There are ways to increase your chances of rat whacking. I once enjoyed using such a stall as a source of funds at a scout fair. Here are my tips and how they apply to risk monitoring.

Firstly, when whacking the rat there is not enough time to raise and lower the bat. The bat must be held up so that it only needs to drop onto the rat. This reduces the time taken to skrike a blow considerably.

So institutions for risk control and methods to control risk should be established in advance so they are easily and quickly triggered.

The bat should not be held too high and the blow needs to be fast but not necessarily powerful.

So there is no need for overkill just sufficient effort to succeed.

As time passed my skill increased and the stall holders considered banning me but instead a greater effort was made to disguise the timing of the release and to vary the speed of the rat.

So, if you are too successful the insiders will try to change the game.

I was also watching BBC Horizon on Artificial Intelligence last night, seeing all the scientists very excited about the possibilities and wondering what doors should be left closed in that realm, if any? Personally, I like the idea of robots cleaning my house, but am less keen on them making up their own language I don’t understand and talking to each other in it!

But it was an interesting exercise to sort out what we really think would happen as opposed to the sci fi stuff we read about. It was quite fun too, and yes, don’t mean to be shallow, but rather fancy the stem cell treatment myself!!

Thanks again

Hilary