The Evil European

This is a test

2011-11-26T16:45:00.001Z

Yep, I got an iPad.
Yep, I'm going to start posting again.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

This Fight is far from over!

2010-02-28T21:13:00.001Z

God: The Love Born of Terror.

2010-01-13T21:45:00.001Z

It's Rocket Science, Baby!

2009-12-23T11:53:00.001Z

The Future Of Mankind

2009-12-02T21:40:00.001Z

We have not even begun.

Why Didn't Anybody Tell Me?

2009-11-30T12:22:00.001Z

power generation

2009-03-21T19:38:00.004Z

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.

credibility

2009-01-11T15:09:00.001Z

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.

Technorati Tags: EU,credibility,discussion,50 cent army

to be strong is weak

2009-01-09T12:02:00.003Z

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.

untiled

2009-01-06T12:31:00.002Z

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.

digital slow lane

2008-11-11T11:44:00.002Z

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).

expand

2008-11-11T11:04:00.003Z

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

Middlesbrough police ask for camera license!

2008-11-04T16:10:00.001Z

This is fucking bogus.
There is no such thing as a camera licence (well, maybe in Burma or Saudi Arabia).
Anti-Terrorism laws allow police to check what someone is doing (ie no blowing shit up).
And in the UK it is legal to take pictures in public spaces. People have no right to not have their picture taken in public (which given that there are 4 million cameras in the UK we should be getting used to!).

I hope the officer got an education...police enforce the law, not make it up!

bunch of bankers

2008-10-02T10:53:00.002Z

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.

€uro

2008-10-01T17:17:00.003Z

"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!

willy waving

2008-09-27T15:49:00.003Z

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.

resist

2008-09-26T14:02:00.002Z

"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.

confidence

2008-09-26T10:21:00.001Z

"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.

out with a bang

2008-08-27T08:25:00.004Z

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.

oh my

2008-08-19T15:05:00.002Z

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.

조선민주주의인민공화국

2008-08-18T13:28:00.001Z

Dressed for sunday - Pyongyang North Korea
Originally uploaded by Eric Lafforgue

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.

'Jules Verne' ESA ATV launch

2008-07-12T16:30:00.001Z

Old news.
Something I would love to see. A night launch from the jungles of South America.

file under 'left me speechless'

2008-07-11T13:03:00.003Z

Thank the starry heavens! Someone not only gets it but is able to articulate it in a clear, passionate and humane way.

"But what I learned on July 7 2005 was that we are each other's best security. We are the guardians of each other's liberties. I learned this when the bomb exploded and on each carriage of the train, trapped underground in the terrifying darkness and screaming, women and men took each other's hands and comforted and calmed each other, shared water and passed around tissues, while other women and men ran to rescue the injured. Further horror and injury was prevented by people's calm and altruistic response. And in the darkness, you could not know if the person who reached to touch you was female or male, or what race or religion they were. Just a stranger in the dark on whom your own sanity and survival depended. I have held on to that lesson ever since." The Guardian, 11/07/08

This is just a snippet from Rachel North in todays Guardian.

what have we got to offer?

2008-07-07T09:27:00.003Z

Planning. In particular urban and spatial planning.

Europe being the dense and cramped bit of the world that it is has developed a particular urban form. Our settlements have developed primarily during a time without the car. The high population density means that if we still want to have countryside and grow food, we have to live close to each other.

The plus side of this is decent public transport, and more importantly, an ability to reduce our dependence on travel by car. Europeans on average consume half the energy as Americans for a similar standard of living (and there is plenty of room to improve those figures).

The Guardian published an interesting piece on the changing nature of the car culture in the USA. The impact of cheap fuel of the decades has created a unique spatial distribution based around suburbs and exurbs. This distribution is being hit really hard by high oil prices. It raises the possibility that the slums of the future will be these former autopias, while city centre will come back to life.

The most worrying aspect of the article comes right at the end with regards to China's rapid development path. The same issues can also be made for the rise of the rest.

"McKibben spent last week on a visit to Beijing. He was worried about what he saw. Even as America's obsession with the car lifestyle is ending, others are embracing it. 'The Chinese have spent the Bush years starting to build their own version of America. A key question for the planet is whether they still have time to build a version of Europe instead - global warming will probably hinge on the answer to that question,' he said." The Guardian, 7/07/08

Planning always struck me as a rather odd subject, a mixture of geography, architecture, sociology to name but a few. It also have very practical applications.

trapped

2008-05-30T19:27:00.002Z

Controlling peoples minds and the flow of ideas is one way to control people.

Disturbing developments. Makes me sad.

the only constant in life

2008-05-22T18:22:00.006Z

Change.

Two articles caught my eye today, both of which highlight the changing nature of the world.

Firstly a blog on the BBC site on what is called the 'rise of the rest'. The focus was on the role that Australia is carving out for itself. What got my attention is the idea of a 'post-American' world.

"It is one of those "Honey: Who Shrunk the Superpower?" sort of books. It notes that America can no longer boast the world's tallest building - that honour goes to Taipei; Bollywood has overtaken Hollywood; the European-made A380 is bigger than the American-made jumbo jet.
This is something much broader than the much-ballyhooed rise of China or even Asia, writes the Indian-born Zakaria; "It is the rise of the rest." BBC 22/5/08

Actually, it was not the concept of a post-American world on its own, but how this relates to an earlier story posted on Eurotrib from Reuters.

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.
The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow." Reuters 22/05/08

As someone pointed out on Eurotrib, it is currently silly season in the US. However, the fact that the political elite believes that such a perspective has traction among the general population is rather worrying. Hilary has even been making noises about 'breaking up' OPEC, as if its some errant US business. What this would do to the vast amount of petro-dollars flowing into the already weak US economy is, well, bloody obvious!

The rise of the rest, not just India or China, and the increasing attractiveness of the Euro, means that the world is increasingly learning to live, not so much without the USA, but that the USA is no longer the only game in town.

The real challenge is going to be the manner in which the USA is going to manage its decrease in power. Given the views of the US political elite and a large chunk of the population, we can expect ever louder cries and foot stamping for some time to come. It will be hard for the US, just as it was for France and the UK, to accept a change in global status, but change is the only constant in life.

call me

2008-05-13T11:03:00.005Z

Mobile phone companies ripping customers off?! The shock of it!

I was in Amsterdam recently. Before hand I loaded up maps for the GPS on my phone, but being in a hurry and not reading the instructions, I made a hash of it. In the end, I decided to load the maps over the GSM network, I know it would cost but I was on holiday.

I was charged £15 for 2.5MB of data! What was even more amusing was that the company I use in the UK was the same network provider I used in the Netherlands, T-Mobile! So much for a single European market! The EU has put a cap on incoming and outgoing calls, even though our wonderful Labour government opposed it, seems data was excluded.

Anyway, its even more of a rip-off for text messages, £374.49 per MB, four times more than it costs to get data from the Hubble Space telescope!

I know that prices where sky high, but not out of this world! If the EU is going to function as a single market, as well as enable people to be connected, something needs to be done to crack down on the legalised extortion of the telecoms companies. If prices where to come down, people would make more calls.

alone

2008-05-12T13:44:00.003Z

I wonder how isolated a nation can be in modern times. The election in Serbia seems to point towards a, if not pro-EU, at least less hostile position.

Given the events of the last decades...several unsuccessful wars and the amputation of Kosovo, hostility towards the EU and the West in general is understandable.

Recent years has seen the Serbia's neighbours join the EU or apply to join. Serbia's economic future is bound up with the EU. Future prosperty is dependent on playing ball with former enemies, but is that such an unsual situation. Wasn't Europe divided by an Iron Curtian not so long ago?

It would have been much more intresting if Serbains backed the anti-Europe candidaties.

I guess isolation is no longer an option.

julies verne

2008-03-09T15:05:00.002Z

From the very small to something rather bigger. The Automated-transfer vehicle, ATV, was launched on an Ariane 5 rocket at 403GMT yesterday from French Guiana to resupply the International Space Station. Called Julies Verne, it is the largest and most complex craft every fielded by the European Space Agency, ESA. It will undertake the first fully automatic docking, supply three times as much cargo as the Progress modules used to date.

As with CERN, the ATV and ESA in general represents the pooling of resources of a number of predominantly European nations. While not as exciting or glamorous as the USA's NASA and Russia's RKA, ESA, and the European space industry in general, has developed over the last 40 years to become a global player.

Unlike NASA, RKA and the Chinese space programme, manned flight has been less of a priority. European astronauts have been trained but have taken lifts on American and Russian crafts. There have been a number of attempts to develop a fully independent manned space programme but these have generally come to nothing. This is not actually a bad thing.

Manned space flight ties up a significant amount of resources. The ESA developed out of a number of separate European programmes. In the case of the UK and France, these where the development of ballistic missiles for nuclear warheads. However, by the 1970s, the UK, France, Germany, Italy and host of other nations had decided to cooperate on providing Europe with independent access to space. Given that European nations have been more supporting players during the Cold War era, the lack of prestige from not having a manned space programme did not really factor to the ESA.

There are a wide range of ESA projects being undertaken besides ATV and the ISS. Aurora Exploration Programme is a long term exploration programme which will ultimately aim to have a human on Mars by 2030. The Darwin Programme will be a cluster of space telescopes which will seek to detect directly Earth-like planets around other stars. The Galileo navigation system is finally starting to get under way as well. There are multitude of other projects. The ESA has generally had a rather low profile, but from a spend point of view, it is second only to NASA.

I very much have a soft spot for space stuff. Growing up as a geek, I was very much into sci-fi and space. Going into adulthood, while other believe that the money should be spent on Earth, I have always believed that space research is not a waste of money.

From a purely financial point of view, the sums being spent on space research is tiny compared to weapons. Even if the money was saved, it would not be spent on 'worth while' activities...more likely a nice tax cut of something.

From an economic point of view, space has gone from being a rather obscure area to a vital part of the modern industrial economy. Putting aside the revenue developed within the hi-tech aerospace industry and associated spin-offs, we rely on a range of space based services. GPS, communications and entertainment, and remote sensing are just three examples.

From a scientific point of view, the research undertaken has been central in understanding this planet and how it works. From a wider perspective, we are gaining greater insight in the universe.

However, for me, its the social aspects that is just as important.......I am going to right about that later.

matter

2008-02-24T14:09:00.002Z

Science can be expensive, physics in particular. The hunt for the very small requires BIG money. From the 1950s countries have worked together within a wide range of scientific fields on a huge number of projects. However, I would have to say that CERN stands out.

CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (originally Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire), has been doing big science on the very small for over 50 years. Located across the Franco-Swiss border, CERN provides high energy physics facilities for a wide range of countries, not just in Europe. CERN is also the birth place of the World Wide Web.

Anyway, the next big project, the Large Hadron Collider is being put in place. National Geographic has an interesting article, 'The God Particle' on the site and some stunning pictures of inside the site. There is something 'not of this world' about the massive high powered magnets and particle detectors.

Aside from the very cool research going on into the very nature of existence, it is a shinning example of what can be achieved when we humans work together.

gimmick

2008-02-23T15:38:00.002Z

Educating children about the Holocaust is a gimmick, according to the Tory leader.

"The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Holocaust Educational Trust expressed disappointment after the Tory leader highlighted the government-sponsored trips to Auschwitz in a list of "Gordon Brown's 26 gimmicks" The Guardian, 23/02/08
While gimmickry is a central tenet of politics for a long time, educating children about the darkest chapter in European history is not something I would consider a waste of time.

I see the Tory leader is being gimmicky with his cries of gimmickry.

where did the energy go?

2008-02-15T12:39:00.008Z

While not being technically correct, as in I have had other holidays, but it was the last holiday I booked for myself (back in time when I had money, my PhD was going well and I was still sane).

Anyway, the reason I remember the holiday was five years ago was that I passed through London during the biggest protest in British history. Ironically enough I was passing through London as I was flying to New York from Heathrow (Hell-throw).

What I remember was the energy, the buzz that surrounded people. A feeling that people had a say in the way their lives where governed. Turned out to be bollocks as poddle man went ahead with the invasion. It can be seen as a turning point in the relationship between citizens and the government.

"But the protest also represented something else, focused not so much on the issue of Iraq as on the sense that mainstream politics was drifting away from the public, and at least some of the marchers felt that in protesting, they might somehow drag Westminster back."
The Guardian, 15/02/08

Like many I feel increasingly disenfranchised from the entire democratic process. The power of business and the executives use of the threat of 'terror' to construct an every more elaborate surveillance state. God, I sound like a liberal stereotype.

If people become more and more disenfranchised it will enable an every more closed society to be constructed. Some people will just retreat while others will use non- and anti-democratic means to get their voice heard....this will in turn result in ever more draconian approaches to governance....I am not sure if I am talking about a hypothetical or an actual future.

closure

2008-02-14T12:29:00.003Z

All done.

Spent the last two days clearing out my old office. Having been chilling in Sheffield since getting viva-ed and the like, I have not been under any real pressure to clear out my crap. Enough was enough and finally cleared all the crap out.

So many trees 'murdered' to complete my thesis. What you dont see in the picture is three very large boxes filled with journal articles, documentation, drafts, thesis chapters etc to be recycled.

Its a nice feeling.....'closure' at last.

It was not the butler that did it!

2008-02-13T09:17:00.004Z

Looks like Napoleon was not poisoned....at least not intensionally. Napoleon died of stomach cancer at the age of 51 while imprisoned by the British on St Helena. He was found to have had arsenic levels 100 times higher than one would expect in your average Frenchman (Corsican if your that why inclined) or European today. However, it looks like EVERYONE had significantly higher arsenic levels in there body at that time.

"The Italian research -- which studied hair samples from various moments in his life which are kept in museums in Italy and France -- showed Napoleon's body did have a high level of arsenic, but that he was already heavily contaminated as a boy.

The scientists used a nuclear reactor to irradiate the hairs to get an accurate measure of the levels of arsenic. (COOL!)

Looking at hairs from several of Napoleon's contemporaries, including his wife and son, they found arsenic levels were generally much higher than is common today."
France24, 13/02/08

I did not know that you could use nuclear reactors for that kind of thing! Anyway, it seems that the glues and dyes used at that point of time where full of lovely heavy metals and the like. I can't believe liberaturdians and right-wingers moan about things like environmental regulation and the like.

France-America bashing pt 98,934

2008-02-11T12:49:00.000Z

French bashing is becoming part of the course in the US presidential process.

The elections in 2004 saw John Kerry's linguistic abilities, the fact that he could speak more than just 'American', become a liability....he speaks French. To compound his crime, he was also criticised for looking French and having French relativities.

Now Mitt Romney in his parting speech got a dig in on France.

"I'm convinced that unless America changes course, we can become the France of the 21st century. Still a great nation but not the leader of the world." France24, 11/02/08

Being British, the how French-bashing at least has a history....namely 1,000 years of war and family feuding. The main issue seemed that both sides had similar goals in terms of dominating the continent and various colonies. Took until 1904 that actually both countries would gain more working together.

The US-France bashing is a bit more confusing. If it was not for France, the US would have not been created...the French opposing the British. France was also greatly influenced by the philosophical underpinnings of the US deceleration of independence.

Maybe that why they don't get along, both Americans and the French have an arrogance about them with regards to being the 'greatest' nations on Earth.

That was quick

2008-02-06T17:13:00.000Z

It did not take long for things to go pear shaped on the EU-Serbian front.

"The planned signing of a cooperation deal between the EU and Serbia has been scrapped, the European Commission announced, due to what it calls the "obstruction" of Vojislav Kostunica." France 24, 6/02/08

Mr Kostunica is the current Serbian Prime Minster.

"EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said Kostunica had gone back on a longstanding understanding not to link Serbia's EU ties to Kosovo, for which the EU on Monday authorised a supervisory mission ahead of an independence declaration seen this month."

Serbia could turn its back on the wider process of European cooperation AND lose Kosovo..or maybe just lose Kosovo and be bitter towards the rest of Europe. I am not sure which I prefer.

Serbian elections

2008-02-04T10:38:00.000Z

Serbia recently went to the pools in what seems to have been dubbed as a referendum on the future. The two candidates represented two distinct paths for Serbia.

Nationalist Tomislav Nikolic represented a closer relationship with Russia and the rejection of the EU, while Boris Tadic was the pro-Western candidate calling for closer integration with the EU.

Boris Tadic won by a not very convincing 51%. Serbia seems to be a country trapped by both geography and history. The events of recent years, the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, the final disintegration of the former Yugoslavia, the unfinished business surrounding the status of Kosovo, tied with the increased economic and social integration of the nations surrounding Serbia with the EU, seem to represent a complex cocktail of pressures.

While Serbia seems to be increasingly heading towards the west, it aint going to be a walk in the park.

Generating a mess

2008-01-29T13:55:00.000Z

Energy policy in the UK over the last 20 years has been shown for what it is....a complete fuck up. During the Thatcher years, the all conquering free-market was to lead to a glorious golden age of cheap, clean and efficient energy. Looks like we are going any of these.

A total lack of planning, policy or direction from the DTi has resulted in the UK heading towards an energy crunch in 5-8 years. The shift to gas has also left the UK increasing exposed to fluctuating energy prices and the whims of the Kremlin.

Put in this light, the relatively recent decision to build a new generation of nuclear plants is a panicked decision designed to get the UK out of the whole its created. I am not against nuclear power per sa. its the expense, mess and danger of current and near-future designs that is rather off putting. The UK has a terrible track record for planning the entire nuclear life cycle. Fusion, as I have detailed earlier, looks more promising for the long term. However, until then, power is still required.

There is no long term approach to power generation that is renewable, sustainable or stable. The UK is committed to 20% renewable by 2020, but the opposition to renewable energy like wind is going to make this hard.

I have to say I get rather pissy at anti-wind farm types. They want and need energy as much as the next person, but they dont want it in their back yard. Personnely, I think that nuclear power stations should be built there instead, see how they like that.

However, everyone is going to have to accept responsibility for energy generation and consumption. We are all going to have to be more efficient (not like the free-market) and think before we act. It should be up to the west, and Europe in particular to take a led in these issues.

Ah fuck, I have run out of things to say and I cant be bothered adding more.

Its the end of the world as we know it...again

2008-01-22T10:29:00.000Z

It was one way to start the day. Turned on the BBC World Service tis morning to be greeted by the following headlines.

- Food production has plateaued and no longer able to keep up with population growth
- Trading suspended on the Indian stockmarket after fall of 9% this morning. Global markets still falling
- Blocked on Gaza
- Ex-NATO leaders make case for first strike use of nuclear weapons

It all reads like a dystopian sci-fi novel...except its not. This is real life. Such events are nothing new. Increasingly, I am personally left with the impression that events are not only spiraling out of control, but the governing elites, elected or otherwise, are unable to address them. Its not so much a case that such issues cannot be addressed, but that the political and intellectually leap is to great. Politically, as in not being able or willing to bring the general public with them, and intellectually as in not able to face the planetary challenges.

There has been debate on the need to reform the UN, bring it into the 21st century. Such reforms won't bring it into the 21st century, as much of the thinking around governments and nations is deeply rooted in the 19th century at best.

I have no idea what else to say, but carrying on the dystopian sci-fi theme....

Depictions of the Statue of Liberty in science fiction

Doomsday Art

Back to the future

2008-01-15T21:28:00.000Z

I am mind-fucked at the moment.

Having burrowed away for years on my thesis, I never expected to see similar issues to my research appearing in a national newspaper.

While covering far more interesting ground that my actual thesis, it spells out the same story...that what is happening in Europe is different, unique, can play a role in addressing the issues that face us, and possibly provide a model for civilisation.

There is more than I can take in at the moment, but I feel truly hopeful that I have a role to play.

Every cloud has a silver lining

2008-01-11T20:32:00.000Z

My expedition to the Job Centre was less than successful than I hoped. Seems that I earn to much! It makes you wonder how people are to live of the dole! I am not sure how I will get through this month...but there are a number of plus sides.

First, no ritual humiliation every two weeks to get £59.50. Second, this is most likely the last time that I will be this broke.

While on the subject of social services, Johann Hari provides an interesting take on the public services, namely the NHS and public broadcasting.

another little test

2008-01-07T12:31:00.001Z

More wibble wibble wiblle

A little test

2008-01-07T12:29:00.001Z

wibble wibble wibble wibble

That was the year that was

2008-01-06T16:47:00.000Z

Retrospective on the last year, which can be summed up in one word....SHIT!

Your life tends to orbit your Ph.D...though my PhD turned into a blackhole and started to drag me in!

As can be seen from this blog things started to go wrong (or rather really wrong) in April. The whole Ph.D was simply going from bad to worse with it dragging the rest of my life with it. My supervisor left the previous year and it simply felt as if the bastard was never going to get completed. By April I had run out of steam. Only the help and support of my family, friends and the department (among other things) got me through.

The most amusing point in the whole PhD thingy was the viva. Hand on heart, I was not nervous until around three days before. Then the night before my viva, the main electricity substation for the university exploded cutting power to a large chunk of campus. It was at that point I discovered something worse than doing a viva....not doing a viva and having to wait another three months! Thankfully an alternative venue was found and three minutes into it I found my stride and actually ended up enjoying the whole thing! I came out with minor corrections (completed within 2 hours) and a huge sense of relief, really upset stomach and a three day migraine!

I have handed in my final copy, I am no longer a student. I have to admit I fill rather numb and hollow (I also feel that even though I have a BSc, MSc and now a PhD that I know jack shit and am only qualified to collect trolleys at a supermarket!) I have found picking up my life which has in reality been on hold for the last two years very hard. I have got my work cut out to reconnect with those that mean most to me, as well as meeting new people. I need to get one of those job things too!

I shall use this blog as an outlet for what interests me in the world, and to document my reconnection with it. It seems half arsed to doings things to put in a blog, but I need to a kick up the arse.

I came across a Latin phrase the other day; "Audentes fortuna iuvat", fortune favours the bold. I find the use of bold and not brave most interesting....even if you are scared, it does not mean it will stop you from trying. Something I am going to try and remember.

Later,

R.I.P
Matt's PhD
2001-2007

This mans army?

2007-12-18T10:29:00.000Z

NB: I tend to avoid domestic US politics, mainly because its totally nuts. However, I could not resist this.

Freud would have a field day with this guy, US Republican presidential hopeful Duncan Hunter. The USA is one of the few nations in the "developed world" which does not allow openly gay and lesbians to serve in the military. They have a policy called 'dont ask, dont tell' which roughly translates as 'stay in the closet and shut the fuck up'. There has been some discussion about ending this rather silly policy, though Duncan Hunter things otherwise.

"'We aren't the Brits. We're not the Europeans. We're not the Swedes,' says Republican presidential candidate Duncan Hunter, who is the ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. Hunter argues that gays do not belong in the U.S. military because American troops need to be hardened warriors, unlike soldiers in the 15 NATO countries where gays serve openly. 'The Fallujahs of the world, the Ramadis of the world that require heavy combat and lots of fire-fighting capability - those are the places the Americans go. The other countries tend to go to the so-called peacekeeper zones, where they have fewer fire fights and less contact with the enemy,' Hunter says. 'And the European nations show little will to send large contingents of their military people into dangerous places.'" via Towleroad

I get three things from this.
- Europen nations have namby pamby miltiaries that dont really do anything so its ok for gays to serve.
- The USA has a 'warrior' army in which REAL men serve (NO POOFS!).
- Gays and lesbians can't fight.

For starters, British troops have been involved in heavy battle in the Iraq invasion (illiegal invasion, Blair=Bush's Bitch...dont get me started on the Iraq thing!). Being gay does not prevent you blowing wholes in people. US troops have served next to gays and lesbians in NATO excercies and even in war zones.

However, my biggest issue is over what a makes a good solider. The Iraq war has seen US and British troops carry out torture and other inhuman acts. Being a good warrior... a good killer, does not make you a good solider...the opposite in fact...unless your aim is to kill everyone...civilian, men, woman and children.

The other issue I have is that a lot of men and woman are getting screwed up as a result of military service. They do and see things that people are not meant to. Mental illness is a major issue among the military and its not being dealt with. It does not help with dickheads like this Hunter twat as defining the miltiary only as warriors and not as people.

Honey, the Cold War is over

2007-12-14T12:08:00.000Z

An interesting comment by James Connaughton, the senior US negotiator at the Bali conference of climate change, for me sums up the main problem with the current US mindset to not just climate change but a wide range of issues.

"The US will lead, and we will continue to lead, but leadership also requires others to fall in line and follow."
The Guardian, 14/12/07

The Bush regime is trying to water down the follow up to Kyoto which is calling for a 25-40% cut in CO2 emissions by 2020 for industrialised nations. Canada is playing along with the US but the EU, China, India and well, the rest of the planet, are not going to dance to this tune.

For me, what is interesting in the mind set of the USA which seems like a hangover form the Cold War. While the USSR pretty much told what its allies should think, the democratic nature of the West meant that disagreement was more common. However, to present a unified position, the West generally deferred to the US on important issues.

The Cold War is over, but the USA is still acting as if it has the sole right to be the voice not just of the West but the planet. Leadership is contingent on others willing to follow. The USA has forfeited the right to lead.

New home

2007-11-27T12:43:00.000Z

Got time to think about the future and while I have a career to, well I was going to say develop but start might be better, I am going to actually think about my life in general. I have sacrificed alot to get this bloody thesis finished and that includes relationships.

Anywhere I go is going to have to give me a space to develop as an individual as well as to meet people....and trying to meet someone who 'gets me' is going to be hard!

List of place to live.....this is actually easier than I thought it would be.

Big cities in Western and Northern Europe....thats it!
London or Manchester would be alright, but having dealt with a number of (very cute) Germans over the last week, Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart would not be so bad! Brussels, Antwerp (the gayest city I have ever been to!), A'dam or R'dam would be not such a bad thing!

I like these kind of decisions!

Upgrade fun

2007-11-26T09:54:00.000Z

Yep. This has happened to me, and just this weekend. Thankfuly all I lost where all my contacts and my calander!

XKCD for your inner geek!

Ends and beginnings

2007-11-25T14:33:00.000Z

Finshed the PhD....viva done, corrections completed. Just print, rebind and hand in (Tuesday taken care of).

Starting to hate going to work....sick of the shitty students.

Find replacement for the PhD. Need something to which to vent my soul at!

Applying for jobs....what do I want to do? What is important in life? It can't be just about money.

I am a very fustrated person....I guess I always will be. Need to manage better!

Here is a hamster!

Insanely Dutch

2007-09-11T10:12:00.000Z

I have been meaning to talk about this for ages...SPACE. That will be for my big 100th post. For now though, have a look at this.

Basically, the European Space Agency, ESA, has been charged with development and construction of the Automated Transfer Vehicle. Its the largest most complex craft built by the ESA and will supply the International Space Station with food, supplies, fuel and give the station a boost into a higher orbit. The module was built in Europe but has to be shipped to Kourou in South America for launch.

The module was thus shipped from Rotterdam but to get such a large package there, what better way than to go by canal!

18th century meets 21st....how very 'European'.

More here

Changes

2007-09-04T09:50:00.000Z

Much has happened over the last couple of months. The most practical of these being the completion of my final draft thesis. The process of finishing has been a complex one, with both a number of internal and external factors. It did seem that at one point that it would never get finished, but at some point, the thesis became a metaphor for how I was leading my life, or not as the case was. I do not intend to go into great details about this process, but over the coming months, I hope to elaborate and explore.

For the last month I have been at a bit of a loose end, and the initial feelings of joy at finishing soon turned into despair. The thesis was a useful excuse to not address any other aspect with my life, and with that gone, well.....I have needed something to fill the 'void'!

A month on down the line, and things are looking a lot rosier...I am starting to 'get a life' and to think beyond the 'MUST FINISH THESIS' mind set of the last two years. Granted, I am broke, worn out, and have no full time job, but the support of my family and friends have helped see me through.

Time for a change....

BANNED!

2007-08-05T10:34:00.000Z

Just done a quick test on the "Great Firewall of China" and it seems that I am banned!
Most likely its blogger that is banned.

It had to happen

2007-08-05T10:23:00.000Z

Well, it finally happened. After to many years I finally got my final draft in of my stupid thesis. The damn thing has been the bane of my life, especially the last two years. It might have seemed easier to have just walked away, but I would have regretted it a few years down the line.

Now its done I feel at a loose end. I have my viva in 6-8 weeks time, and in the mean time I am totally and utterly broke (going to be a hard month). Even still, never felt as good. I now need something else with which to focus my attentions on. Sure I can think of something.

Big glassy crater

2007-07-15T08:50:00.001Z

Russian President Vladimir Putin has suspended the application of a key Cold War arms control treaty.Mr Putin signed a decree citing "exceptional circumstances" affecting security as the reason for the move.Russia has been angered by US plans to base parts of a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic.The US said it was "disappointed" by Russia's decision but would "continue to have discussions with them in the coming months" on how to proceed.The 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) limits the number of heavy weapons deployed between the Atlantic Ocean and the Urals mountains.

BBC NEWS | Europe | Russia suspends arms control pact

During my time at High School, I remember a picture from my GCSE History class on the Cold War. Basically it showed a picture of the world with a big crater where Europe was and a joint speech bubble arising from Moscow and Washington with the phrase 'Opps' in it.

I cant help but think that history is repeating itself. Maybe its time for the people who live in this possible future conflict zone to tell everyone to fuck off! Of course, this would mean that European nations would REALLY have to work together and grow a fucking backbone.....hmmm, don't hold you breath.

Blogged with Flock

Remember humanity, forget the rest

2007-07-09T12:56:00.000Z

via Wired

On the 9th July 1955

'Alarmed by what they considered to be the growing threat of nuclear annihilation, 10 of the world's preeminent physicists (including a few who had worked on developing "the bomb") joined mathematician-philosopher-author Bertrand Russell in drafting the Manifesto, which was built around this basic question: "Shall we put an end to the human race, or shall mankind renounce war?"'

That call seems as relevant today as it did 52 years ago....but it seems even less likley to be listerned to. Its not just the threat of nuclear war and proliferation, but the spetca of environmental degredation and cliamte change that will make war, and nuclear war more likley and nations ifhgt over the scrap heap that we are making of this planet.

Dam-it!

2007-07-02T14:11:00.000Z

Damn the Bishop of Carlisle! It has always bee so nice to be all smug about the fact that the USA is home to religious nut bags and the good old UK was a bastion of the sane and sensible. Seems to be less and less the case these days, what with creationism sneaking into Blairit academies.

"The floods that have devastated swathes of the country are God's judgment on the immorality and greed of modern society, according to senior Church of England bishops.

One diocesan bishop has even claimed that laws that have undermined marriage, including the introduction of pro-gay legislation, have provoked God to act by sending the storms that have left thousands of people homeless."
The Daily Telegraph, 2nd July 2007

What is worth noting is that the Bishop of Carlisle is, surprise surprise, a leading evangelical. What is it with evangelical Christians and such bizarre 'proclamations'!

The only thing I agree with is the fact that the Wests raping of the planets natural resources has been responsible for this flooding, but not through God's will, but more fucking up the climatic engine which powers the planets weather.

Of course, saying things like 'You bad westerners and your greedy ways" aint going to be popular with Westerners as 'lets all blame a minority of the population for our woes!'. The Church has been doing it for centuries!

Money where the mouth is!

2007-07-01T11:03:00.000Z

"Polish gay rights groups claim thousands of homosexuals have fled the country to escape increasing persecution.
Robert Biedron, 27, the head of the Polish Foundation Against Homophobia, said that 'huge numbers' of Polish gays had left the country following the rise to power of the right-wing government. He said: 'It is incredible. The Polish gay community has just left because of the climate of fear and persecution.

'Most of the people I know are now in England because of the current political situation. Not for economic reasons, but because of the persecution of homosexuals going on here. It's impossible for gays to be themselves in Poland.'"
The Observer, 1st July 2007

I can't believe this is happening in that country. Poland is also breaching EU law, and while she wants to be a member of the Union and get billions of €uro's in aid, she should follow the rules. That or leave.

I can't help but wonder if Polish membership of the EU was a good idea. Is this just the actions of a right wing government, do they represent the wishes of the population or both.

While this sort of shit is going on in many other countries to a far greater degree, the other EU member states can actually have an impact on the way the Polish government acts.

PS. Its been a while but I am BACK!

Broken

2007-04-10T18:29:00.000Z

I am broken.

I now need to get fixed.

Bye for now

Technical difficulties

2007-03-31T22:32:00.000Z

I have been having a few technical difficulties, a four year old laptop that is on life support and no means to replace it. This has taken up a great deal of time and has in part prevented me from posting.
This is very meta, but the last few days have been interesting as I have discovered a whole wealth of Euro-blogs which I never thought existed. I hope to update my site to cover these as well as getting round to posting.

Later
EE

Hello again.

2007-03-23T09:17:00.000Z

Having taken a short break, time to start displacing, I mean posting again.
The reason that I took a break still exists, but events have moved on where a little displacement is now not just required, but a good thing. Rest is JUST as important as work. I have a bad habit of working myself into the ground and then get frustrated that I can't work myself out again. Posting once a day forces me to think about something else. Its as simple as that.

There is much to post. I have discovered a number of excellent blogs (have to let the blogging beast feed on itself) and other sites (yes, because the internet is ALL about the blogs), there is the 50th anniversary of the EU (yawn maybe, important definitely), interesting developments in the 'debate' on climate change', science in general, etc.

I am also considering folding in the Lite site. While it was useful having two sites to separate out the serious and less than serious, it takes more time than I am willing to give to blogging. I will most likely be hunted down for saying this, but I do have a life in the real world...or at least I used to!

Hello again was a rather dire movie from the 1980s, which for some reason stuck in my mind from when I was a kid. A possible waste of brain cells.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

2007-02-11T12:55:00.000Z

I said I was going to put the blog to sleep for a while, then posted!

However, I have now reached a point in my writing up, and I now longer have time for very much at all.

See you in a month or two.

*Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*

Whats in a domain name? Eu don't know?

2007-02-05T11:16:00.000Z

The .eu domain name was launched back in 2005 and in the UK it seems to be having an interesting impact on business

'A large majority of British businesses with a .eu domain name believe it to be an effective business tool in a recent survey, while a separate survey found that half of UK businesses do not even know what the .eu domain stands for.'

When the survey quizzed businesses overall, and not just those with .eu addresses, it found more predictable results, though. In the UK 51 per cent of SMEs were confused over what .eu signified, and fewer than half of them could identify it as signalling that a website was from the European Union, and that that includes the UK.

"Using a .eu domain name can deliver SMEs improved accessibility to Europe and enhance their image, yet many companies remain confused over what .eu represents," says Andreas Gauger, chief executive of 1&1 Internet. "An astonishing number do not know that the domain .eu includes British businesses and are unaware of how much they could gain from flying the European flag.""
The Register, 05/02/07

It seems that half of business in the UK is on the ball, whilst the other half have their heads shoved up their collective arses most likely thinking its 1952…’what what’! It would explain a number of misconceptions about both the EU and this 'internet' thingy. The UK is ranked very highly in terms of the use of ICT, third in the world after Denmark and Finland if I can remember rightly (someone might want to correct me on this). However, it seems as if those that are online are ONLINE whilst other businesses are stuck very much in the Stone Age.

Sums up the UK in general. When we do things right, we do them world-class right...and when we do them wrong, we well and truly fuck up. When it comes to understanding the EU, how it works, what we can get out of it, and what it represents, you have those who comprehend it and take advantage (or even oppose it with well thought out arguments...I have no problem with that!). But then there are the head up arse brigade who spew half-truths and lies and still take advantage of EU membership (house in France, free movement of goods, services, capital and people etc), but not realising that these benefits are of EU membership.

Do you get the impression that I take every single story I find and spin it into same old arguments???

Well, TOUGH SHIT, I am to busy to give anything much thought at the moment....look at the post about how I am meant to be not posting anymore.

BAHHHHHHH, HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

:)

They are getting desperate

2007-02-02T12:31:00.000Z

Related to an earlier post about the war on science and ExxonMo-bile.

Scientists offered cash to dispute climate study
"Scientists and economists have been offered $10,000 each by a lobby group funded by one of the world's largest oil companies to undermine a major climate change report due to be published today.

Letters sent by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), an ExxonMobil-funded thinktank with close links to the Bush administration, offered the payments for articles that emphasise the shortcomings of a report from the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)"
The Guardian, 2/02/07

Looks like the flat-earthers are getting desperate. They will get more shrill as they get more and more marginalised, a process that is being sped up by revelations such as these.

The weather forecast for the next century is.....

2007-02-02T10:51:00.000Z

....you don't want to know, you REALLY don't want to know.

IPCC report is out today, but info has been leaking out for a while.

I guess the good news is were are royally fucked, and you don't want to know the bad news.....you REALLY don't want to know the bad news when there are claims that the report has been sugar coated, painting a more positive picture than the data suggests.

Timetable is also a bit limited.....with a decade to start to make radical changes.

Maybe I am being a LITTLE pessimistic...if we do manage to destroy civilization, it won't be climate change per se but the dumb fucked up way us stupid hairless apes will respond to it ie. by turning on each other.

As an individual it would be used so easy to say 'fuck it', were doomed, nothing I can do about it....just stop worrying, take as much as I can and to hell with the EVERYTHING. Hey, Im gay, I ain't having kids! No legacy there!

*WARNING, SELF-INDULGENCE AHEAD*

Maybe its because I am British with a soft spot for hopeless causes and the underdog, maybe its because I have nephews (and hopefully, in the future, nieces), maybe because regardless of all the shit in this world there is still so much of beauty and of worth, or maybe its because I feel deep down that we are capable of so much more in the years, decades, centuries, millennia ahead, that if I could contribute one thing in my life, face one challenge and try and make a difference, any difference, it would be to help get through these challenges ahead.....to fight the good fight and all that jazz.

I guess its better to try and fail than to never even try.

Denile is not a river in Egypt

2007-01-31T13:37:00.000Z

I know, I know, I am meant to be working on finishing my Ph.D but this set me on edge.

Bush administration accused of doctoring scientists' reports on climate change
· Inconvenient conclusions censored, hearing told
· Researchers warned not to talk about global warming

"The Bush administration was yesterday accused of systemic tampering with the work of government climate scientists to eliminate politically inconvenient material about global warming.

At a hearing of Congress, scientists and advocacy groups described a campaign by the White House to remove references to global warming from scientific reports and limit public mention of the topic to avoid pressure on an administration opposed to mandatory controls on greenhouse gas emissions.

Such pressure extended even to the use of the words "global warming" or "climate change", said a report released yesterday by the Union of Concerned Scientists and the Government Accountability Project. The report said nearly half of climate scientists at government agencies had been advised against using those terms.

However, Mr Piltz told Congress even he was taken aback by the extent of the political interference, in technical reports, public meetings as well as exchanges with the media, in which scientists were assigned minders from the administration.

In the survey of 1,600 government scientists by the Union of Concerned Scientists, 46% had been warned against using terms like global warming in speech or in their reports. The scientists interviewed were working at seven government agencies, from Nasa to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Forty-three percent of respondents said their published work had been revised in ways that altered the meaning of scientific findings. Some 38% said they had direct knowledge of cases where scientific information on climate was stripped from websites and printed reports".

The Guardian, 31/1/07

I find this sort of action disgusting.

It is censorship, it is book burning , it is denile. It is seeking to sow doubt were none exist to maintain a system that is unsustainable.
Given the severity of the issue, I would call it a crime against our species.
I feel sick.

Update
WAR ON SCIENCE
I am being sick!

Dumbest statement ever??

2007-01-28T17:42:00.000Z

NOTE: Something I never got around to posting, but tomorrows post will put this into perspective

Most likely not the case, but I can't not believe my eyes when reading some letters from the public on the Stern report in Sundays Observer

This was my favorite.

"I do not trust a government scientist's projections of disaster. If there is climate change, I do not agree that the human race is at fault. Compared with the power of nature, man is puny. Even if the human race were partly responsible, the ultimate responsibility could lie with the same scientists who invented, or did not stop, the production of goods spreading greenhouse gas pollution?"
John W Antill
Darlington, County Durham

OMG!!! Where to begin on this one!!!

Scotland- Land of bigotry and prejudice?

2007-01-26T13:50:00.000Z

A few years ago, I went 'north of the border' to visit some friends in Aberdeen. These were guys I had meet when living in Denmark and included Scots, Irish, Danes and Dutch. I had a great time catching up with my mates (who, shamefully, I have lost contact with...must remedy), but what i most remember from the trip was how I was made to feel during a party. You see, I have been lucky to travel and live in Europe and have visited the US twice, and in all these times I have never, EVER been made to feel unwelcome or an outsider....except when I went to Scotland. During an unpleseant party I was actively made to feel like an outsider, conversation focused on what bigoted shits the 'English', how PREJUDICE they are etc. I ended up sticking with my mates, and just ended up not speaking to people. I am not very good at picking up on insults, so for it to get THAT bad, it must have been pretty blatant. By the end of the night I was so drunk and PISSED OFF that I ranted, not very effectively, about how prejudice they all were...how hypocritical it all was.
That is not the best part though....you see, I am half-Scottish. My mothers Scottish, and my Grandfathers side of the family are Scottish. It is possible to trace back the family roots to Rob Roy, who is a distant relative, and beyond. Mentioning this, I am not kidding, elicited the response that I was only half and arsehole! My, and they say the English are intolerant!
Well, it look like the prejudice will continue....

"Senior Cabinet ministers including Gordon Brown and John Reid have been warned that Catholic church leaders will campaign against Labour candidates in the Scottish elections if the government requires Catholic adoption agencies to allow gay couples to adopt."

Mario Conti, the Catholic archbishop of Glasgow, has written to five Scottish Cabinet members - the chancellor, the home secretary, trade secretary Alistair Darling, transport and Scottish secretary Douglas Alexander, and defence secretary Des Browne - repeating his warning to Tony Blair that preventing Catholic agencies from discriminating will be a "betrayal".

Senior Catholic officials said yesterday they planned to turn the controversy into a major political issue in May's elections, and pointed to the Scottish National party's claims this week that it would retain the right of Catholic agencies to bar gay couples. Church leaders will urge Catholic voters to remember the track record of each party and cast their vote for the parties and candidates who were closest to the moral stance of the church."
The Guardian, 26/1/07

Seems that the SNP in its bid for independence will use this issue as a weapon. What makes me laugh is that the whole gay adoption issue is actually light on substance but strong on symbolism. After all, adoption is not a major policy but the prejudice that an exemption would enshrine WOULD be rather unpleasant. It would not be long before other groups sought exceptions. What a wonderful, free, independent Scotland that would create. Built on the back of homophobia. There have been threats to shut down Catholic adoption agencies and given the rather long history of child abuse in the Catholic Church, that might not be a bad thing.

Look, I don't have an issue with Scottish independence, and while I would be sad if Scotland left the UK, at least I could get two passports. However, given the way that parts (PARTS, I doubt even a large minority are anything like what I experienced at that party) of Scotland seem to be heading, I would have to consider hard if I wanted a Scottish passport. An independent Scotland built on hatred or fear of other, be they English or gay, would not be a good thing. In a world of ever growing interdependence, interrelationships, and common fate, identifying oneself as one thing or another is only an issue if it is built out of fear or hatred. We are not one thing but many things, what matters is not the identity as much as how we use it.

All this talk about nationality and identity, does leave me wondering......who am I?
Brother, British, son, Southern, student, colleague, grandson, uncle, friend, European, gay, lost....human? All and more I hope!

Human rights for FUCKING IDIOTS!!!!

2007-01-26T09:38:00.000Z

Bah, still cutting back on the caffeine...STILL IN A BAD MOOD! This time, Human Rights will be getting it in the neck, but unlike SO many FUCKING morons, I will be sticking up for them
Far to often I hear 'human rights bad', 'bloody unelected EU judges poking in OUR business', 'next prisoners will be allowed to rape babies otherwise their 'rights' will be infringed' and other horse shit like comments based on half truths and fear in the Daily Bile, The Sun, Express, Times, Telegraph.
The funny thing is, most people don't even know what these rights are. Well, here they are.

YOUR HUMAN RIGHTS!

1 - obligation to respect human rights
2 - right to life
3 - prohibition of torture
4 - prohibition of slavery
5 - right to liberty and security
6 - right to a fair trial
7 - no punishment without law
8 - right to respect for private life
9 - right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion
10- right to freedom of expression
11- right to freedom of assembly and association
12- right to marry
13- right to an effective remedy
14- prohibition of discrimination
15- derogations (allows countries to derogate during times of war/emergency)
16- exemption for political activities of aliens
17- prohibition of abuse of rights
18- limitations on permitted restrictions of rights

Maybe I am a total fucking idiot but I really dont see anything offensive here. If anything, these seem like traditional British values, democratic values. I wish the fucking idiots who pipe on about these evil Human rights would actually fucking read them!

I can think of two reason why people bitch about them. The first is confusion. For starters, these rights are up held by the European Court of Human Rights, under the Council of Europe...NOT the EU (large number of people just HATE ANYTHING that is EU). The Council of Europe came about after the horrors of the Second World War, and the UK was the LEADER in drafting them. This period of post-War active engagement with mainland Europe gave war to arrogance regarding Europe, until they started making huge amounts of money and the UK economy went tits up.
The UK was also tardy getting the act into UK...1998, 48 years late. Up until then, if you had a problem with the government, you had to go to Strasbourg to get justice. You can get it in the UK now. This lateness has also meant that there is only a limited number of judgments resulting from previous cases. Many cases are being brought forward that would have otherwise been resolved years ago. The UK also lacks a written constitution with in which many of these issues would have been addressed.
It is also important that just because someone has a case, it does not mean they will be successful. But then, this FACT does not make an interesting headline within which the daily Bile can make 'middle england' foam at the mouth.

The second issue I feel is far more worrying. I get the impression that part of the problem is that these rights apply to ALL, and not just specific self-proclaimed groups. They don't like the fact that they no longer have total control over everyone else, and would seek to use these rights to deny the same rights to others. I don't know who they are, but they are out there. Maybe I am prejudice myself but I can't help but thinking its the 'little englanders', the British version of American Christian fundamentalists. Thankfully they are so disorganised, at the moment. (I am going to have to look into the creature that is the 'little englander'!)

Look, to be fair, I would rather have a tonne of pointless cases than not have these Human Rights. The thing about rights is that they impact on each other as much as on ourselves. These rights are not set in concrete, the only way with which to keep them alive, relevant and useful is to keep pushing and poking, that way we can see what nation we live in and what values we have.
I believe these rights are admirable and worth protecting.
If you disagree, I respect your right to disagree, but I also think, YOUR A FUCKING IDIOT!!!!!!

Killer T-Shirts!

2007-01-25T12:09:00.000Z

Nice to see that the Battle of Good against Evil, or freedom against tyranny, them and us and a million and one other horse shit slogans in this War of Terror, which seem designed to treat the general public like mushrooms (kept in the dark and feed shit) to stop us from actually thinking, keeps those freedoms alive by jumping all over them!!! (De-caffinating my body....SLIGHTLY WOUND UP!)

Image is from Wayodd.
From the BBC via Pam's Place.

"A passenger barred from a Qantas airlines flight for wearing a T-shirt depicting US President George Bush as a terrorist has threatened legal action. Allen Jasson said he was sticking up for the principle of free speech by challenging the decision by the Australian flag carrier.

Mr Jasson was stopped as he was about to board the flight from Melbourne to London last Friday.Qantas said the T-shirt had potential to offend other passengers.+

The T-shift features an image of President George W Bush, along with the slogan "World's Number One Terrorist".

"I am not prepared to go without the t-shirt. I might forfeit the fare, but I have made up my mind that I would rather stand up for the principle of free speech," he told Australian media.

A Qantas spokesman defended the airline's decision, saying: "Whether made verbally or on a T-shirt, comments with the potential to offend other customers or threaten the security of a Qantas group aircraft will not be tolerated."
BBC News, 22/1/07

I can't help but think back to the Mootoons.....Kettle, meet pot!

However, what really got me was the fact that a t-shirt could be considered a security threat! Is there something that the airlines, t-shirt manufacturers of the world, the government, is not telling us? Are t-shirts being secretly recruited into Al-Qaida? Are they going to turn on use all when we least expect it? Are other items of clothing in on this? Trousers? Underwear?

This would be silly if it was not so over the top. Those cheerleaders of conflict keep on about our freedom of speech in the face of Islamist groups. Yeah, right. There is something very 1984 about all this. i doubt it is the first example, or the last.

I wonder if he would have got into trouble if he had a picture of the Mootoons, or one saying how great George Bush is?

Ruth Kelly needs a new job

2007-01-24T09:59:00.000Z

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to remove Ruth Kelly from the position of Minister for Women and Equality.

'Ruth Kelly is incompatible with this position as she holds views about homosexuality (and other issues) which are contrary to the equality agenda which it is her ministerial duty to promote. She has voted for motions to deny homosexuals rights to adoption, hurting chances of equality for homosexuality. The government would not find it acceptable to have a minister with a non-existent record of opposing racism in Kelly's position, and it should not be acceptable for Kelly to be in her position with a non-existent record of opposing discrimination against Homosexuality.'

CLICK HERE TO SIGN!

I am sure people will harp on about 'her freedom of speech blah blah blah' but thats not what this is about. She has a job to do, that as Minster for Women and Equality, and it is becoming clear that she, as a result of her beliefs' is unable to provide me and other confidence in her abilities to undertake her work. As such, she should be replaced/moved into a position that won't cause conflict.

SIGN IT!

That was quick

2007-01-18T23:34:00.000Z

Didn't take long for the bile to flow from the Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty.
From The Independent via Nosemonkey.

"Mr Stoyanov, of Bulgaria's Ataka Party and the parliament's youngest MEP, had denied being anti-Semitic but said he opposes the "Jewish establishment", which uses normal Jewish people "like pawns". Justifying criticism of Roma communities, he argued: "If you put the children in a bad parental environment you cannot expect them to integrate. If you turn a daughter into a prostitute when they are 12 years old you cannot expect them to develop a moral awareness.

"They are sending their daughter out begging or selling them to older men. Sometimes you forget about human rights because of ethnic rights."

Last night, Mr Mote said: "I think the comments... reflect the inexperience and lack of political nous of the young man concerned. I have twice given him the opportunity to make a statement and he has rejected the opportunity to do so."
The Independent, 17/1/07

So not only does the antisemitism and Roma bashing start at the launch press conference but we also see the way the members think. Notice, how the criticism would seem to imply not so much what he said but that he said it in public.

I am sure that this is not the last we will here of them.

There goes the neighbourhood

2007-01-16T14:35:00.000Z

Something smells bad in Brussels and it ain't the mussels.

"The far-right caucus in the European Parliament was officially launched yesterday with anti-immigration and a defence of "Christian values" to form the backbone of its political platform."
EUobserver, 16/1/07

The Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty (ITS) group is made up of MEPs from The Front Nationale (Fr), Vlaams Belang (Be), Greater Romania party, Freedom Party (Au), National Union Attack (Bu), Alternativa Sociale & Fiamma Tricolore (It) and one former member of UKIP (UK). To be honest, I am surprised that some of the Conservatives and UKIP members from the UK has not joined up!

I have to make it clear, I don't think these MEPs should be banned or funds with held. They were democratically elected to the European Parliament, even if said parties don't support either the European Parliament or democratic principles for that matter. However, that does not mean I have to like it! It should provide a bit more drama and comedy for that matter as such groups tend to be lacking in political substance beyond xenophobia.

It will be interesting how long they can hold that xenophobia off from attacking each others countries.....far-right political groups do have a habit of turning on themselves......and having seven nationalistic groups 'working' together.......well, just sit back and watch the implosion.

Ohhh la la!

2007-01-15T15:22:00.000Z

This is enough, depending on your geographical location, to give your average Franco-phobe/Anglo-phobe a nervous breakdown.

"Britain and France talked about a "union" in the 1950s, even discussing the possibility of the Queen becoming the French head of state, it was reported today."
The Guardian, 15/1/07

The BBC will being running a documentary on the subject, 'An Unlikely Marriage' tonight on Radio 4. It came to nothing, though a few months later the Treaty of Rome was signed which signaled another, different type of 'union'.

I know that it is very unfashionable...you know, being pro-anything European, but I am Evil after all, but I have always thought of the relationship between Britain and France as one akin to a marriage. While segments of the press and blog world might harp on about 'Johnny Foreigner' the reality is that the UK and France have a very close and effective relationship. However, like many such relationships, they tend to be fraught with tensions. Like close friends and family, you should be able to disagree, fight and tear chunks out of each other. And at the end of the day know and ultimately acknowledge that the relationship is one built on trust, respect and mutual inter-dependence.
Much is made of the 'Special Relationship' between the UK and the USA- shoulder to shoulder? More like head up arse. That relationship is very one sided, with little respect and mutual dependence from the US side. This is not to say that the UKs relationship with the USA is not important, its just that the limitations and realities of it are rarely, publicly acknowledged in London.
The relationship between Britain and France is very much one of equals- economically, politically, and militarily . We share similar concerns and have similar issues. Also,we can screw them up as much as they can screw us up.

In many ways, the UK and France are already in a union of sorts, and the concerns and issue that effect us also impact on other countries, European countries in particular. What we need is some sort of 'European Union' in which issue that are off collective concern and mutual interdependence, such as trade and the environment could be discussed and action coordinated. Maybe have common defence issue as well. Now that would be an idea!

I only speak for myself, but.....

France...mon ami!

Hell freezes over as the world warms up

2007-01-14T16:23:00.000Z

It looks like reality might actually trump political dogma.

"George Bush is preparing to make a historic shift in his position on global warming when he makes his State of the Union speech later this month, say senior Downing Street officials."

It seems that events int he real world have finally forced the Bush regime to acknowledge what the global scientific community and their own scientists have been saying.....that climate change is real, that it is being caused by humans, and that if we don't do something about it, we are screwed!

"A change of heart on the environment was signalled earlier this month when the US administration unexpectedly announced that polar bears were now an endangered species because their habitat in the US state of Alaska had suffered from melting ice sheets caused by global warming. The government is now required to act on threats to the bears' survival."
The Observer, 14/1/07

Welcome to the real world! However, the proof of the pudding will be in the eating.

Climate change was the 900lb Gorilla sitting in the corner. It was big in the 90s, but unlike so many 'fashions' it did not go away. The world moved on, became interested in other 'issues', such as the Monica's (as in Friends and stained dresses), and saw the environment and climate change as 'so 1990s'. The problem was, not only did the 900lb climate Gorilla come back, it brought its mates and started tearing up the place.

Climate change has moved a fringe issue to THE issue. The Stern Review made the case for action from an economic (ie money being the only thing politicians understand) point of view, the EU is making (another) push, the science is being refined.

The immediate future will most likely see one last push from the every more vocal and ever more marginalised 'flat-earth' brigade (why are most of these groups/individuals American?). But remember, being loud does not make you popular or right!

Blogger '2.0'

2007-01-13T21:35:00.000Z

Two weeks into the new year, and this is my first post, sickness, Ph.Ding, and general 'can't be botheredness', but finally got round to doing something.

Something being playing about with Blogger 2.0. I have have no knowledge of html etc and so I have found the new Blogger to be a breath of fresh air. More to the point, with the elements side of things, I am less likely to totally louse up everything.

Hopefully, I will settle on a nice pretty colour scheme, maybe with less blue! Also added contacts and am thing about the future (I AM going to finish this chuffing Ph.D)...and how I would like to expand the blog into something 'else' (in the fullness of time).

A belated happy new year.

Hello...you going my way?

2006-12-31T19:28:00.000Z

1st January 2007 will see Bulgaria and Romania join the EU. There will be the usual talk....of joining 'Europe' as if they have been living on the moon for the last five decades, of 'floods' of poor people looking for work, the lose of culture and identity and other general pessimistic talk. But take a step back from the usual bellyaching and you see something that is incredible.

The last five decades have seen a stunning transformation, especially when you look back another 5. From Empire and colonisation, though the two most bloody wars in human history and a bankrupt and destroyed continent. The West rebuilt with the help and support of the USA, the East by the USSR, the divide forming the epicentre of the Cold War and mutually assured destruction. The dictators have been swept aside and, the wars are gone, old enemies no more. Its almost if we have come to our senses...accepting that we have more to gain working together than tearing chunks of each other.

What has been created is far from perfect, but what is? What can be said with out a shadow of a doubt is that it is infinitely better than what came before.

I came across this in the Observer, and while it is by a Labour MP, I will let it pass.

"Europe has its own speeds and rhythms. They are much slower than its hyperactive leaders think. Six months is a jolt of the second hand on the European clock. Since 2000 the EU has been chasing its tail with the search for a European finality embodied in a constitution. This notion is a false one. Europe is process, not product; a journey, not a destination."

Europe is process, not product; a journey, not a destination....people talk about the EU as a trade zone, as a fortress, as burden or benefit to people and business. Such views are in their own way true, but seen through the lens of human history, interactions and society, it is something entirely different.

It might be hyperbole, brought on by the coming new year, but what happens in Europe, within the EU, has the potential to re-shape human society. We live in an ever more interconnected and interdependent world. Global challenges are upon us, and the only way though them will be to work together.

Wanna go for a ride?

We are right, you are wrong

2006-12-17T18:14:00.000Z

An interesting post on Patriot Boy/Jesus General.

"A principal problem is the attitude of Americans, but I don’t mean an attitude of arrogance, racism, superiority, or that sort of thing (though it can often play an important role). The principal issue is probably much more tragic: Americans tend to operate from a naive premise of ethical purity, assuming that since their intentions are always good, they will always be welcomed.

This leads to shock when Americans or American actions are resented or opposed in any fashion, and consequently produces significant arrogance towards those they wanted to help: they are ungrateful, unworthy of help, and perhaps unworthy of the gifts of democracy and liberty which we want to bestow upon them. The problem can’t be us, after all, since we are good and what we bring is good. If there is resistance, then there must be something wrong with the recipients."

Jesus General

While the article is taken from an American perspective, I feel the argument can be applied to the West in general. Because we believe that EVERYTHING we do is right, we only question the motives of the other and never ourselves.
Very rarley do nations or individuals act out of pure non-self interest. At best it is enlightened self-interest (such as the Marshell Plan). Its Realpolitick.
We should acknowledge this, but that would require that we face up to the fact that humans are basically shits. It is far easier to blame others for OUR short comings than for us to look in the mirror. There seems to be a huge amount of displacement going on.
This is not a call to do nothing, but a call for greater self-reflection. To question our motives before we look at others.

Full moon

2006-12-16T17:46:00.000Z

Its not just full moons that make people go fucking loony bin ape shit crazy.

While reading a a) very badly research b) badly humoured c) both, article in Engadget (now shit-listed), I came across some very interesting comments. Most related to the GROSS factual errors in the article, but what really got my attention was some of the bizarre ranting that were included in some comments.

Given that the rasion d'etre of this blog is Europe and a European focus, the comments that got my attention were related to Europe and the European Union in particular. The first part of the comments made sense before degenerating into a nonsensical rant against Europe and Europeans (I am guessing the person was European, as in British, but that is an issue for another post). It did not make sense from any perspective.....and this is something I find more and more with people regarding a range of issues.

People seem to confuse democracy, freedom of speech and the right of opinion with being able to say what they want and have it just as 'respected' (if that’s the right word, as anyone else’s comments. This is regardless of the fact that what is being presented is nothing but pure horse shit. If you correct people on the factual information, as in the European Union is not being run by Hitler’s re-animated corpse which seeks to force evil communist-fascist agenda like making all British people drive on the left side of the road or only eat straight bananas, you are being an arrogant snob and elitist liberal blah blah blah.

The degree of ignorance that even well educated people have on the European Union is nearly as shocking as the tripe that spews forth. I tend to spend more time educating people about what is and is not the European Union than actually discussing its merits.

I am sure there is an issue surrounding freedom of speech and the right to talk bollocks. What really worries me is that the bat shit crazy brigade are in the majority and that, in these intellectually lazy days, being popular is the same as being correct.

It aint.

PS trying something different. I have been very bad at posting so I am 'training' myself to blog everyday, and so I am writing these blogs in 15 minutes. No links, back to basics, get it down style!

Soviet pussy cats

2006-12-13T12:52:00.000Z

There is more than one way to skin a cat......a phrase I have been using more and more in discussions these days. Just because one particular course of seems 'correct' that does make it either the most effective or efficient way to undertake it.

This article paints a different picture of the fall of the USSR than the one that is traditionally painted.

The breakup of the Soviet Union ended Russia's march to democracy | Guardian daily comment | Guardian Unlimited

"everything Soviet had to be discarded by "the razing of the entire edifice of political and economic relations". Such certitudes are now, of course, the only politically correct ones in US (and most European) policy, media and academic circles.
A large majority of Russians, on the other hand, as they have regularly made clear in opinion surveys, regret the end of the Soviet Union, not because they pine for "communism" but because they lost a secure way of life. They do not share the nearly unanimous western view that the Soviet Union's "collapse" was "inevitable" because of inherent fatal defects. They believe instead, and for good reason, that three "subjective" factors broke it up: the way Gorbachev carried out his political and economic reforms; a power struggle in which Yeltsin overthrew the Soviet state in order to get rid of its president, Gorbachev; and property-seizing Soviet bureaucratic elites, the nomenklatura, who were more interested in "privatising" the state's enormous wealth in 1991 than in defending it."

The push for 'capitalism' or more correctly cowboy capitalism came from Washington...the IMF and the think tanks. These think tankers had constructed a naritive around markets and capitalism which while internally coherent, was without context. The lack of context on complex issues appears to be a feature that is more and more common, and it is of no help.

The focus on capital as opposed to people and the concepts of democracy are coming to bite us in the arses in Russia and else where. And yet the arguments being trotted out are the same old same old, no reflection, no understanding of history beyond a sanctioned 'politically correct' view.

No grasp that there is rarely a 'right' way, just many different ways, many different understandings, many different perspectives. No one has a monopoly on 'truth'.

More than one way to skin a cat.

Whats so 'special' about this relationship?

2006-12-01T13:53:00.000Z

01.12.06: The special relationship | Cartoons | Guardian Unlimited

The Anti-Christ

2006-11-22T14:05:00.000Z

Anti-Christ gets a little burnt!

The way......

2006-11-22T10:23:00.000Z

After years of negotiation the ink is finally dry on the second most expensive scientific project after the International Space Station. ITER, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, though will hopefully be more successful than the hobbled space station has been.
The €10b cost is being half funded by the EU member states, the rest coming from Japan, China, India, South Korea, Russia and the USA, and will be built down in Cadarache, Southern France, which is already home to a nuclear energy research centre.
With construction beginning next year, its hard to say if the project will live up to expectations.
Nuclear fission was meant to produce 'electricity to cheap to metre'...but has ended up as one of the most expensive forms of power. At least fusion has none of the nasty radioactive waste products.
Even at the very worse, the skills and knowledge gained from this project, even if it fails, should be a boon for both research communities in the EU and around the world. Fingers crossed and watc this space

Beware the Lonesome Electric Chicken!

2006-11-15T14:54:00.000Z

"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of thinking and we thus drift toward unparalleled catastrophe."

Albert Einstein

"What most people don't seem to realize is that there is just as much money to be made out of the wreckage of a civilization as from the upbuilding of one."

Margaret Mitchell

The Lonesome Electric Chicken

So much hot air!!!

2006-11-14T17:09:00.000Z

I laughed so hard I nearly pissed myself.

Over the years I have had to deal with climate change flat-earthers who, because they have gained a tiny bit of knowledge, some how feel that they can claim with a HUGE degree of certainty that climate change is just some massive hoax by the left-wing/greens/UN/aliens/'insert enemy here'.

This was what made this article in The Guardian so amusing. Its the same old same old of bad science and worse journalism. What it shows is that a lie repeated often enough is still a lie, just that morons and idiots believe it.

Here are some of the more amusing elements of the article.

"Published in two parts on consecutive Sundays, it runs to a total of 52 pages, containing graphs, tables and references. To my correspondents, to a good many journalists and to thousands of delighted bloggers, this paper clinches it: climate change is a hoax perpetrated by a leftwing conspiracy coordinated by the United Nations.

So which was the august journal that published it? Science? Nature? Geophysical Research Letters? Not quite. It was the Sunday Telegraph. In keeping with most of the articles about climate change in that publication, it is a mixture of cherry-picking, downright misrepresentation and pseudo-scientific gibberish. But it has the virtue of being incomprehensible to anyone who is not an atmospheric physicist.

The author of this "research article" is Christopher Monckton, otherwise known as Viscount Monckton of Brenchley. He has a degree in classics and a diploma in journalism and, as far as I can tell, no further qualifications. But he is confident enough to maintain that - by contrast to all those charlatans and amateurs who wrote the reports produced by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change - he is publishing "the truth".

And.....

"James Hansen, he did not tell the US Congress that temperatures would rise by 0.3C by the end of the past century. He presented three possible scenarios to the US Senate - high, medium and low. Both the high and low scenarios, he explained, were unlikely to materialise. The middle one was "the most plausible".

As it happens, the middle scenario was almost exactly right. He did not claim, under any scenario, that sea levels would rise by several feet by 2000. But a climatologist called Patrick Michaels took the graph from Hansen's paper, erased the medium and low scenarios and - in testimony to Congress - presented the high curve as Hansen's prediction for climate change. A memo sent in July from the Intermountain Rural Electric Association, a US company whose power is largely supplied by coal, revealed that Michaels has long been funded by electricity companies. "In February this year, IREA alone contributed $100,000 to Dr Michaels." Michaels, it says, meets periodically with industry representatives to discuss their activities in countering stories about climate change.

Pat Michaels's misrepresentation of Hansen's claims was picked up by Michael Crichton in his novel State of Fear, and somehow transmuted into an "error" of 300%. Monckton gives no source for his claim about Hansen, but Crichton's novel features in his references. The howlers go on and on. There is scarcely a line in Lord Monckton's paper which is not wildly wrong."

The rest of the article can be found here

A number of different issues spring to mind.

Firstly, bullshit dressed up as science is still bullshit, its just harder for the lay public to
realise this. Its one of the oldest tricks in the book.

Secondly, such debates point to an ever growing desperation among those whom see climate change as some massive conspiracy. The debate among the scientific community is over (though that does not mean that we understand everything). We are moving into a phase of identification of the problem to try and do something about it. The fact that voodoo science is being used not to disprove climate change, but to say that 'yes it happens but its not that bad or not our fault' is a significant shift.

Thirdly though, it points to a weakness within the wider community, within the media, within politics, and within the scientific community to communicate not just what climate change is about, but what science is.

Science is not the ultimate truth, science is a methodology to understand the world around us. It can be developed, it can be refined, it can be challenged. It is open and ever changing, but there are points within this process were we can say with a huge degree of certainty that we understand how and why processes happen. The terminology within science can also be misinterpreted. You only have to look at the 'debates' around the Theory of Evolution to see how the theory side of it is used to denote 'lacking any proof or evidence'. The reality is that it is growing developing and changing, but the central premise is still sound and being re-enforced each and every day.

Anyway, the point I want to make is that the Daily Telegraph is a shitty paper; that bullshit is still bullshit no matter which way you look at it; that the general public are ignorant; and most importantly, climate change is real, that something needs to be done and its getting the flat-earthers scared! Oh, and that Micheal Crichton is a shit author. (And I have to stop relying on Wikipedia!)

H2GO!

2006-11-13T20:20:00.000Z

I know, bad Chemistry joke but I could not resist.

Anyway, one of the great changes in reducing CO2 emissions is the transport sector. Basically, modern transport, and the extensive production and consumption system based around it is hooked on liquefied animal remains. Road transport is a major and growing source of CO2 emissions and while alternatives are very slowly beginning to come on stream for electricity production, given transport very nature, ie MOVING, it represents a major challenge.

Three main technologies are in the pipelines; biofuels, electric and hydrogen. Its the last of this which I am going to talk about, due to an interesting article in 'Wired'.

"The automaker is taking that premise to the road with a limited test release next year. BMW said it will put 100 of the hydrogen models into circulation in the United States, Europe and Asia. The cars will be loaned to high-profile people, BMW says, such as celebrities and politicians. If the cars become sufficiently popular, BMW says it can go into full-scale production, without commenting how much the model will cost.

The test drive confirmed the vehicles are road-ready. But some major issues need to be worked out, particularly with acquiring and storing the liquid hydrogen fuel."

Road Testing BMWs Hydrogen 7

BMW has gone and produced 100 BMW 7 series powered by Hydrogen. While many car companies have already produced hydrogen powered vehicles, these have tended to be fuel-cell powered. What BMW has done is produced an internal combustion engined hydrogen vehicle. The fuel efficiency of combustion is currently higher than fuel cell.

While this is an important step, the more significant issue is less to do with the car, but what is done next; how to make hydrogen cars an attractive alternative, economically and environmentally?

Off the top of my head, the approach I would be to make hydrogen produced from sustainable energy sources tax free across Europe with the idea of stimulating both clean hydrogen production and development of sustainable energy sources (wind, solar, even biofuels which can be processed for hydrogen). Many cities, and the whole of Iceland (which we will get back to in a minute), are already working on hydrogen vehicles, though these tend to be fuel cells, so there is a limited but growing market. If that market can be expanded my car makers given positive signals from national governments and the European Union that their vehicles will be tax free and the fuel tax free, it would help to develop the fueling infrastructure.
The second element is the production side, which is were Iceland comes in. As demand increases, production expands and should encourage an expansion of production infrastructure which should help to drive down the costs of clean energy sources. This in turn would help to make sustainable energy sources more competitive and more in demand and so on. The Icelandic connection is that Iceland has huge amounts of geothermal energy that can used to manufacture clean, cheap hydrogen, if there is a market for it.
Its all a bit chicken and the egg.

All untested, all unquoted, pure of the top of my head!

Industrial slaughter

2006-11-13T09:38:00.000Z

As I mentioned in my previous blog, the First World War was the first 'industrial' war. This reminded me of an article I read a few days earlier in the Guardian about the use of robots in warfare.

"By 2015, the US Department of Defense plans that one third of its fighting strength will be composed of robots, part of a $127bn (£68bn) project known as Future Combat Systems (FCS), a transformation that is part of the largest technology project in American history.

The US army has already developed around 20 remotely controlled Unmanned Ground Systems that can be controlled by a laptop from around a mile away, and the US Navy and US Air Force are working on a similar number of systems with varying ranges. According to a US general quoted in the US Army's Joint Robotics Program Master Plan (http://tinyurl.com/yl7s52 - 13.8MB PDF), "what we're doing with unmanned ground and air vehicles is really bringing movies like Star Wars to reality". The US military has 2,500 uncrewed systems deployed in conflicts around the world. But is it Star Wars or I, Robot that the US is bringing to reality? By 2035, the plan is for the first completely autonomous robot soldiers to stride on to the battlefield.

The US is not alone. Around the globe, 32 countries are now working on the development of uncrewed systems. In the UK, Qinetiq, the former Defence Research Agency which owns Foster-Miller, manufacturers of the Talon system, confirmed that it has developed remote bulldozers and earthmovers and that its technology could also be installed in tanks - and scientists at Qinetiq told the Guardian two years ago that it had built a robot fighter plane. When flown on test flights, they said, the fighter is accompanied by two crewed fighters, whose role is to shoot it down if it malfunctions."

Launching a new kind of warfare

For me, this would seem to represent as significant change to warfare as the trench warfare of the First World War.

Firstly, as mentioned in the article, the use of robots to murder people (war is murder) creates a degree of separation that goes beyond the current one we see in modern warfare. In a modern conflict, while actions can be done at a distance, such as in an aircraft or tank, you are still 'there'. If controlling the same tank or plane, or even infantry, can be done in another country or even half way across the world, it represents an even greater distance. It becomes little more than a video game. The use of automated machines is an even greater degree of separation.
In away, this seperation already exists. We have generals telling other people to kill other people, but at most stages, people are involved. It just seems to be taking this degree of separation to its next logical conclusion, but after the horrors of the First and Second World War, as well as the industrial murder of the Holocaust, is this a road we want to go down? We already see in day to day life, people are not people. We are consumers, collectives, statistics, problems. The logic of this thinking is highly disturbing. (I am not very articulate, but you get my drift. I am sure some guy or girl out there has a name for this).

The second issue is what I call the Volvo syndrome. Volvo (not just Volvo but they are known for it) make safe cars, in a safer cars people are more willing to take chances as they will more insulated from danger. Apply that to robot warfare and the danger is that the threshold for warfare will drop for nations with robotic militarises. No troops in danger, no body bags, no bad press. The only opposition will be from the international community and national populous, but as been shown in the past, that can be overcome with calls to nationalism and tribalism, by demonising the enemy.

The scary thing is, the governments and companies that are developing these new technological horrors are not interested in discussing these issues. For them, its effective strike ranges, kill rations and combat effectiveness....which is just another way to say 'kill people'.

In Flanders Fields

2006-11-11T14:42:00.000Z

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month

Armistice day commemorate the end of hostilities in World War One, or the Great War, the future was to bring more horrors, and all those that lost their lives. It was in many ways the first war of the industrial age, mass production enabled mass slaughter, and in only 21 short years, more fighting and even more death. As more and more wars have followed, it is used to remember even more lives lost.

As a child growing up playing war games, you romantisice war, just as was done during the beginning of the First World War, not truly understanding the horror it brings. It was only in a high school English class, reading a poem written by a soldier in the trenches, did this reality dawn on me. Kind of took the 'fun' out of war, and while I am no pacifist, war is, and should always been seen as a last resort and a failure.

Its a shame that many war are stilling being fought, and while in Europe our cities are not being bombed, and former enemies are now close friends, industrial warfare is still killing many soldiers and civilians. It strikes me as rather hypocritical that the West, the UK, France, Germany, the USA and Russia, are the main suppliers of weapons to many of the warzones around the world.

In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

2006-11-07T12:16:00.000Z

Flight Patterns

This a stunning example of our urge and need to travel. For, its beauty is only matched by the way it highlights the challenges of the future in addressing climate change and carbon dioxide emissions. But within these patterns are linages and nodes, which can be joined together in more ways than one.

Headscarf part 123,532

2006-11-01T15:17:00.000Z

Turkey court clears archaeologist

A court in the Turkish city of Istanbul has acquitted a 92-year-old academic of charges of insulting Muslim women and inciting religious hatred.

BBC News
Placing an issue into a wider context...something many people dont want to do.

2006-10-20T10:34:00.000Z

Ben takes a photo of himself everyday

Taking photos mark 2

Very funny

Space, the final....W-A-R-Z-O-N-E!

2006-10-19T16:30:00.000Z

New battle ground in the war on terror!

S-P-A-C-E!

From the Register

"In it, the US government allocates itself rights to access and use space without anyone else getting in its way. It also sets security at the heart of the space agenda, frequently citing its right to use space as part of its national defence"

Last year, 160 nations at the UN voted to keep space free of weapon systems....something that was undertaken during the Cold War. However....

"The United States is committed to the exploration and use of outer space by all nations for peaceful purposes, and for the benefit of all humanity. Consistent with this principle, 'peaceful purposes' allow US defence and intelligence-related activities in pursuit of national interests."

In other words: "Everyone has to use space peacefully, except us. We can do what we like, cos we were here first(*). And anyway, if you try to stop us, it won't stay peaceful for long, which would spoil the first part of our principle."

Now, I am pretty sure that the Taliban/Al-Quaida and other Islamic fundementlist nut jobs dont have space based weapons....the only nations that could develop such systems are Russia (has the skills, but poor), China (developing the skills and getting richer), Japan (allies) and the EU (has skills and funds but not a military organisation).
It would appear that the US government clearly has China in mind (as well as maybe the EU re paranoid Franco fantisies)....confrontation instead of cooperation (though to be fair, I would trust the Chinese Communist party even less than the Bush Regime).

And heres the rub.....I would not want ANY ONE nation to have control of space in a military fashion. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolute. The USA is a nation, like any other, and it has its own agenda...we are foolish to think that that agenda will be in anyones best intrests accept the US governments (and that goes for any nation...I would not trust the Danes).
Linked to that is fact that because you can do something, you will do something. Having the ability to strike at anyone at any time with imputnity will only embolden armchair generals to undertake little and big wars. You only have to see the mess that Iraq has become because the armchiar generals belived they could do the jobs with technology and not man power. If the technology had been less, would the US had gone to war so easily.
War becomes not an action of last resort, but an everyday policy option...as it would not be US serivcemen and women getting killed, or even the various despots around the world, but poor people.

Expect the UK government to suck Bush's cock on this one, and for the EU to mumble something

Policy is here

More here and here and here and here and here

Animal farm

2006-10-13T12:52:00.000Z

The University of Oslo Natural History Museum has created a display of the animal kingdom which includes some queendom!

"human homosexuality cannot be viewed as "unnatural." "We may have opinions on a lot of things, but one thing is clear—homosexuality is found throughout the animal kingdom; it is not against nature," an exhibit statement said"

"Geir Soeli, the project leader of the exhibit, titled "Against Nature," told Reuters: "Homosexuality has been observed for more than 1,500 animal species and is well-documented for 500 of them."

Of course, the display has not been without some contraversy. Right on que....
"One radical Christian said organizers of the exhibition, partly funded by the Norwegian government, should "burn in hell," Soeli said. Laws describing homosexuality as a "crime against nature" are still on the statutes in some countries"

Ohh, such compassion, such love....he should become a member of the Taliban!

Read more here

Swedish meatball?

2006-10-13T12:49:00.000Z

BBC NEWS | Europe | Swedes aim to put house on Moon

Charming cottage, secluded location, stunning panoramic views...

A Swedish artist has asked experts to help design one of Sweden's iconic little red cottages - but this one will stand on the Moon.

Hmmmmmm, COOL!

Censorship and Hypocrisy

2006-10-11T10:51:00.000Z

Much has been made of the protests of Muslims regarding the cartoons of Mohammed published by a Danish newspaper, and recently brought back into the media by a far right groups publishing of more cartoons.
But while it is easy for we in the West to get all-smug about our 'freedom of speech' there are those who, while protesting against repression of freedom of speech by Muslims, are not against it when it comes to their own sensibilities.

Christians
Sikhs
Jews

One mans meat is another mans posion

Effort

2006-10-11T10:40:00.000Z

Ah, the internet....a wonderful cornucopia of technology, innovation, thought, feeling and porn!

I have come across many a wonderful blog, podcast and general sites....all of which have highlighted the wonder that is the WWW. It as also shown what can be achieved with a bit of effort, so its time I tried and intergrated all the different parts of my life spread out across the WWW into this little bolg (or the bits I am happy to share).

I have started with the links but I think that will rapidly expand.

I am still to decide what the point of this blog is, what I am trying to acheive, but if I make an effort, most likley it will shape itself.

2006-10-10T15:23:00.000Z

The truth and horror of the GAY AGENDA

There has been much talk across the pond on the 'GAY AGENDA' since the whole Foley-Page think blow up....much of it misleading and the rest out right lies..ie Gays are kiddy fiddlers.
Thought this was very touching and much nearer the truth.

State of Emergency

2006-10-09T10:08:00.000Z

Guardian Unlimited | Science | World moves into ecological overdraft today, says study

Humanity slides into the red today and begins racking up an ecological overdraft driven by unsustainable exploitation of the world's resources, according to a report by the sustainable development organisation Global Footprint Network.

In little more than nine months, humans have used up all that nature can replenish in one year, and for the rest of 2006 are destined to eat into the planet's ecological capital, the study claims.

I love Monday mornings! I was in my local coffee shop, reading the Guardian, waiting for my large latte (could this get any more hippy liberal middle class westerner?) when I came across this cheery article. The intensity of the article was ‘heightened’ by the fact that Bjorks 'State of Emergency' was playing in the coffee shop.

As anyone who does not have a huge amount of money, it is always very difficult trying to live by your means....you end up going deeper and deeper into debt, using more than you earn. However, money is money, its value is what we humans give it. Running up an ecological debt is a far more disastrous proposition.

The whole experience, the latte, the article, the music, has left me feeling rather hollow.....the realisation (again) that the things that I, we people, hold as being important are just a side show, a distraction.

Why do I keep getting distracted?

Unacceptable

2006-09-29T11:53:00.000Z

University statement concerning the Department of Physics

Thursday September 28 2006: The University’s Senior Management Board has proposed that the Department of Physics recruit no further students after the present year’s intake in October 2006. It is recommended that the Department closes no later than July 2010. The interests of existing physics students and staff will be a priority during this period. The University regrets having to make this recommendation. It follows an extensive process of review, which concluded that in order to maintain and build on our academic strength in the Department of Physics, we would need to invest in a way which is not feasible in the present climate. In the current funding context, Reading, like many institutions, has to direct its limited resources to academic areas of comparative strength.

I caught a bit of an old Labour party speech from the 1960s on BBC Parliment the other day on the 'White Heat of Technology'. Even back then, it was clear to some that the future prosperity of the UK was based on science and technology, with a skilled and educated population being key to that.

Its seems that we are heading in the reverse direction. My solution, big GRANTS and no-fees for certian courses.....far to radical and unfree market a solution for the CURRENT Labour government.

Performancing

2006-09-28T15:28:00.000Z

Performancing

Like a monkey?

2006-09-23T22:18:00.000Z

Colbert's

Cool