Uplifting!

Anyone who has been fortunate enough to visit the great pyramids dominating the Giza plateau may also have travelled a little further south to Saqqara to admire the 4,650-year-old Step Pyramid of King Djoser.

Djoser’s imposing 60-metre-high pyramid rises above an enormous mortuary and festival complex surrounded by a wall 10.8 metres high containing fourteen doors; thirteen of these are false and meant for the use of the dead, while the one in the south-east corner is real and meant for the living. Built of Tura limestone, the wall is designed to represent the mud brick construction of earlier times, and the whole is surrounded by a rectangular trench 750 metres long and 40 metres wide.

Djoser’s tomb, which was the first to have been entirely built of stone, started off with a square ‘mastaba’ tomb being dug underground and rising above ground to a height of 60 metres with a vertical shaft leading to it; this tomb was conventional for the time except that it was square instead of rectangular. Later, it was enlarged all round by ten feet and then again when an extension was added at the eastern side to make it the conventional rectangle. Yet again it was enlarged and a two-tiered structure was made. To this two-step structure was later added another four tiers, making it the six-tiered pyramid we see today, though much of the polished Tura limestone with which it was faced has since disappeared.

Most of Egypt’s pyramids are relatively earthquake-proof, but that of 1992 led to the partial collapse of the ceiling of Djoser’s burial chamber, and repairs must be made to prevent the interior structure from being completely destroyed.

Enter then an engineering company from south Wales, Cintec, who have been commissioned to stabilise the chamber’s ceiling. They will, apparently, hoist scaffolding into the structure's chamber before pumping up specially designed inflatables to support the ceiling. They will then insert special fabric ‘socks’ into any wall fissures which will be filled with grout which will stabilise and strengthen the structure.

Who’d have thought that a Welsh company would have found themselves repairing an ancient Egyptian pyramid? This company would seem to have the right experience for, apart from helping to restore Windsor Castle after its 1992 fire, it also strengthened a major bridge in Delhi last year ahead of the Commonwealth Games.

Djoser’s step pyramid and its surrounding enclosure are uplifting by any standard. Now it is to be uplifted in a completely different sense.
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Rubbish

It is good the the government have ordered councils who abandoned weekly rubbish collections to reinstate them.

Encouraged by the last government, some councils cut their rubbish collections to one a fortnight despite widespread public condemnation of a system that demonstrably encouraged vermin. Fortunately, our local council was not one that tinkered with rubbish collections though it did organise fortnightly collections for recyclables, a system that has worked very well.

This coalition government has made some good progress in many areas, but so far seems not to have zeroed in on the one factor that impacts on rubbish collections. And that is the unconscionable amount of packaging that covers almost everything we buy. Why does some fruit, for example, have not only to be supplied in plastic ‘egg’ boxes but then covered in cling film?

The number of rubbish sacks my household put out for collection are far outnumbered by the sacks of recyclable materials we put out on the roadside. And a brief look along our road shows that pretty much the same applies to most households.

It’s time to deal with unnecessary packaging. That would do much to help councils and their waste collections.
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Say That Again?

A study by Newcastle University suggests that removing kerbs might actually make driving safer because they believe that hazards can actually increase drivers’ attention to the road.

So far so good.

But the idea is then spoiled by one of the researchers who said: ‘In towns we may need to start considering some radical schemes such as removing kerbs so there are more hazards - like pedestrians - around your car. Our research suggests that this might actually improve people’s driving.’

You read that right. Put a few more pedestrians around to improve road safety!

And we pay people to come up with crackpot ideas like that?
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New, But Expensive

You learn something every day. I didn’t know, for example, that the new-style energy-saving light bulbs were subsidised by the manufacturers. The subsidies will disappear in a couple of months at which time the cost of the so-called energy-saving bulbs will rocket.

I had to buy a couple of these new bulbs just before Christmas at a cost of around £4 each. £4 for a blooming light bulb! And this cost is set to at least triple according to reports.

Like many other people I don’t like the clumsy, expensive new bulbs. I don’t like the light they give out and don’t believe that they are truly energy-saving. They may last longer than the old ones but they only cost a few pence.

Of course, the arguments for and against the eco bulb have been lost and the EU bureaucrats have won. By the end of next year, the sale of all the old incandescent bulbs will be banned.

So now is the time to stock up. But only if you can find them!
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A Number Of Questions

As someone once interested in prisons, I feel that news of the riot in Ford Open Prison raises a variety of questions that need to be addressed quickly.

I wonder, for example, whether there are enough prison officers to maintain control of an establishment of nearly 500 prisoners in this place? In view of the reported low numbers when the riot started (two officers and four support staff), was this enough to maintain any discipline within the prison? Were all prisoners suitable for open conditions? What is the discipline regime in the prison? And if, as reported, prisoners have had free access to drugs and alcohol over a period of time, I wonder why nothing seems to have been done about it? There are many other such questions that spring to mind.

The internal discipline of a prison is largely down to the way in which senior staff and prison officers manage it. On the other hand, if staff numbers are kept low by the Prison Service, no amount of goodwill on the part of the prison officers and staff can prevent a situation such as the one that has occurred in Ford from getting out of control.

The Independent Monitoring Board for Ford reported in 2009 (there is no report yet for 2010) that: ‘The import of drugs, alcohol and mobile phones continues to be a problem and with possible reduced staffing levels it is difficult to see how this can be addressed.’

In light of this, I wonder what, if anything, was done about the situation?
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Shockingly Bad Taste

I am squeamish in the extreme and hate any television programme involving medical matters. If I had my way, I’d insist on a warning announcement being made before any news segments showing things like folk being given flu injections or having babies, etc.

The Discovery Channel was to have aired a documentary ‘re-enactment’ of the official autopsy on Michael Jackson who died in June 2009 at the age of fifty from a prescription drug overdose. This is obviously not a programme I would have watched. But I was interested to see, however, that the programme has been ‘postponed indefinitely’ because legal proceedings against Jackson's physician commence shortly and also at the request of the late star’s executors.

I have to agree with those who said that such a programme was ‘in shockingly bad taste’, and I wonder why money was spent on making it in the first place.

Perhaps to make a lot of money?
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Still A Good Read, 400 Years On

Though I am woefully lax in reading it, I am very fond of the King James version of the Bible published four hundred years ago. Even in these modern times, if one rises above archaic words such as ‘thee’ and ‘thou’, its language is rich, resonant and beautifully crafted.

Also known as the Authorised Version, the King James Bible was first published in 1611 by the King’s Printer, Robert Barker, and replaced two previous versions. It came about when King James I convened the Hampton Court Conference of 1604 when a new version was ordered to deal with the problems perceived by the Puritans in the earlier translations.

The new translation was undertaken by 47 scholars, all of whom were members of the Church of England. The Old Testament was translated from the Hebrew texts and the New Testament from the Greek Texts. Though the new translation was not initially universally accepted, it slowly supplanted the previous versions and remained the standard text until fairly recent times when new translations were made.

The new translations, in my view at any rate, do not have the resonance and richness of language of the King James version. Compare, for example, the following text from the Gospel according to St. John at Chapter 1 between the 1611 King James Version and that in the New English Bible of 1970:

‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ (KJV)

‘When all things began, the Word already was. The Word dwelt with God, and what God was, the Word was.’ (NEB)

Why do I raise this on new Year’s Day?

It is because the Archbishop of Canterbury in his New Year’s Address has said that the King James Bible could help people see the ‘big picture’ at a time of financial or job pressures. ‘This year's anniversary is a chance to stop and think about the big picture - and to celebrate the astonishing contribution made by that book 400 years ago’, he said.

It is interesting that the Archbishop has pointed towards the King James version and not one of the modern translations. And, for once, I agree with him.

Four hundred years after it was crafted and published, the King James version of the Bible remains richer and more resonant in its language than any of its successors.
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