Hi to ALL!

Zyra's website Issue133 is now online! I hope you have time to read this odd newsletter. And, if you don't have time, I feel sorry for you. You need to have more time off, have a holiday, and avoid catching the dreaded diabetes.

Just in case you're wondering; no, you haven't been lost off the Circular list. It's just that it's taken me so long to write this message, what with the work on the website and the work in moving house.

In this circular newsletter there are the following: a new front page picture, a reward prize on offer for finding the treasure, underwater hi-fi, "send no flowers, send cheese instead", the Imperial War Museum, birds, Uranus, a grumble about AVG antivirus, the earth/moon/sun and which goes around which in case you didn't know, anything Irish, Deal or No Deal, a picture of an atomic bomb, a French petshop in the UK, how to fit a manual preheat circuit to a diesel-powered vehicle, gravities on different planets, how to have an offshore bank account, the continued campaign to save Camden Stables Market, mystery of absence of cardboard boxes in shops, the annoying misuse of the word "LESS" when it should be "FEWER", free car screen crack repair, creosote, some excellent maps by OS, how to mend an office chair, a possible solution to SWB (a mysterious form of drowning), the alternative satellite-navigation that you can do without any electronic gadgetry, and an update on what's not going to happen in 2012.

Well let's start off with the new front page picture. The previous picture was quite fun and can still be seen at www.zyra.net/i2771.htm , but it had been unchanged for a while and since then the hair colour has changed to BLUE, so, time for a new front page picture. This is a co-branding photoshoot with another affiliate website, Toxic Drums www.toxicdrums.com ! (Well worth a browse around). It was getting a bit late in the day, and dark blue does not show up well by light of dusk, so of course the image has had to be tweaked to bring the colour back up to what it should be.

It's a known fact that there's a risk when working with children or animals, they tend to upstage any performance because they are seen as more cute. A slightly different issue occurs when posing for a modelling shot with three 40-gallon drums, as they are physically much larger than expected. You can see this at the page www.zyra.tv/i0262.htm which includes a to-scale image !

There are some miscellaneous links later, but first...

REWARD: a prize of one hundred euros is on offer for the recovery of the data from a camera which was launched on tethered balloons. As you can guess, it is the "tethered" bit that went wrong, and the last time the nine balloons and digital movie camera were seen, they were heading off in the direction of Amsterdam. We're already coming up on searches for "Mustek DV5300" with the page www.zyra.eu/dv5300.htm , but now there's a new page to explain about the mysterious arrival (possibly somewhere in Continental Europe), of a crash-landed digital camera. That page is www.zyra.org.uk/reward-lost-balloon-camera.htm

If you'd like to go ballooning safely without getting carried away, a good contact is Virgin Balloon Flights www.zyra.org.uk/virginballoonflights.htm

Come to think of it, this Circular is actually Circular 130/131/132/133, as the previous one was www.zyra.net/circ129.htm which was Circular 127/128/129. As you can tell, new issues get published, but there's not always a newsletter. The fact is it takes a huge amount of time and effort to write such a message. In effect, the writing of Circulars competes with the with writing of pages. It's a bit like something a famous sci-fi author once said about answering messages that came in: "I can either write messages OR books".

By the way, SOME of the previous Circulars have been carefully stuffed and mounted as exhibits in the museum of Circulars at www.zyra.org.uk/circular.htm . Merchants, please don't expect them to be current!

Meanwhile, those balloons and camera drift on and on, across Europe. Up there in the sky... talking of which: BIRDS! There's a new category www.zyra.net/birds.htm . This gives a chance to link up such pages as the mystery of why you don't see baby pigeons, the easy-parrot system, save the albatross, how to catch a bird, Haiths garden bird food, and how to hypnotise a chicken. Plus, a plug for the RSPB!

Penguins are birds, and you might think they'd fly considering all the stuff about the Revolution in Operating Systems: Linux www.zyra.org.uk/linux.htm . Then again, if you look at they way they swim underwater, it gives the impression of flight.

The H2O Audio company www.zyra.net/h2oaudio.htm is a company specialising in underwater hi-fi, so they get linked from the Underwater category www.zyra.info/subaqua.htm as well as the Hi-Fi category www.zyra.org.uk/hifi.htm

You can see this multi-overlapping categories system in various other places too. See a few choice examples linked from www.zyra.org.uk/category.htm . It's in contrast to pigeon-holing category systems which are a bit awkward and tend to result in problems long before they hit any Godel type of situation. The other thing about multiple-categorisation is that it's possible to wander around the site through some interestingly unorthodox paths.

Also see How to Find Stuff www.zyra.org.uk/to-find.htm , How to Find Stuff on Zyra's Website www.zyra.org.uk/finds.htm , and How to Change your Internet Homepage to whatever you want www.zyra.org.uk/homepage.htm

Now without getting too political about various futile wars that are being waged in the present age... WAR! What is it good for!? Well, it makes excellent museum exhibits. See the Imperial War Museum www.zyra.org.uk/iwm.htm . The lessons of history are there to be seen.

Plus, as well as the educational aspects of the Imperial War Museum, there's also a remarkable range of nostalgic paraphernalia available at the Imperial War Museum Shop www.zyra.org.uk/iwmshop.htm

A picture of an atomic bomb? See www.zyra.net/atombomb.htm . As far as I know, if you stroke the bomb softly, no-one really minds, but sitting astride it waving a cowboy hat and shouting "Yee-Hah!" in the style of Dr Strangelove, would probably be frowned upon by the curators.

The museum's scope also includes the old battleship HMS Belfast www.zyra.org.uk/hms-belfast.htm which is not indoors in the actual museum, but instead is moored in the Thames near Tower Bridge.

With the ship being "Belfast", I'm now wondering if there should be a link from the recently added Irish page www.zyra.eu/irish.htm which includes anything Irish that's already on the site. Ulster Weavers www.zyra.eu/ulsterweavers.htm for example.

There's a free map on the page, but it's not high resolution. Now for a high-resolution map, you know where you are with Ordnance Survey! These high-res maps are available from www.zyra.org.uk/ordnance-survey.htm . Other maps are available. See www.zyra.org.uk/maps.htm

Talking about navigation, there is a navigational conjuring trick which is explained on a new page here. In effect, without any GPS, compass, or map, you can tell which way the compass directions are in an urban landscape. When you read the review, you'll see why it's described as "Alternative Satellite Navigation" www.zyra.net/altsatnav.htm even though you don't need any gadgets to do this trick for yourself!

In contrast, Gadgets are the subject of the pages connected from www.zyra.org.uk/gadgets.htm , and, as it's coming up to that time of year when people feel less hard up, some of those pages could do quite well.

With it being that time of year, when people look at the sky and consider the possibility of snow, even if the climate is too hot for that to be likely, various shops tend to be better frequented. With many of these shops, I have a page about them! They're not just on the Shopping Portal www.zyra.org.uk/shopping.htm and the Famous Brand Names www.zyra.org.uk/nshops.htm , but also just about anywhere that you can look up in the site index www.zyra.org.uk/sindex.htm (Give it a try, for Zavvi, Sendit, etc?).

Turkeys may look a bit sad about the event, but they are reminded that they voted for it. It was a democratic vote, and the turkeys were given a free choice about when the event was to be, and how the decorations were to be hung, and there were different political factions with different policies and they stood in competition with each other in public debate, and then the choice of party was put to the vote. With it being a democratic vote, one or other of the parties got elected, and then they could claim they had a democratic mandate and that all their policies were the choice of the turkeys.

Meanwhile, on the planet Uranus www.zyra.net/uranus.htm , very seasonal weather is expected. You can see why, because the axis was tilted over. It was tilted right over, a long time ago.

It's a much bigger planet than the Earth, but curiously it has a similar gravity at the "surface". For more about a comparison of gravity on different planets, see www.zyra.org.uk/gravities.htm

You don't have to move to a different planet to have an offshore bank account, but it helps if you escape from the country where tax is the problem. For example, if you start off living in the UK, and then you up-sticks and move to the Bahamas for example, you can open an offshore bank account in the Channel Islands. Such a tax efficient solution is possible if you do the right things, but it's best to get some good financial advice about it first. HSBC is a bank which, if you're keen to read such pages as www.zyra.org.uk/taxhaven.htm , may be of interest to your tax-saving plans. The place to visit next is www.zyra.org.uk/hsbc-offshore.htm

On TAX, watch out for those emails that arrive pretending they are from the Tax Office. They are not. They are from criminals impersonating the Tax Office. Take a look at the unmistakable scammishness at these stuffed-and-mounted examples: www.zyra.org.uk/tax-hoax.htm

There's a "Welcome Back!" to Mothercare www.zyra.org.uk/mumcare.htm who've moved their affiliate program from one place to another, and there's a "Welcome Back!" to USA Today www.zyra.org.uk/usatoday.htm who've had their page updated, and there's a special "Welcome!" to Interflora, who've missed out for years on having a page here because of having problems with restrictions on the name of the place being mentioned, but now they are on here, at last! Well done! www.zyra.org.uk/iflora.htm !

There's also a "Welcome Back!" to various well-known places who've temporarily had to have their dedicated pages CORKED because of a ridiculous problem with one of the various affiliate marketing companies. You can see more about this and a list of the welcomed back places at www.zyra.net/corked.htm

So far, the welcoming back on that page includes: The AA, Angels Fancy Dress, Virgin Media, Next, Superdrug, Co-operative Travel, and Salon Skincare, all of which can be reached via www.zyra.net/corked.htm

On a slightly different turn of events, some places that already had a presence which was location-specific have now gained a second locality-specific page. For example, Evisu UK www.zyra.org.uk/evisu.htm and Evisu USA www.zyra.net/evisu-usa.htm , and also the petshop Faun'Home France www.zyra.eu/faun-home.htm and Faun'Home UK www.zyra.org.uk/faunhome-uk.htm

There are some things that are applicable internationally, and some are new on this issue (or on one of the previous issues since the last Circular). If you have an office chair and it's become a let-down, ie because it's a gas-lift chair and the seal has started to leak, then there is a method which should stop it sagging. This excellent piece of bodging should work equally well anywhere there's gravity and swivel office chairs, and all it requires is a strategically placed jubilee-clip. The method, complete with a few random illustrations, is there to be seen at www.zyra.biz/mendofficechair.htm

See, it's just a matter of thinking about it differently, and then you can see that it's perfectly reasonable to mend an office equipment using plumbing components. It's not even as if rodents are involved, as per the shredder explained at www.zyra.tv/gerbilsh.htm

Here's another way of thinking differently about things. Whereas a customary gift might be flowers, here's a company that says "Send no flowers. Send CHEESE instead!", and, they go on to explain why! See www.zyra.org.uk/cheesist.htm

I'd guess that TOYS www.zyra.org.uk/toys.htm will also be popular as gifts, bearing in mind the seasonality, but there is a philosophical question about the idea of FUN GIFTS at www.zyra.me.uk/fungifts.htm

Now here's a fun thing, although it's nothing to do with gifts. It's a fun experiment, as in "an experiment was carried out". (Some of these experiments can be quite messy if performed indoors!). Now for a while, the page of density www.zyra.org.uk/density.htm has proved to be quite popular, but then we get "How to Measure Density" www.zyra.info/measuredensity.htm . But what would be really good would be to construct a pair of scales which could be used for measuring density in a direct comparison. This may sound silly and it gets mixed up with "which is heavier: a ton of lead or a ton of feathers?" www.zyra.info/tonflead.htm , but in the end a solution was found that was sufficiently practical to determine if a mystery metal was silver or zinc, by measurement using Density Scales! www.zyra.org.uk/density-scales.htm . How about that?!

Oh and by the way, Zinc gets a page too, at www.zyra.net/zinc.htm

Slightly more embarrassingly, another substance that got written about recently was Creosote. See www.zyra.info/creosote.htm . The problem is that if you find a can of it, it looks uncannily like old engine oil. Now despite the fact that creosote has been used as a perfectly good wood preservative for donkeys years, the European Union has BANNED it. If this type of authoritarianism continues against people's freedom to make their own mistakes, it'll get more like a Soviet Union than a European Union.

Tyranny on a smaller scale is going on in one of the regions of Camden, although at least there is some opposition being put up by the people. In effect, someone is attempting to delete the famous Camden Stables Market which has been there for yonks, and replace it with something presumably less interesting/alternative. Unsurprisingly, such suspected normalisation of a much cherished region of alternativeness has met with cries of outrage from folks who like to shop there and traders whose businesses have prospered there for a long time. There's more to be seen about this at the page www.zyra.org.uk/camthrt.htm and www.zyra.org.uk/camdsave.htm and the official "Save Camden Stables Market" site which is linked off those pages.

Meanwhile, there is some good news from Oasis Alternative Market in Birmingham, where the proprietor of the place has persuaded all of the shops who have a website to include them at the page www.zyra.org.uk/oasis1.htm

The thing about property development is that it has to make sense from a financial perspective, and often with these things, they make no financial sense at all, so therefore we can conclude that the motives are political or otherwise sinister in some way, as per www.zyra.org.uk/ken-mkt.htm

Oh, here's something that makes financial sense: If you've got a car, and it's got a tiny chip or crack in the front glass, here are a few possible strategies:

1. Ignore it and hope it goes away.

2. Wait for it to turn into a bigger crack, and let the screen break into thousands of little bits, and then claim on your insurance.

3. Smash the screen yourself. Whe-hey!

Well, although item 3 might sound to have some style, you'd better make sure the movie camera is running so you can get £250 off "You've Been Framed" or it could be an expensive gesture. Now item 1 is what most people do, but in practice, glass on cars does not heal up of its own accord, even if you are religious. What generally happens is that 1 reverts to 2, and then you have to claim on your insurance. Well, there's plenty of car insurance links here: www.zyra.org.uk/insure-c.htm , but these days they charge you at least as much for the screen as it actually costs. So, what do you do? Well, you could visit Autoglass, as per www.zyra.info/autoglass2.htm and they will actually mend the damage FREE.

Here's another handy vehicular tip, but it's not as simple as visiting a website and signing up for a free repair. No, this is a material modification which you can make to a diesel-powered vehicle. I've been requested to write about this, because I've known about the idea for some time, and it sometimes crops up in conversation, but I've not explained it online until now: How to fit a Manual Pre-heat to a Diesel! It saves energy, saves time, and saves all that nonsense of diesel-powered vehicles pretending to be powered by petrol/gasoline when they are not. Fit this, and they you have control. www.zyra.net/preheaters.htm (works equally well whichever side of the road you drive on).

I suppose I really should give a plug to some of the merchants, especially now we're all getting on with climbing out of the credit crunch, recession, economic downturn, subprime-economy-syndrome. Indeed, we're putting it behind us. So, here are some blatantly commercial plugs:

Sainsburys. www.zyra.org.uk/snsbrys.htm (as in "more rabbit than"). Famous shop in the UK, known for financial lines, as well as more practical things such as FOOD.

Ministry of Sound www.zyra.org.uk/ministryofsound.htm . A famous nighterie, and no expenses scandals.

Babee Card www.zyra.org.uk/babeecard.htm . (Pronounced "Baby Card" by upper-middle class people, and "Babby Card" by working class people). It's like a credit card, so you can buy stuff online (ooh good!), but you can't get into debt!

npower hometeam www.zyra.org.uk/npower-hometeam.htm - as advertised by Wallace and Gromit - boiler maintenance/servicing/insurance.

Peter Burrowes www.zyra.org.uk/peterburrowes.htm . Classy jewellery. Not to be confused with Peter Rabbit, although we've got an affiliate program with him as well!

Antler www.zyra.org.uk/antler.htm - famous name in luggage.

Continental Mobiles www.zyra.org.uk/continentalmobiles.htm - yes, they are mobile phones. However they are encrusted with diamonds, sapphires, etc. Mobile phones as jewellery.

Aha! Now there's an interesting point! The word is spelt (spelled) differently according to which side of the Atlantic it is. So, the old category www.zyra.org.uk/jewel.htm has been split into Jewelry www.zyra.net/jewelry.htm and Jewellery www.zyra.co.uk/jewellery.htm . It's a bit like the rather amusing situation about Car Accessories where there's a special North American version at www.zyra.net/car-accessories-usa.htm with pseudo-bilingual table! American Car Insurance also has a similar split, www.zyra.net/insure2.htm which is mainly car insurance in the USA but tends to include Canadian and Mexican insurance too, for example www.zyra.net/mexicoinsuranceservices.htm

Zyra's website is into almost everything almost everywhere, so should never be excluded on geographical grounds (see www.zyra.org.uk/regional.htm ). It's a global company, even though it is not a big company! There is already some success in up-and-coming markets such as India www.zyra.org/dgmilist.htm . Yatra, Yahoo, and Snapfish are already on there, together with various other interesting places.

And now a grumble about AVG AntiVirus. Now don't get me wrong; I am not knocking AVG AntiVirus. Indeed, I am grateful to them for giving away a free antivirus software package. They receive deserved credit for this at www.zyra.org.uk/avg-uk.htm . It's just that if you have a few legacy machines which still run oldfashioned Microsoft Windows, if the versions happen to be the older versions, AVG AntiVirus will pester you to upgrade, even when it can not. It's also no excuse saying "well you should upgrade to a later version of Windows then", because, as you should know, the more modern versions of Windows are always slower and more bloaty than the earlier versions. (If you don't believe this, put Windows3.11 on a modern so-many gigahertz machine and see it run lightning-fast!). Thus, some machines, which have worked reliably for years, can not be "upgraded". The annoying part is that AVG AntiVirus continues to put up annoying messages even though it is unable to complete the task it is pestering you for! This fact is explained and showed-off at www.zyra.info/avg-grumble.htm

Another annoyance, though on a quite different subject, is the supermarkets that give away LESS BAGS. It's not whether they give away more bags or not, it's the application of less literacy than would be expected of such a quality establishment. The idea of "less bags" infers that the supermarket is somehow melting them down and pouring out a fluidic form of the substance "bag" and then measuring up lower levels of the stuff, out of a tap. Obviously silly, and the fact is that they really mean they are giving away FEWER bags. Ie, a smaller integer number (not a lower fluidic amount). This whole business of "less" and "fewer" is easy to understand, and is explained at the page www.zyra.org.uk/fewer.htm

Another supermarket-related problem is that fewer cardboard boxes are available. In many places, none at all. There is an absence of useful reusable cardboard boxes. Thinking back a decade or three, there were plenty of cardboard boxes piled up near the checkouts, and customers were given the chance to help themselves. But now, sadly, this feature is missing! The reason, interestingly and somewhat ironically, is not misguided tidiness on the part of the retail shops in question, but a mistake on the cult of recycling. They've sacrificed good sense to alter their ways to being apparently more "green" when talking in a posh boardroom, while on the ground they are leaving a carbon footprint deep and black in the last snows before ecological meltdown. In contrast, good sense says that REUSE beats RECYCLING, and that the cardboard is far better put to use by giving it away to folks to reuse. Yet another page is created (no treestuff paper req'd) at www.zyra.org.uk/cardboard-boxes-in-shops.htm

Make-Do And Mend should come back and stay, as it is more sensible and more sustainable than the throwaway society (consumer society). Already there are signs of good sense taking effect in some places, for example, people are (on average) paying off their credit card debt. Taken to its extreme, this would be a turnup for the books, if everyone paid off their credit cards, it could be THE END for credit cards and living off debt. That would be such a shock for the banks! In a future where just about everyone had a positive balance, it would be a society based on wealth, not on debt. Then, the bankers would be the servants of folks, not the other way round.

It's a funny thing about bankers. Despite the fact that they work hard and manage money for people, and only get huge bonuses every now-and-then not all of the time, despite all that, folks often do not consider bankers in high regard. Funny that.

So, when a banker says "deal or no deal?", the public reaction has a tendency not to be in the positive. Such a sentiment is part of the modern zeitgeist in which the game "Deal or No Deal" is set, and this is one of the reasons the TV show and game manages to build up such tension and apprehension and anticipation. Ooh, you could cut the atmosphere with a knife, and if it were a bit colder with some icing on it, dish it out on plates like xmas cake! A variety of online places offer a slice of "Deal or No Deal", with or without cream, and these can be examined at www.zyra.net/deal-or-no-deal.htm

Now, the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun: Which goes around which? It might sound obvious, but it isn't obvious to everyone, and not everyone knows. So, I've written a page about it. What a surprise. www.zyra.net/earth-moon-sun.htm

Well it's true, these worlds go around each other. It caused quite a lot of upset with The Church when Galileo first mentioned it. In fact, you can see the Moons of Jupiter with modern-day binoculars. Here's how: www.zyra.org.uk/mjupiter.htm

Further heresy is seen at the page of Strega. I happened to acquire some of the final stock from a certain Italian Restaurant, and included there was a bottle of some special liqueur called Strega. Inspirational stuff, and as I was supping it up, I had an idea based on the story of witchcraft in Italy, (Strega being the Italian word for witch). If Italy can afford 0.44 square kilometres for The Vatican, how about also having a Wiccan City State as well, the City of Strega?! More about this at www.zyra.eu/strega.htm

I heard recently someone lobbed a metal souvenir model of the Cathedral of Milan at the boss of Italy recently. This didn't do his face any good at all. Well if instead it had been an item of Pagan iconography such as a little wicker man or a branch of mistletoe, he'd have looked a lot more cheerful about it. Then the paparazzi would not have seen him all bandaged-up.

Meanwhile, on the theme of "worlds", some companies are calling themselves "World of [whatever]". It's been going on for a while now, but it turned out there were quite a few on this site, so now there's a page listing them... www.zyra.net/world-of.htm

On a similar basis, there's another one for those companies whose name is "Just [whatever]". www.zyra.co.uk/just-x.htm

The word "JUST", as well as meaning "only", also means "fair". I've now got a sequel to the page "Cheer Me Up" www.zyra.org.uk/cheerme.htm , (which has been doing better these days!), and the new page is called "It's Not Fair". People often put that into a search, and so here's the page "It's Not Fair"... www.zyra.org.uk/notfair.htm

Of course, it SHOULD be fair. Whatever it is, it should be.

One of the recent things that happened in the affiliate market that's NOT FAIR is an unfairness imposed by the State of New York. It's a tax problem specific to New York, and so now affiliates are escaping from New York rather than put up with the unfair rule! See www.zyra.net/ny-tax.htm

(Of course it doesn't stop us selling stuff to people in New York, and it doesn't stop people in New York from buying stuff or selling stuff internationally. It just stops affiliates from living in New York, in effect, as merchants aren't allowed to have affiliates living there or else the merchant pays New York tax!). See, it's kind-of an own-goal, like RBS www.zyra.org.uk/royalbanks.htm !

On my emigration (not from new York), I am packing my shipping containers and it will be interesting to see the temperature and humidity changes they go through on their journey. Unfortunately, freight companies aren't keen on passengers travelling inside the containers, so I'll not be aboard to monitor the changing conditions. So, I'm packing some thermohygrographs. These are the things you see in museums where the curators want to make sure the priceless exhibits have a constant environment, and you can see the little graphs which are like a cylindrical tachograph of changing conditions, or, for the curators' wishes, unchanging conditions! I phoned Casella, who make these precision instruments, and when they heard the story they gave me a spot of industrial sponsorship in the form of some of the special pens and chart papers that go with the machines. Well Done to Casella! The story will unfold and will be further plotted on the page "Adventure of a Thermohygrograph" www.zyra.net/thermohygrograph.htm !

The subject of air and water comes to mind in another piece of experimentation by the mad scientist, as there's a curious and scary condition known as "SWB - Shallow Water Blackout". It's a form of fainting underwater, and various people have beliefs about it regarding hyperventilation. However, for a theory to be true (rather than just folklore), it has to be consistent with reality. I don't think the present-day notions about SWB are consistent, so I have proposed some experimentation and even a warning system which could help to save people from drowning. It's like an underwater smoke-alarm! For more about this, see www.zyra.org.uk/swb-cure.htm

It's madness, madness I tell you! Well you don't need to tell me because I'm a schizophrenic too! I know! Anyway, who would have thought that the Periodic Table of Elements would have more than 100 elements in it?! Well here's the Extended Periodic Table with even more elements: www.zyra.net/periodic2.htm

Now here's a curious thing: Insurance that you can't buy! So, why am I talking about it if I've got no chance of selling any? Well it's one of those things that needs to be thought about. You can insure your house and your car, and your medical treatment when you travel, but you can't insure sentimental items. What I mean is, if you had to claim, you'd only get paid money, and that wouldn't replace the irreplaceable. So, there are a few other things which can be considered when looking at this matter: www.zyra.org.uk/insure-s.htm . Do you see what I mean? The need for it exists, even if the product doesn't!

I was asked the other day about the seemingly impossible. It was an example in which you've made someone a cup of tea, and you know they have two sugars so you've put two sugars in and given it a good stir, and then suddenly it is discovered that they actually only take ONE sugar. So now what? Can you take a spoonful of sugar out of the tea? Yes, you can, and this is explained on the page www.zyra.org.uk/t-minus.htm

Another thing which is quite odd, but not impossible, is the idea of having your own scrap-heap at home. It sounds difficult to justify at first, and could be socially unacceptable, but if you start calling it "recycling", people soon start to see the merit of it. See www.zyra.at/scrapheap.htm

How time moves on! Mayonnaise that was perfectly OK has suddenly become sneerable-at, yet it is still in the same jar as before. Such fuss. Mayonnaises Through The Ages www.zyra.me.uk/mayonage.htm . Gigabytes, once big, are still the same as they were, and yet they are now small. The Story of The Gigabyte is told at www.zyra.net/gigabyte.htm

And that brings us to the final item: What's NOT going to happen in 2012. Of course a variety of things are going to happen in 2012: The Olympics, yet another scare-story, another alleged health crisis, and a few people accused of being guilty of some minor indiscretion. But what's on many people's minds is the much-vaunted matter of the full-circling of the calendar of the Ancient Maya. Well, if you want an Apocalypse, just start spreading rumours and things will start to happen. However, the Maya didn't believe in "the end of the world", and Mayan Astrology which has a full cycle every so-many thousand years doesn't have an END of any sort. The astrological significance is that there'll be a CHANGE of things, not an end. So, not a time to panic. Ideas that "the earth's axis/rotational poles are going to flip" are just daft. See www.zyra.net/poleflip.htm

Have Fun exploring the site!

Kind Regards to ALL!

Zyra

www.zyra.org.uk

Disc-claimer: If you throw a frisbee over your garden fence and it lands in your neighbour's garden, it's best to ask permission before going over to claim it back. However, if it goes through the greenhouse, you may find that a reflective effect occurs where the neighbour comes round to visit you all hot-and-bothered and makes more heat and fuss than your original carelessness might have been expected to cause. There are people who deny that there is such a thing as The Greenhouse Effect, but what they do is to throw things from other people's gardens and then hope they aren't around when the trouble comes back.