Author: Mike

I just read an interesting story in today’s LA Times that Petrol is hitting the $4.00 a gallon! Wow, what a cheap price for petrol, I wish I could get some of that over here…

• Goggle says:  4.00 U.S. Dollars = 2.02336992 British Pounds

• Google says:  1 US gallon = 3.78541178 Litres

• Goggle says:  £2.02336992/3.78541178 Litres = £ 0.53 / Litre

• I’ve just paid £ 1.08 /Litre

• Goggle says: £1.08 x 3.78541178 = £4.08,  which = $8.08

• I say: STOP MOANING!

PetrolPrices.com predicts the UK cost of a Litre of unleaded will be £1.50 /Litre by the Summer of 2008!

Enough said!

It appears that the our personal data is now being exported to overseas security and law enforcement agencies.

In a move that should alarm all of us, Home Secretary Jackie Smith has secretly agreed to anyone’s personal data being made available for review by many of the world’s law enforcement agencies and their staff. Full story here.

Under the pretext of national security, this means that anyone in the UK that is captured by one of the many UK CCTV cameras and if identification information can be made from the capture of that data such as car registration number plates, that data  can now be exported!

Again, it seems that this UK government is determined not only to keep us all under surveillance here in the UK, but now wants other governments to also spy on us, particularly the USA.

I have asked the Home Office for information on this under the Freedom of Information Act using the What Do They Know site, one of the many excellent web sites setup by the My Society organisation. I would encourage everyone to do the same. I’ll publish what feedback I get back in another post.

As the west continues its love of the internal combustion engine and its new found vigour for increased need for bio-fuels, yet more of the worlds rain forests are disappearing under the headlong dash to clear them for growing the West’s newest liquid-gold!

As can be seen in this amazing image from last weeks Time Magazine, what was once virgin Rain Forest is now reduced to acre upon acre of soybean plants used to make Bio-Fuels.

This is just one picture from one area of Brazil and what is staggering is that instead of the soybeans going to help the worlds hungry, it will actually add to their misery as more food is is used to fuel our cars than our fellow human beings!

The continuing chain reaction of farmers switching from Soybean to Corn (it gets a higher price) for Bio-Fuel increases the sowing of yet more Soybean which means that more forests are cut down to meet demand etc. etc. All the time as this goes on, less food is being made available to go into the human food chain and prices continue to rise.

What is the answer? I’m not sure, but something has to be done and very soon, perhaps we all have to give up our second cars as a start! This fuel and food crisis is only going to get worse!

Read the ‘Clean Energy Scam’ here.

I’ve subscribed to Time magazine on & off since the late 60’s and while I have not always agreed with some of its coverage, overall I have have found it a very interesting weekly general news magazine, still superior than its main rival, Newsweek!

This year it celebrates its 85th year and it has put together a some articles to celebrate its coverage (with selected front c0ver images) of some of those stories such as Lindbergh’s flight, WWII, Vietnam, Watergate, the fall of the USSR and the rise of the Internet and of course Iraq.

Of course much more is covered in the review and that can be found in the PDF download here.

It is a shame that the UK has not had a publication that stretches back over a similar period. Of course, we do have our national daily newspapers, but with its blend of excellent photography (some also published in its excellent sister publication LIFE)  and world-wide network of journalists, it has continued to keep informed from a different perspective on many subjects not covered elsewhere. Happy Birthday TIME.

With the OFCOM making an announcement last week of its proposals for a ‘super-fast’ broadband, it is setting out what it thinks should be the future networking for all new housing developments with potential speeds of up to 100Mb/sec.

OFCOM has released a consultation document and is looking for your opinion. You can find the consultation document and how to reply to it here.

At last someone speaks up! Former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, is urging African leaders to do more to address the crisis in Zimbabwe. About time, but might this plea be falling on deaf ears?

His comments about the deterioration of the stimulation in Zimbabwe having a big impacts beyond the country’s borders are absolutely right.

If Mugabe uses force to get his own way, where do the countries that border Zimbabwe think the inevitable streams of refuges will go as they try to leave the the growing violence of Mugabe?

I suppose as those countries have not raised a hand to get rid of Mugabe, particularly Thabo Mbeki’s South Africa, they will just shut their borders and let them all die. Clearly if Mbeki is happy for Chinese arms shipments to pass through his country unhindered, then he can’t care too much for his fellow Africans. Thank goodness for the South African trade unions for stopping the ship from discharging it cargo.

Where is the ship off to now? I won’t be surprised to find that it turns up in Mozambique at the port of Beira.

Beira was the costal port that was used to move oil from the Mozambique coast to Zimbabwe during the to old Rhodesia independence crisis.

There are still road links between the two countries and I expect that Mozambique won’t be bothered if they have to ship the arms across their lands at the behest of the Chinese as it continues to increase its influence in that country.

As the situation in Zimbabwe teeters on the edge of disaster, another indication of how Robert Mugabe intends to deal with the situation lays anchored of the South African coast and it’s not a ship full of food aid for the people of Zimbabwe.

It appears that Mugabe has managed to use some of its stash of secret money, probably from a numbered Swiss bank account to finance the delivery of Chinese manufactured Guns, Ammunition and Rockets!

How nice of the Chinese to continue with their benevolent acts towards Africa!

How helpful of Thabo Mbeki’s South African government to give permission to transport them over their land to Zimbabwe, what a generous act by a very helpful neighbour! We cannot wait to see the results of such a helpful action.

Once again Zimbabwe’s African neighbours seem content to sit on their hands as another tragedy unfolds and the Western world with its current obsession of counting its money, seems to be equally ambivalent in its reaction. I suspect with crude oil prices at an all time high, if Zimbabwe had some, we would see a completely different reaction.

If Thabo Mbeki allows the arms from this ship to pass into Zimbabwe, then he could well be contributing to what might be the next African genocide. Somewhere, someone has to do something.

If this was a movie, the next thing that would happen is that the good guys (whoever they are) would blow the ship out of the water, oust Mugabe and get Zimbabwe back on its feet.

Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen and we will again all wring our hands when the killings begin in earnest in Zimbabwe.

Just came across this Guinness Advert spoof. Watch and enjoy.

Seems strange to me that its taken a OFT investigation to find out something that we probably have all known for some time, in that any public building contracts are always overpriced and always deliver less quality then they should.

I wonder who will be gong to jail for this? I guess no one as usual!

It’s good to see that the UK Government has had a change of direction in that it is now going to increase it re-allocation of money to Space science.

There had been fears that the cutbacks might end up closing Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope, about time.

We seem to be lately losing our way in the world and we need to keep our investments up in the Space Science to maintain a certain standing.