Pinhole Glasses

I’ve suffered poor eyesight for more than twenty years now. I first needed spectacles in the mid 1980s and, it appears, my eyesight is slowly deteriorating with each passing year. So when I heard of Pinhole Glasses I was more than a little intrigued.

Perfect vision in the unaided eye requires the eye lens to focus light rays from diverse angles into a single pinpoint directly on the retina at the back of the eye. For sufferers of refractive eye disorders, where the eye lens is too weak or the cornea or eyeball is misshapen, divergent light rays become focused in front of or behind the retina, casting an unfocused image onto the retina itself. This unfocused area of light is known as the 'blur circle'.

Pinhole glasses work by reducing the diversity of angles from which light rays can enter the eyes, allowing only direct light rays within a narrow angular path to strike the cornea.
When I first looked at the Pinhole Glasses website, I was initially cynical (as I tend to be on most things in life) But the site is interesting and informative and very easy to navigate (no matter how poor your eyesight I s!) Pinhole Glasses are the affordable alternative to prescription eyeglasses, consisting of precision-manufactured lightweight perforated plastic lenses, inset into standard metal or plastic spectacle frames. They are ideal for sufferers of refractive eye disorders, the elderly - no need for the obvious gag here, please - and computer users as the pinholes - accurately formed by laser technology - allow only direct and coherent light rays to pass through into the eye.

What particularly attracted me to Pinhole Glasses is that it doesn’t matter if I am reading a book or watching TV, one pair of pinhole glasses is all I need.

Highly recommended by a grandfather today feeling his age!

Unacceptable

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has announced an assessment of how ethnic minority officers are treated in police forces throughout England and Wales. Police Minister Vernon Coaker will oversee a two-week review looking at recruitment and promotion prospects. London Mayor Boris Johnson earlier launched an inquiry into alleged racism within the Metropolitan Police.
The Metropolitan Black Police Association has pledged to discourage minorities from working in the Met. Ms Smith said she was "disappointed" by the boycott and said the group's subsequent advertising campaign to discourage ethnic minorities applicants for the Met was "unhelpful".

From the BBC News Website

Racism in any walk of life is, of course, unacceptable. When it is alleged in the corridors of those charged with maintaining law and order its tremors shake the very core of society. Now I may be missing something here but why does the Metropolitan Black Police Association exist?

Is that not itself, by its own definition, a racist group? I assume - perhaps wrongly - that membership of this Association is for black and ethnic minority police officers only. Why can't their concerns be addressed through the usual police association procedures? One can imagine the outrage if there were a Metropolitan White Police Association in existence.

Or perhaps the inference is that this already exists, just not in name. If so the problem is far more serious than first thought...

An Embarrassment to Scotland

Coronation Street bosses have changed the script for an episode of the soap after complaints from Rangers fans. Supporters complained after the character Tony Gordon - played by Scottish actor Gray O'Brien - made a jibe about the Glasgow club. O'Brien's character had said: "I could no more be interested in Rosie Webster than I could support Glasgow Rangers."
An ITV spokeswoman confirmed that after "dozens" of complaints, the script for a forthcoming episode had been changed. ITV said that line seemed "to have caused some upset".

From the BBC News Website

I'm proud to be a Scot. To me there is no finer country in the world and this nation - and Scotland is a nation - has achieved so much and contributed much to the world. But sometimes I despair. And the occasional nonsense that emanates from the west of Scotland makes decent, upstanding Scots cringe with embarrassment. The above story is a case in point.

Clearly those Rangers fans who took the trouble to contact ITV don't feel at all foolish by their petty actions. Sadly, it's part of the sometimes poisonous substance of an element of Scottish society, all too prevalent in the west coast. This is hot on the heels of Celtic fans complaining about their Rangers counterparts singing songs about the Irish potato famine and Rangers fans in turn protesting - if you'll pardon the term - that they're being picked on. Faced with the threat of their club facing a possible points deduction, some Rangers fans have taken to humming the song Hello, Hello rather than chanting the words...

No doubt some in the west will find that ingenious. I find the whole Coronation Street/tasteless chanting saga disturbing. And, not for the first time - and certainly not the last - bringing shame and ridicule on our country.

Get Them Back in There...

As if the men and women of the armed forces in Afghanistan haven't enough to contend with as the war with the Taliban rages on, they're visited by the witless Geordie duo of Ant and Dec.

Perhaps the presenters of 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here' can return to the war zone soon - so the Taliban can get another chance....

So I...

I met this bloke with a didgeridoo and he was playing Dancing Queen on it. I thought, "That's Aboriginal."

"This lorry full of tortoises collided with a van full of terrapins. It was a turtle disaster.

I told a friend I had a job in a bowling alley. She said "Tenpin?"I said, "No, permanent."

I went in to a pet shop. I said, "Can I buy a goldfish?" The guy said,"Do you want an aquarium?" I said, "I don't care what star sign it is."

I was at a Garden Centre and I asked for something herby. They gave me a Volkswagen with no driver.

Batman came up to me and he hit me over the head with a vase and he went T'PAU! I said "Don't you mean KAPOW?? He said "No, I've got China in my hand."

I bought some Armageddon cheese today, and it said on the packet. 'Best Before End'

I went to buy a watch, and the man in the shop said "Analogue." I said "No, just a watch."

I went into a shop and I said, "Can someone sell me a kettle." The bloke said "Kenwood" I said, "Where is he then?"

My mate is in love with two schoolbags. He's bisatchel.

I went to the doctor. I said to him "I'm frightened of lapels." He said,"You've got cholera."

I was reading this book today, The History Of Glue. I couldn't put it down.

I phoned the local ramblers club today, but the bloke who answered just went on and on.

This policeman came up to me with a pencil and a piece of very thin paper. He said, "I want you to trace someone for me."

I told my mum that I'd opened a theatre. She said, "Are you having me on?" I said, "Well I'll give you an audition, but I'm not promising you anything."

This cowboy walks in to a German car showroom and he says "Audi!"

I was stealing things in the supermarket today while balanced on the shoulders of a couple of vampires. I was charged with shoplifting on two counts.

I bought a train ticket to France and the ticket seller said "Eurostar". I said "Well I've been on telly but I'm no Steve McQueen.

I phoned the local gym and I asked if they could teach me how to do the splits. He said, "How flexible are you?" I said, "I can't make Tuesdays or Thursdays."

I went to the local video shop and I said, "Can I take out The Elephant Man?" He said, "He's not your type." I said "Can I borrow Batman Forever?"He said, "No, you'll have to bring it back tomorrow"

Financial Times

God, what a depressing week. It seems financial meltdown is certain and the world may be about to end if American politicians don't pass the 'crisis bill' on Thursday - the $700 billion rescue plan to avoid financial catastrophe which was rejected by the House of Representatives on Monday.

Across the pond, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has told the BBC that he will do "whatever it takes" to protect people's savings. Moves to guarantee bank deposits up to £50,000 - compared with the current £35,000 limit - are expected shortly.

Now I may well be moving in the wrong circles but I don't know anyone who has anything near £35,000 in savings, let alone £50,000. Like so many other people, I have a fair amount of debt but no savings. I do, however, bank with the Bank of Scotland and the takeover of a Scottish financial institution by Lloyds TSB is a concern. I've been with BoS for more than a decade and always found them to be an excellent bank with good rates of interest - not that money stays long enough in my account to earn any...

But surely I'm not alone in thinking - not for the first time - that the world has gone mad. Just a month ago a wealthy Arab consortium took over an English football club - Manchester City. Their first act was to pay more than £32m for just one player - Brazilian Robinho. On the same day their city rivals United forked out just under £31m for a Bulgarian striker. United are backed, rather ironically given Monday's events, by Americans. Such transfers are, quite frankly, obscene. And with the world in financial crisis, crass doesn't begin to describe the behaviour of those behind these transfers.

Who knows when the financial horror stories will end. I have a good friend who works for the Bank of Scotland and he's naturally very worried about the threat to his job. Truth is none of us are certain of anything any more.

My old granny, God rest her soul, used to despise banks and never trusted them. She used to keep her money in several biscuit tins under her bed.

I think I'll go to the bank tomorrow and withdraw the four figure sum presently in my account. £10.50 should get me a decent sized tin of biscuits...

Life