Skin colour, my spin

In people, skin colour is controlled by a pigment called Melanin. It is made from an amino acid that is oxidised.

The pigment that makes people dark is chemically the same as the pigment that makes blackberries dark and it is the same as the ink that octopuses squirt when they flee predators.

Every human has this pigment in their bodies except for albino people. Even white people have small amounts of the pigment that make their skin.

Did you know that white people's skin is not white, it's transparent and slightly beige? The white colour you see in white people is actually the fats that are under the skin.   

Having a different pigment concentration in your skin does not make you more or less important than anyone else so there should be no reason why people are treated differently than others because of their colour.

Oriental city

The Oriental city mall in Colindale is gone. In it's place stands a Morrison's. There is still construction work taking place on the site and there are rumours of a new oriental city that will be on part of the property perhaps a smaller version of the original and there are also rumours of flats being built on the site also.

The car park is very modern looking and contains many charging points for electric cars. The shop above just looks like an ordinary shop.

New Radio Station

Yesterday a brand new talk radio station started broadcasting in the UK for the first time called talkRadio. I believe this new station is owned by the same company as talkSport.

I listened to the new station on my phone while I was waiting for my car safety test and servicing to finish. It is very good because it is a talk & debating station just like LBC.

If you are listening to radio with DAB then you need to retune your radio because it won't appear on the station list.

It is good timing because the station has opened at the start of the financial year and  before Easter.

One thing that I find amusing is that Julia Heartly Brewer is on talkRadio at the same time as James O Brian is on LBC, they are now competing for your time. They were on separate time slots on LBC in the past.

What is M.O. T

Today my car is having an M.O.T  (ministry of transport) test. A UK car test.

This is a safety test to ensure that my car is unlikely to cause harm outside of human error.

They test the Brakes, Tyres, Suspension, lights and chassis (for rust) to ensure that it can stop quickly without loosing control.

The passenger safety is also checked, windscreen wipers, seat belts, air conditioning (leaking co2 causes fainting) and windscreens.

Recently an emissions test was also added to check the car emits the same levels of co2 and co that it did when it was made.

There are several other tests that I'm not aware of. Things like number plate light check and various other legal checks.

Paul Daniels

A few days ago on march 17th, St Patrick's Day, Paul Daniels died. He Left behind 3 sons and a widow.

He had a very interesting history. He started life in business learning accounting and had a grocery store. Then he went into magic.

He was a very outspoken man and always had something to say about the news.

Good thing is he died in a happy state of mind because the brain tumour that was killing him was also clouding his mind.

Well all I can say is I hope that his family can pick themselves up and live a good life.

Conventional oven

There are two types of conventional oven. Fan assisted and non fan assisted.

In a fan assisted oven the air at the top shelf is the same temperature as the bottom because the air is circulated.

You can put a pizza in the top or the bottom shelf and it will be the same.

Non fan assisted ovens are slightly more power efficient when you are only using the top shelf because they don't power a fan and the heat is focused on the top shelf so the food cooks more quickly. There is also less openings for the heat to escape out of.

For cooking on more than one shelf it is better to use a fan assisted oven because the heat is redistributed evenly.

On some fan assisted ovens you can turn the fan off.

Donald trump policies

Presidential candidate Donald trump  has some very controversial policies. He wants to ban all Muslims from entering America, I don't see how he will enforce it because people can lie about their faith. I can say I'm Jewish when I'm not or I can say I'm atheist and be a Muslim. I don't see what is wrong with Islamic people anyway, almost all people that call themselves Muslim are harmless law abiding people.

Why build a wall across Mexico and not Canada? Why is he writing off a whole country? Somehow I think he would be doing mexico a favour by building a wall because he will keep the American criminals inside the US and force the drugs gangs to leave the border towns alone. Mexicans don't take drugs like they do in the US so the gangs would loose money and the other countries nearby would pick up the drugs trade. And all the subsidised cheap GM corn would stay in the US and stop undercutting Mexican farmers. Perhaps Mexico will get rich without America.

US election outcome

In my opinion the two candidates that will stand to replace Barack Obama in the US general Election are Hillary Clinton and Donald trump.

Hillary Clinton is a Democrat and Trump is Republican. They are dominating the primary elections and it appears clear to me.

There may be internal conflict for Lady voters that are loyal to the Republican party. They may think the republican  party gets better results but want to see Hilary lead because she is an experienced politician and a lady, she would probably want to finally close the door on gender equality. American women still earn less then men and Hillary is very likely to bring  legislation that promotes fair pay to both genders. And she wants to make  it easier to be a parent I believe.

Trump is a very successful business man and probably has a sound plan for breaking up the huge dept owed by the American government without causing much chaos although he has some very extreme views that I think are crazy.

Hillary Clinton is also likely to have a very good plan for American dept control and economic growth because she has been in the business for a long time and knows what works and what doesn't.

All I know for sure is that things will heat up in the months just before November and it will be a very close call.

Car ha ha

Two days ago the rubber trim on my windscreen wiper blade split so now my driver's side wiper does not wipe properly when it rains, that is sure to fail the M.O.T test that my car is due to take within the next few weeks.

I hope that in the future cars will be much easier to maintain.

Perhaps electric cars in the future will have very small engines that can be changed as easily as a lightbulb is changed in a house. They won't need engine coolant or Oil or any other fluid and the parts slide and screw together and are easy to replace. 

I wonder if cars in the future will be recognisable from the way they are now. Perhaps cars of the future will drive themselves and talk to you like they do in the TV show knight Rider. Maybe they will be fitted with couch like seats and have TV screens that play films while then car drives itself.