human decency and looking the consequences of your actions in the eye.

My great grandfather was a Prisoner of War in japan during the Second World War. I never knew him, but from what my mother's told me, he never really recovered. he returned from japan weighing just 6 stone (84lbs) when before the war he had been double that.

There are positives and negatives to unions, I think. Unions provide a way for certain groups of employees to get things like, oh, enough money to live on. However, one of the major reasons that the 'Big 3' automakers in the US are failing so horribly is because they're bend over a barrel by the unions.

I really do wish that sometimes unions would, as Witty put it, wake up and smell the coffee. Getting everything you want is great. However, getting enough to meet your needs is also great. And having to accept that the economy sucks right now is something unions really do need to get on board with. It's tough to listen to unions demand cost of living wages when its either those, or people get fired.

I lived in England, and was involved in the printing business during the era when typesetting was becoming computerized, and I remember how bitterly the union chapels fought the change. It was difficult to decide who to sympathize with, the unions who saw employment levels gutted, or the employers who were trying to stay competitive and up-to-date.

Wrt the car makers, there's been a bit of an unholy alliance, I suspect. Neither side wanted to move forward. Kind of co-dependent.

I'm wracked with guilt.

The blak kitteh's come in to see if there's any food and I forgot to get any on the way home. Tiger eats eggs quite happily, but it seems the blak kitteh doesn't. He's wandering around the kitchen searching for cat biscuits. Given that he's so nervous he runs off if I so much as move, he must be starving-hungry. I'd no idea he didn't like egg. And it's cold out there tonight for a stray.



B

Well, there you go. 50 minutes to "nip" into town and buy cat biscuits. The ungrateful little 'd better eat them. The eggs were duck eggs too.

B

Hope the likes 'em. Doubt there will be much in the way of appreciation.

Well, he's a stray, and I feel sorry for him on cold dark nights.

Not a military bone in the Magwitch family that I'm aware of.

I carry a union card, I always have where possible. It's particularly pertinent right now as we have given new rules by OFSTED and part of our new contract states that we have to agree to abide by the new polices (some of which are so obscure that we don't know whether we *can* agree to abide by them). e.g. We're being sent on more and more courses and are not sure whether or not this means that *we* will be assigned as 'the designated person' for certain of said policies or whether they would still remain with the committee and management. We cannot sign our new contracts (and be awarded the promised pay rise) until we get confirmation. I once asked my manager what the consequences would be if I could not agree to abide by the new policies and was told in no uncertain terms that I would not be allowed to work there

Anyway, I've just done the second session of my First Aid course and...well...I didn't feel like I would have rather stuck pins in my eyes for three hours. It was rather fun We got to do CPR and the recovery position and generally had a good laugh. Can't wait to tie up my fellow folks next week when we do slings and stuff.

Meant to add, I hope kitteh likes his biscuits, T.

Changes 'T' to 'B'. How the heck did that happen - their not even close to each other on the keyboard...

s almost never like what they're offered when you're around. Leave the room, though, and when you come back the food will have mysteriously vanished.

*sips *

A kitteh that doesn't like aigs? I mean... eggs? Weird. You didn't have a can of tuna around the house?

I enjoy voting down the lolspeak captions on ICanHazCheezburger. I mean sure, cats can't spell, but they can't use a computer either.

http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/pictures-by-jensequitur/lolz

... I work about half a mile from the hill with all the flamingos, Lentilla. Now I'm afeared.

http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=2241041

*sips *

I'm in a union as well - the BMA who are the tradional doctors union and have teeth but don't use them.

And Remedy who were established last year. They want teeth and would love to use them - but don't have them. The problem is they were a single issue union. I like the guys - but they're a bit single issue. The thing is they're run by people a bit like me - just a few years older, whilst the BMA is run for the benifit of The Proffession.

Rememdy is probably the only union voting against a decreasing in working hours (sorry but 48 hours is ing stupid).

PS - I"m glad you enjoyed the first aid course. Just remember recovery position and CPR - it's far far more live saving than bandages..

I went to an arrest last week where the CPR was been done by lass who had only ever done it on a dummy before - and she was great.

Apart from the time when she looked at the monitor and said 'oh s/he's got a heart beat', and I had to say 'no that's your chest compressions showing on the monitor.

The other slightly odd bit was the fact that I was at the head end doing the airway management and trying to lead - but because of the position of patient and monitor (lets just say not everyone is neatly on a bed at the time of arrest), I couldn't see the rhythm on the monitor (and decide whether or not to shock) without doing a really bizarre contortion act.

Ok I never post about anything about real life outside medicine any more do I?

Sorry for boring you..

*slopes off*

hey Z i for one enjoy hearing about the things you do every day. One off my flatmates is a medicine student and another one is a dentistry student, they do like to gross me out by talking about their anatomy lectures, but medical stuff does interest me.

mini

[GDZ]