Forget those faded jeans, because...

By -
Decent Uniform Works. And don't forget it. This latest in my occasional collection of soon to disappear Doha shop fronts has a certain appeal in its stark confidence. Bold upper case, black on white, the very epitome of formality. And above, one pressed grey trouser, one starched pastel blue shirt hung with a hint of movement - is this a small concession to modernity? And a window clean enough to reflect Paraglider's woefully informal shorts and yellow polo shirt. But in fairness, it was 43 Celsius at the time.
Posted by Picasa

Comments

  1. i*maginate17 August 2010 at 20:33

    THAT yellow polo shirt! In exchange, try and barter cost vs. advertising brand name on your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Para Glider18 August 2010 at 05:28

    Hey - you've got a good memory :) But I can't guarantee it's the same yellow polo-shirt as appeared in that previous reflection (though it probably is - when selecting walking clothes I go for comfort before style!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. i*maginate20 August 2010 at 00:46

    Paraglider, you are a master of words, and the yellow polo shirt doesn't even count - I never spotted the reflection in the first place! Of course, I inspected closely upon you bringing it to my attention.

    Now I am going to sleep ;-)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to weigh a car using a tape measure and a tyre pressure gauge

By -
There are two pretty good ways to weigh a car: Drive it to the nearest public weighbridge and wait your turn. Look up the manual under General Specifications, ‘kerb weight’ But let's suppose the nearest public weighbridge is fifty miles away and you've lost the manual (and temporarily forgotten how to use public libraries and the Internet) and the burning urge to weigh your car just won't go away- what can you do about it? The good news is, you need hardly any equipment. All you need, for a reasonably accurate result is: a hand-held tyre pressure gauge which can be analogue or digital a retractable steel measuring tape a calculator, pencil and paper, or a good head for mental arithmetic The method Park the car on some clean, level concrete Observe that the car is held up by its four tyres (!) Measure the width of the tread of one tyre: e.g. 6 inches Measure the length of tread in contact with the ground: e.g. 7 inches Work out the area of tread touching the ground: e.g. 6 x
Read more

The need for pragmatic politics

By -
Personally, I see no convincing evidence for the existence of supernatural beings. But even supposing I am wrong and the firmament is positively teeming with spirits, ghosts, angels, demons, saints, archangels, deities of every flavour, even that would not be reason enough for our political life to concern itself with anything other than immediate secular pragmatism. Politics, like ethics, should not ask "How did we get here?" Apportioning credit or blame for the status quo is an exercise for armchair philosophers. Government should address two questions: "Who is suffering genuine hardship?" and "What can we do to help?" There is work enough in a programme based on these two questions to keep politicians busy for years. If in doubt as to the meaning of genuine hardship, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a good starting point. As long as we have people struggling to find food, shelter and basic security, we should not even give ear-time to the complaints o
Read more

Gamma corrected payscales

By -
Instead of wasting time with prime ministers, chancellors and 'independent' pay review bodies (all of whom seem only to understand percentages and not very well at that), we should give the task of resolving the various pay disputes to a Broadcast Engineer. Here's how it would then work: Decide on the salary level at which nobody can really justify a further increase right now. For argument, let's say £100k. Call that 'peak level' and normalise to it. Now apply gamma correction to the entire workforce earning less than £100k. By this approach, the hierarchy is preserved (i.e. nobody overtakes anyone else) but those most in need receive proportionately more generous increases. This is far cheaper and fairer than applying a flat rate percentage. It is also simpler. Having fixed the peak figure (e.g. £100k) it only remains to decide on gamma. For example, for gamma = 0.7, someone currently on £10k would receive an increase of £9,950, someone on £50k an increase of
Read more