The Evil European

Interesting technological development from MIT's Technology Review.

I am not totally against nuclear power, rather I am hesitant about its implementation due to the incompetence of many national governments. The long term implications of its use don't seem to register beyond short term mind set of politicians. In the case of the UK, nuclear power was merely away to get the bomb. The nature of many reactors in use today do seem to reflect that original mindset among the leading nuclear development nations; USA, USSR, France, UK (I am not a nuclear engineer so be nice).

If the mindset had been more around power generation and NOT have nasty but nuclear bomb type material, this type of reactor might have been developed earlier.

Travelling wave reactors consume fissile material before it can be extracted, it never needs to be opened during its operational life and runs on what would normally be considered waste material in the traditional nuclear fuel cycle. Of course there is still the issue of waste disposal, hence my scepticism.

However, if nations are going to go ahead and build nuclear reactors, they could do worse than this type.

What do we believe and more importantly, why do we believe it?

Nosemonkey down at Europhobia posted a letter that he sent to the satirical magazine ‘Private Eye’. He was responding to an article about the EU. In that article, the director of something called the ‘The National Platform EU Research and Information Centre’. This centre turns out to be one guy and a blog.

Now, there is nothing wrong with one guy and a blog. Some very serious work is done by bloggers. However, this particular ‘centre’ appears aint one of them. Nosemonkey does know what he is talking about. He has knowledge, he has ‘credibility’.

The second article I read was regarding the ‘50 cents army’. These are employed by the Chinese government to post pro-government, for want of a better word, propaganda to message boards. This has been done mainly in Chinese, though English language message boards have also been hit, namely during the Olympics. Popular opinion can not always be seen as being a credible reflection of peoples feeling in this case (I will talk about this in another blog…being popular dont make you right!).

Both examples focus on two aspects of credibility in discussions, be it knowledge or popular opinion. With the shift from dead tree media to on line, these discussions are becoming more common, but how do we believe what is being said to true, be it from ‘centres’ or popular sentiment?

Credibility can be built up over a long period of time, by having a physical presence within a known community. However, that is not always practice, or even safe, and can result in very closed discussion between the usual suspects.

Its an issue that is going to become of increased importance.

And to be weak is strong.

The powerful always look to being seen as weak or victims to justify their actions, while seeking to portray those in weakness as being powerful.

"As ever, mighty Israel claims to be the victim of Palestinian aggression but the sheer asymmetry of power between the two sides leaves little doubt as to who is the real victim. The resort to military force is accompanied, as always, by the shrill rhetoric of victimhood, self-pity and self-righteousness."
Israeli War: Eye for an eye? The eye is for an eyelash

As is always the case with this particular conflict I have to make a number of statements.
I am not anti-Semitic, I am not a member of Hamas, I am not a mooslim terrorist and evil dooer, I believe that Israel has the right to exist and be a free and peaceful land, I am not a Nazi etc.

The fact is that what happened to the Jews plays a very strong role in my world view. As a child I learnt about the plight of the Jews over the centuries and the Holocaust. I studies and Anne Frank and ending up cry when I finally visited her house in Amsterdam. The persecution of people for who they are is wrong. The abuse of state power is wrong. Discrimination and bigotry is wrong. These tenets form a core of my being (I'm not very good with words but I am sure you get the drift).

That is why I believe what is going on in the Gaza strip and West Bank is wrong.

I also be live in creating a better future. Recent discussions about Gaza always bring up the past, the persecution of the Jews, how the early state of Israel was nearly wiped out. To build a future you need to know about the past, but not live in it.

If Israel is going to have a future, it has to deal with not just its own past, but the past of those living in Gaza and the West Bank, and in doing so, acknowledging the injustices that have lead to the present. Then maybe everyone can look to the future.

New year, resolutions, all that shit will not be discussed here.

I have discovered World of Warcraft, which is fun, finding getting a job is harder than I thought it would be, and starting to reconcile having a PhD means I am not stupid, though I am very aware of the limits of what I know.

I have been posting a huge amount on my Facebook profile and have discovered a side of people I would not normally see (or want to see). Everyone seems to be closet Daily Mail readers....or maybe I am just very intolerant.

I have discovered that any criticism of the USA automatically makes me anti-American, while the same criticism of any other country brings no response.

I have also discovered a casual racism exists against the evil mooslims which is no real surprise but it comes from people I would have expected more from.....this is in real life and Facebook.

The problem with services like Facebook is that they are very shallow in terms of interactions. You cannot get across any subtlety, which can lead to misinterpretation and confusion on both sides.

I have also discovered I love White Russians.

Italy increasingly seems to be slipping back into the dark ages.

"Where in the world does the average citizen spend just two hours a week online? An isolated backwater, perhaps? Or maybe netizen figures from a far-off land trapped in a time bubble of its own desiring? Well, close. This bastion of digital indifference is Italy, one of our closest neighbours, a super-rich G7 nation and homeland to the inventors of the telephone and radio."
This is social networking, Italian style, The Guardian, 6th Novermber 2008

Something has to be said about to much Internet access (something I am very prone to!). . However, I have found that the online world can enhance my off life world, though it is very easy to lose yourself. Thankfully my journey into Azeroth was short lived, namely because I was not very social online!

The example given is Italian banks not suffering the same way as their UK counterparts because of their lack of techno know how. There does seem to be a rather disturbing trend in Italy and among Italians in recent years. Believing that they are the best, and the unpleasant fascist elements that keeps rearing its head. I just wonder if its all just part of a trend which dislikes the modern and the future and harks back to a "better time" (before the Internet, when Italy had empires, woman could not vote etc).

To say that Turkeys membership aspirations for the European Union has been rather thwart is a bit of an understatement. French, German and Austrian political and popular opinion has been rather against it, and there has been a general anti-Muslim sentiment across much of western Europe.

However....

"Put crudely, Turkish membership will signify a choice for Europe between becoming an outward-looking union at peace with its internal diversity that prioritises the economic and security needs of its members, or an insular, almost parochial grouping, searching for an imagined cultural homogeneity."
Turkey is central to the EU, The Guardian 10th November 2008

There are sentiments that I strongly agree with. The EU itself is the product of an outwardness and creating an environment in which inherent diversity could be accommodated without conflict. Turkey is just another step, and as long as she signs up to the a common set of rules, there is no problem.

The cultural bigitory of current members is against the European ideal

From the BBC.
"He want to make bankers put their money where their mouths are.
The requirement that "originators" of financial products must retain a 5% stake in the products they sell could have a transformative impact.
This is because it will mean if a product loses money, so will the bank."
Getting Bankers to act responsably, 02/10/08

Business rights balanced by business resonsabilities? I like this idea. Prevent the peddling of the banking equiverlant of snake oil.

"Cameron and Brown are united in saying they will do what is needed and not allow political differences to get in the way of financial stability. Good, but do either realise what may be needed in a worst case? The only viable British Paulson plan - bar a £500bn-plus international loan - may require us to join the euro to win the support of the whole of the European economy and European Central Bank as part of a pan-EU initiative to create "good banks" for Europe."
Will Hutton, Dithering Britain needs its own plan, and it may hinge on joining the euro
The Guardian, 01/10/08

Could the UK have the €uro by 2010? Nothing should ever been ruled out in politics. If joining the €uro was seen as neccessary to save the UK banking industry (which is overly dominate) but the UK population voted against it.....well, we just have to see what happens in the USA (surprise, surprise).

It would be rather ironic if a Tory government takes us into the €uro as a result of deregulation and the actions of the US government!

Pavel Felgenhauer, a Moscow-based defence analyst, told the Guardian. "This is the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union that the Russian military is actually preparing for an all-out nuclear war with America." He added: "I believe we [the Russians] are sending the west a serious message. The message is treat us with respect, and if you don't go into our backyard we won't go into yours. Russia wants to divide the world into spheres of influence. If not, we will prepare for nuclear war."
Luke Harding, Russia challenges west with nuclear overhaul
The Guardian, 27/09/08

Spheres of influence....make me spew my guts up.

All this willy waving....make me spew my guts up.

"The Labour Party is unmaking Britain, turning it into the surveillance society that Britain's foremost prophet of doom, George Orwell, warned against. Labour admits that we migrants are only the first step, and that every indignity that they visit upon us will be visited upon you, too. If you want to live and thrive in a free country, you must defend us too: we must all hang together, or we will surely hang separately."
Cory Doctorow, Britain will make foreigners carry RFID identity cards and will put us in a huge, Orwellian database: the rest of Britain will be next
Boing Boing, 26/09/08

A form of madness seems to have taken hold in this country, a disease of types. This contagen seems to spread regardless of reality, research, fact, reason and common sense. I do not see the Tories doing any better, but something has to give.

I belive the more abuses that are undertaken, the more police brutailty and invasion, the more that councils spy on us, the more people will resist.

This restance can take place as small act of definace, to protest and to large court cases. The Human Rights Act, article 8 is on privacy. We should us it.

"But, first of all, Europeans should trust themselves: they are not an endangered species without Russia and the US."
The new Warsaw Pact, Gyula Hegyi
The Guardian, 24/09/08

I get tired of this East vs. West, them and us, Cold War mentality. Why should we align ourselves anymore?

As a child studying history I have a vivid memory of a newspaper cartoon. It showed a map of the northern hemisphere with a huge crater where Europe is and a joint speech bubble from the USA and USSR saying 'oppps'.

We need to find our own way, and I am sure others will join us if, like the European project itself, it is built on trust, respect and cooperation.

A bit I wrote for a uni mag.

Meadowhall at 2am on a Sunday is not normally a place one would want to be. But then, this was no normal Sunday. After 70 years, the cooling towers for the Blackburn Meadows Power Station, which was closed down in the 1970s, were to come down.

While we arrived at 2am, there had been reports that people had been arriving all day. In the Meadowhall car park, there must have been at least 500 people, possibly over a 1000. However, the flashing of cameras on the hills all the way around the cooling towers pointed to many more people watching the mass destruction.

The atmosphere was one more akin to fire works display, with a wide cross-section of Sheffield present. An elderly couple with their grandson stood to our right, a 20 something couple to our left, and a group of teenagers behind us. There even appeared to be a hen night in full swing below us. I did not know controlled demolition was a traditional hen night theme!

Given that it was August, the height of the British summer, it was raining. Umbrellas were going up and down all night, but as we approached 3am, the umbrellas all came down to give those behind a better view.

The towers were light up, and as demolition time approached, the horns blasted out. We were expecting a loud explosion, but instead we got a two dull ‘thuds’ and a rumble in the ground. The towers seemed to come down in slow motion, and for a glimpse, you could see the concrete sections of the towers coming part. Dust spewed out from the sides and top of the towers, eventually covering the entire sight.

There were a number of cheers; though the teenagers behind seemed rather sad to see the towers go, giving of a loud booooo! Once the dust had settled, everyone pretty much departed.

The site is to be cleared now, making way for a new biomass power plant, 21st century fuel replacing 19th century.

More pictures here.

This is rather worrying, shocking almost.

Team GB have had their best perfomance in over a century.

My, that is almost something to cheer about! Even the Daily Heil has taken time out from UK bashing to actually celebrate something!

This will hopfully put the London 2012 Olympics on a good start.

Well done Team GB.

A fascinating series of photo from one of the most closed societies in the world, North Korea.

While much seems odd, strange and down right disturbing, for me there is still a common thread running through the pictures, people just going about thier daily lives.