Monday, August 07, 2006

Issue 378 - Mon 7th Aug 2006

Hi,
I hope everything is ok where you are.

I fairly regularly get emails from people saying they don't always get the newsletter in their email.
That's simply down to the filters that all emails have to navigate, thanks to the all the j u nk stuff.
In my view, the filters don't work, the negatives outweigh the positives.
I put the newsletter online every week too at the blog, which you're reading now.

I often think about just posting to the blog and not sending a newsletter at all.
Some weeks, like this one, I have bits and bobs I want to say which will spread over 2 issues, whereas if I blog in the traditional way, I could just post when I want.
What do you think?
Do you visit blogs regularly?
Would you visit mine?
I'd love to gather a few opinions.

As I said, this week I have 4 points which came to mind.
2 of them concern how I think a society could maybe work better, and 2 of them concern not trying to please all the people all the time.
Maybe I'll go for one of each today, and maybe put the other 2 on the blog!!

Ok, first up, prison.
I read over the weekend that here in the UK, there were only 680 spaces left in our prisons.
Another 680 criminals, and all our jails will be full up!
Then the prisoners will have to be kept in cells at police stations.
They are meant to be used for holding purposes only, and the police charges the government for it.

The cost of a prison cell for one night to the government is £66.
The cost of a night in the police cells to the government is £362!
Of course when I say 'to the government', what I mean is to honest tax payers like me.

I've never been to prison, and have no intention of ever going there.
I don't know anyone who has either, but from the documentaries I've seen, it isn't a nice place.
'Good,' you may well say, 'it's supposed to be a punishment.'
I agree with that point, but it's not the point I'm making.

The point I want to make is that sometimes people are jailed when they don't need to be.
I only say that due to this overcrowding problem.
For the prisoners themselves, if they don't like it, I say don't break the law in the first place, but for the non-violent one off offender, is prison the best place for them?

Maybe some people go from non violent to violent precisely because they have been in prison.
Maybe the non violent one off criminal could be punished within society?
Impose a curfew on them, punish them financially, how about making them pay the £66 a night prison costs?
That way they are punished and the financial burden is taken off the rest of us.
Hmm... can't see it happening, but I think it would help society. What do you think?

Ok, I was watching a new series on TV of Dragon's Den, where would be entrepreneurs pitch their idea to potential investors.
It 's the kind of thing that happens all the time in business, but not usually on tv, and to spice it up, the programme makers put a fair old share of nutters on the show who would never have a chance of getting the money.

I thought I was watching one of those when a man came on who had invented a water free egg boiler.
His little contraption didn't really excite the dragons, and one of them asked for a demonstration of a 4 minute boiled egg.
They asked him more questions while the 4 minutes went, and when he opened the lid...
He had forgotten to put the egg in.

D'oh!
So, he tried again while the investors rolled their eyes and sniggered.
After another 4 minutes, he took out the egg, cracked the shell and a non-cooked egg ran all over the table.

Double D'oh!
Despite the fact that most of the investors clearly thought this was a bad idea, that didn't even work, he had a 3rd go.

Once again, the result was a raw egg.
Then to my amazement, 2 of the investors said they would give him all the money he asked for because they thought it would sell millions.

It just goes to show that you can't always tell what people will want.
I would have thought a 3-time failed demonstration would be a disaster, and for the majority of the investors it was, but 2 of them snapped up the idea, based on the potential.

In life as well, you can't try and please everyone, because you can't know what they want, so stick to being yourself!

Ok, that's it for today.
Let me know what you think about me blogging, and if you happen to be reading this from jail, let me know wat you think about my non-jail idea!

Have a good week.
'Til Next Time,
Health and Happiness,
Gordon
Get involved with my Marathon at:
http://www.thegreatgordinomarathon.com

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