Banking

Attempted to watch the film 'Inside Man'. Honestly, we rented this movie because it has Clive Owen in, except that Clivie has dropped the ball a couple of times recently on film choice. This one - well it's a bank robbery movie and really, life's too short to be watching films about blokes robbing banks.
Now I've never been in an American bank, although I have obviously been in a Canadian one. It seems unlikely to me that any bank in the US would have bank tellers and customers not separated by bullet-proof glass, were it not for the fact that at our local bank here, that's exactly how it is. Why is that? In banks in Britain there are vulnerable employees sometimes who wander around in the customer area offering advice, but I guess they would have to think of themselves as expendable because you can't get near the real business end of operations.
I didn't get through the film.

In a small article in Sunday's Observer, we are told that a small high-tech firm just outside of Dublin have developed a new energy technology that could quite literally save the world. But no-one would take the company's owner, Sean McCarthy, seriously. He had to take out a full-page ad in the Economist challenging the scientific community to come and test his discovery. Fortunately, some scientists also read the Economist and are now anxious to do exactly that. I think it's amazing that a small Irish company are just wanting to share this knowledge rather than keep it under wraps until they are ready to fleece the planet dry. I've no doubt they will make money, so they should, but what seems to be the most important thing to them is that this new technology can be investigated and used. It says a lot.

And just as well, it seems that 4 out of 10 Canadians don't think there is any kind of environmental problem, no global warming, and they are being supported in this belief by a retired academic, Professor Tim Ball who is going around disseminating false information on the subject. [The title 'Professor' as far as I understand is accorded to all university lecturers here, not just a chair in each department]. Ball seems to be yet another conspiracy theorist, the conspiracy here being almost the entire scientific community trying to mislead the general public into thinking they need urgently to curb energy consumption. It's difficult to imagine what sciencey people would have to gain from doing this, however, clear what Dr. Ball does. He makes money at an age when many have retired, going around stroking the apathy of those who don't want to change anything.

A fascinating story in womensnews.org, inevstigates the role of the bicycle in women's emancipation. I must say I never felt more emancipated than when I was cycling. In Portsmouth it was particularly true because all too frequently you could travel more quickly on a bike than in a car. And fellow cyclists, of whom there were many, did not all consist of whippet thin men in lycra with razor blade saddles. Not a bit of it, there were wheezing old men, fat, thin, old, young, women, men, police, postal deliverers, all sorts.

Laurence is currently in the air, at least we have confirmation that he was in the check-in line at Gatwick airport, and his flight is in the air. I will not breathe easily until he is in Arrivals at YVR, preferably unescorted by a uniform. Watch this space.

I must say, I'm pretty devastated not to be in the Guardian's list of world-changing women. Guess I'll have to try harder for next year.

Or maybe it's better to leave the glittering prizes to others, I wouldn't fare well with fame.