Obnoxio has a much better poster on his site today.
Obnoxio- great site & recommended
http://obotheclown.blogspot.com/2010/02/so-much-funnier-than-labour-one.html#links
Dave Clemo's Blog. Books, music and other stuff
Friday, February 12, 2010
Gordon, Gordoff
Much was being written yesterday about the Labour Camera-on, Camera-off internet poster campaign. (they can't afford to hire poster sites these days).
Obnoxio has a much better poster on his site today.
Obnoxio has a much better poster on his site today.
Excellent !
First posted by Raedwald, and picked up by Guthrun at Looking for a Voice, here's a speech by Dan Hannan MEP complaining about the 27 European Commissioners, and how they are appointed to decide European policy without having to submit to the electorate. His particular gripe concerns Baroness Ashton, a woman who has risen to the top of the greasy pole without once ever stood in a election. She is the European Foreign Minister. The French don't like her because she doesn't speak French.
Listen to Dan Hannan's speech (reading the subtitles) and marvel at the delicious irony. The MEP campaigning to end the corruption that lies at the heart of Europe, and Europe's foreign minister not being able to understand it.
Priceless!
Listen to Dan Hannan's speech (reading the subtitles) and marvel at the delicious irony. The MEP campaigning to end the corruption that lies at the heart of Europe, and Europe's foreign minister not being able to understand it.
Priceless!
Monday, February 08, 2010
The Port of Dover to be sold to the French
If any proof were needed that this country is bankrupt, the papers are publicising that
"The Port of Dover is being recommended by Government advisers for sale to the French authorities.
It is one of a string of public assets which have been earmarked for privatisation as the Government battles with a record £830billion national debt."
"The Port of Dover is being recommended by Government advisers for sale to the French authorities.
It is one of a string of public assets which have been earmarked for privatisation as the Government battles with a record £830billion national debt."
However, if you dig deeper, it seems that this is part of a bigger plan to carve Britain up into a number of regions, one of which is to be called "Arc Manche"
Here's a link to the Arc Manche site
http://www.arcmanche.com/en/the-arc-manche/presentation/
"Arc Manche is a geographical area made up of the British and French territories bordering or in the English Channel. Since 2003 the Arc Manche has also become a political project resting on an informal and voluntary network of local authorities who can use the network to share best practices, coordinate initiatives and pull together project ideas to draw in EU funding,
In October 2005 the Arc Manche Assembly was created to improve the visibility of the network."
Informal & voluntary eh? What doublespeak! What happened to British sovereignity?
In October 2005 the Arc Manche Assembly was created to improve the visibility of the network."
Informal & voluntary eh? What doublespeak! What happened to British sovereignity?
Please check out this UKIP site for more information
http://www.ukipwsx.org/?EU_Regions:Arc_Manche
Wake up England. The invaders are at the gates!
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Get over it
Grumpyoldtwat has produced some posters in response to the increasingly strident Stonewall organisation.
Go to this site for more
http://grumpyoldtwat.blogspot.com/2010/02/gobby-gayers.html
Go to this site for more
http://grumpyoldtwat.blogspot.com/2010/02/gobby-gayers.html
Thursday, February 04, 2010
English Speaking Driver
I don't normally read the Express, so I wouldn't have picked this up if I hadn't called by the BigBrotherWatch site
Here's the link to the Express article
http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/155892/Race-row-over-taxi-drivers-flying-the-flag
It seems that a group of English speaking taxi drivers have been told to remove a badge from their taxis. It's a St George's Cross emblazoned with the slogan "English speaking driver". The local council have declared it racist.
Excuse me, but surely the local council, who licence the taxis should be making it a condition that speaking English should be a must?
Or have I got it wrong?
Thanks to Big Brother Watch. Highly recommended site
http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/home/2010/02/taxi-drivers-ordered-to-remove-the-cross-of-st-george-from-their-cabs.html#comments
Here's the link to the Express article
http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/155892/Race-row-over-taxi-drivers-flying-the-flag
It seems that a group of English speaking taxi drivers have been told to remove a badge from their taxis. It's a St George's Cross emblazoned with the slogan "English speaking driver". The local council have declared it racist.
Excuse me, but surely the local council, who licence the taxis should be making it a condition that speaking English should be a must?
Or have I got it wrong?
Thanks to Big Brother Watch. Highly recommended site
http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/home/2010/02/taxi-drivers-ordered-to-remove-the-cross-of-st-george-from-their-cabs.html#comments
Heads they win, tails we lose
This article in the Daily Politics. com website caught my eye.
http://www.the-daily-politics.com/component/content/article/56-environment/169-un-climate-change-canute-policy-still-on-the-table
"Goals on reducing greenhouse gases announced by major industrialized nations are a step forward but not enough to forestall the disastrous effects of climate change by midcentury, U.N. officials said Monday. Janos Pasztor, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's top climate adviser, said the goals, submitted to the U.N. as part of a voluntary plan to roll back emissions, make it highly unlikely the world can prevent temperatures from rising above the target set at the Copenhagen climate conference in December."
Here's my comment that I posted-
It's increasingly likely that we are entering another "Dalton Minimum", when minimal sunspots coincide with greatly reduced temperatures. Should this indeed be true, then all the emissions controls that are proposed will be useless. If anything we ought to be looking at ways to keep the temperature up.
Of course, if we have another cold period lasting decades, then the IPCC will claim the credit for averting Global Warming. And we will have paid dearly, some of us with our lives.
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Sunspots and climate
I've been following the Wattsupwiththat.com blog for a year or so and have read the various posts regarding the climate. As you are aware I'm a climate skeptic. The climate is changing but I don't believe that it's down to the amount of CO2 being put into the atmosphere. The more people shout that the science is settled , the more I dig my heels in. It's too simplistic, and the time scale is too short.
I read a lot of history and this week I read about Eric the Red, who discovered Greenland and established a colony there that included a church that was part of the Bishop of Hamburg's diocese. They were able to live there for a couple of hundred years until it got too cold. Why did he name it Greenland? Because it was green when he discovered it.
The climate scientists are happy to discount stories like this. They conveniently ignore the well documented fact that there used to be ice fairs held on the frozen Thames in London in the 17th and 18th century. There have been warm period and cold periods in the past 2000 years of recorded history.
The earth's climate is controlled by the sun. That should be obvious. The planets that are closer to the sun are too hot for human life, and those further out are too cold. Everyone knows that.
The sun from time to time shows sunspots on the surface. Astronomers have photographed them and shown huge solar flares that sent heat and radiation deep into space.
Scientists and astronomers have been studying the sun for centuries, observing sunspot activity. It just happens that the times when sunspot activity was at a minimum coincide with below normal temperatures.
The Dalton Minimum, according to Wikipedia
The Dalton Minimum was a period of low solar activity, named for the English meteorologist John Dalton, lasting from about 1790 to 1830.[1] Like the Maunder Minimum and Spörer Minimum, the Dalton Minimum coincided with a period of lower-than-average global temperatures. The Oberlach Station in Germany, for example, experienced a 2.0°C decline over 20 years.[2] The Year Without a Summer, in 1816, also occurred during the Dalton Minimum.
Then there's the Maunder minimum
The Maunder Minimum (also known as the prolonged sunspot minimum) is the name used for the period roughly spanning 1645 to 1715 by John A. Eddy in a landmark 1976 paper published in Science titled "The Maunder Minimum",[1] when sunspots became exceedingly rare, as noted by solar observers of the time. Astronomers before Eddy had also named the period after the solar astronomer Edward W. Maunder (1851–1928) who studied how sunspot latitudes changed with time.[2] The periods he examined included the second half of the 17th century. Edward Maunder published two papers in 1890 and 1894, and he cited earlier papers written by Gustav Spörer. The Maunder Minimum's duration was derived from Spörer's work. Like the Dalton Minimum and Spörer Minimum, the Maunder Minimum coincided with a period of lower-than-average global temperatures.
During one 30-year period within the Maunder Minimum, astronomers observed only about 50 sunspots, as opposed to a more typical 40,000–50,000 spots in modern times.
So it can be shown that low sunspot activity coincides with low global temperatures. So what about the current cold weather? It's too early to say with certainty, but sunspot activity has been very low for the last few years. If we are indeed at the start of a new minimum period that could continue for many years yet.
As I've blogged repeatedly, we have more to fear from the cold than from the warm. We may yet find ourselves huddled around our gas guzzling cars trying to warm ourselves on the exhaust fumes.
I found this interesting link
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/Solar_Cycles_24_and_25_and_Predicted_Climate_Response_22nd_October.pdf
It's titled " Solar Cycles 24 and 25 and Predicted Climate Response", and sets out all the relevant study of the effects of sunspot activity. It's a pity that the IPCC and the other warmists didn't read it before making their outlandish and alarmist fables about melting glaciers and drowning polar bears. If it gets as cold as it did in the 17th and 18th centuries, we'll be chasing them away from our rubbish bins, as they walked all the way from the artic on the ice cap.
It's funny what you find on the HM Government's website. Evidence that contradicts the government's own claims about global warming!
I read a lot of history and this week I read about Eric the Red, who discovered Greenland and established a colony there that included a church that was part of the Bishop of Hamburg's diocese. They were able to live there for a couple of hundred years until it got too cold. Why did he name it Greenland? Because it was green when he discovered it.
The climate scientists are happy to discount stories like this. They conveniently ignore the well documented fact that there used to be ice fairs held on the frozen Thames in London in the 17th and 18th century. There have been warm period and cold periods in the past 2000 years of recorded history.
The earth's climate is controlled by the sun. That should be obvious. The planets that are closer to the sun are too hot for human life, and those further out are too cold. Everyone knows that.
The sun from time to time shows sunspots on the surface. Astronomers have photographed them and shown huge solar flares that sent heat and radiation deep into space.
Scientists and astronomers have been studying the sun for centuries, observing sunspot activity. It just happens that the times when sunspot activity was at a minimum coincide with below normal temperatures.
The Dalton Minimum, according to Wikipedia
The Dalton Minimum was a period of low solar activity, named for the English meteorologist John Dalton, lasting from about 1790 to 1830.[1] Like the Maunder Minimum and Spörer Minimum, the Dalton Minimum coincided with a period of lower-than-average global temperatures. The Oberlach Station in Germany, for example, experienced a 2.0°C decline over 20 years.[2] The Year Without a Summer, in 1816, also occurred during the Dalton Minimum.
Then there's the Maunder minimum
The Maunder Minimum (also known as the prolonged sunspot minimum) is the name used for the period roughly spanning 1645 to 1715 by John A. Eddy in a landmark 1976 paper published in Science titled "The Maunder Minimum",[1] when sunspots became exceedingly rare, as noted by solar observers of the time. Astronomers before Eddy had also named the period after the solar astronomer Edward W. Maunder (1851–1928) who studied how sunspot latitudes changed with time.[2] The periods he examined included the second half of the 17th century. Edward Maunder published two papers in 1890 and 1894, and he cited earlier papers written by Gustav Spörer. The Maunder Minimum's duration was derived from Spörer's work. Like the Dalton Minimum and Spörer Minimum, the Maunder Minimum coincided with a period of lower-than-average global temperatures.
During one 30-year period within the Maunder Minimum, astronomers observed only about 50 sunspots, as opposed to a more typical 40,000–50,000 spots in modern times.
So it can be shown that low sunspot activity coincides with low global temperatures. So what about the current cold weather? It's too early to say with certainty, but sunspot activity has been very low for the last few years. If we are indeed at the start of a new minimum period that could continue for many years yet.
As I've blogged repeatedly, we have more to fear from the cold than from the warm. We may yet find ourselves huddled around our gas guzzling cars trying to warm ourselves on the exhaust fumes.
I found this interesting link
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/Solar_Cycles_24_and_25_and_Predicted_Climate_Response_22nd_October.pdf
It's titled " Solar Cycles 24 and 25 and Predicted Climate Response", and sets out all the relevant study of the effects of sunspot activity. It's a pity that the IPCC and the other warmists didn't read it before making their outlandish and alarmist fables about melting glaciers and drowning polar bears. If it gets as cold as it did in the 17th and 18th centuries, we'll be chasing them away from our rubbish bins, as they walked all the way from the artic on the ice cap.
It's funny what you find on the HM Government's website. Evidence that contradicts the government's own claims about global warming!
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Democracy, the least worst option
I got back from the cancer clinic to catch a glimpse of Mad Gordon trying to justify a change in the "first past the post" voting system that we currently use. If anything reeks of a desperate measure to stay in power, this is it. I heard the boss of the Electoral Reform Society say that the problem with the current system is that the person who gets the most votes can also be the least popular, a statement that sounds contradictory. His view is that the candidate with 40% of the vote actually has 60% of the electorate against him. We are however, discussing popularity, and the most popular newspaper or soap opera or chocolate bar all share the fact that more people voted for other choices than the most popular.
Can this version of democracy be changed for the better? The problem is falling turnout. A significant percentage of people don't turn out on polling day. They say they don't/won't vote because it only encourages them (the politicians). Many local elections have a turnout of less than 50%, which means that the combined total of votes cast is still a minority, thereby reinforcing the Electoral Reform Society's viewpoint.
I've thought long and hard about this and have come to the conclusion that if the turnout decreases through voter apathy, we'll end up with a comitted minority going to the polls and electing an extremist government by default, because the majority of the electorate didn't or wouldn't vote. And that would be dangerous for everyone. So how can the turnout be increased?
My limited knowledge of world affairs nags away at me. Is voting compulsory in some countries? I don't mean the so-called democracies where a dictator stands unopposed, but countries like Australia.
My system would involve both compulsion and choice. Firstly, the right to a free vote is precious and must never be lost, therefore make it compulsory for every UK citizen of voting age. This is obligatory and a condition of UK citizenship.
Then add the element of choice. There are lots of them, that's why they're called choice. My favourite would be to abolish political parties and have every candidate stand as in Independent. The candidate would then have to be someone well known to the electorate, thereby ensuring that local interests are put before party lines.
Anyway, let's say that the political parties are retained and the names are put on the ballot paper, along with one extra box marked "NONE OF THE ABOVE". Each voter must tick one box. The extra option can be used as a protest vote where instead of the customary practice of voting against a candidate by voting for a rival.
The votes are counted. It's still "first past the post". If the "None of the above" candidate scores the highest number of votes, then the election must be retaken, perhaps with different candidates.
I can see a hundred reasons why a system like this would be unpopular with the political parties,which is why it won't happen, but it is democratic. I'm as sick of our politicians as the next man, but if we are to retain democracy as the least worst option, something must be done, or else we'll see ever more extreme polticians elected with ever decreasing majorities.
What about the problem of elections being declared null and void? That's the price of democracy, and the art of politics is to get people with differing viewpoints to agree on something. The current political system gives the real power to the unelected government officers. In local politics, the council officers make the decisions and the councillors tweak them before rubber stamping them. If the council wishes to build a house, the councillor can choose the curtains and the colour of the front door and no more. He can't choose not to build the house, or build it somewhere else, or build more or less. This is not democracy, but that's how it is, because the electorate aren't encouraged or compelled to contribute any more.
I've read of lot of books and enjoy the speculative and prophetic fiction of authors like Ayn Rand, Robert Heinlein ( The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is an excellent political what-if book), George Orwell and others.
Brown's proposal is crazy, an act of a desperate man looking for allies in the Liberal Democrat party. Like everything he devises, from tax credits onwards, it's badly thought out and impossible to implement. In short, it's rubbish and will only hasten the demise of the current system. Maybe that's the long term plan?
Can this version of democracy be changed for the better? The problem is falling turnout. A significant percentage of people don't turn out on polling day. They say they don't/won't vote because it only encourages them (the politicians). Many local elections have a turnout of less than 50%, which means that the combined total of votes cast is still a minority, thereby reinforcing the Electoral Reform Society's viewpoint.
I've thought long and hard about this and have come to the conclusion that if the turnout decreases through voter apathy, we'll end up with a comitted minority going to the polls and electing an extremist government by default, because the majority of the electorate didn't or wouldn't vote. And that would be dangerous for everyone. So how can the turnout be increased?
My limited knowledge of world affairs nags away at me. Is voting compulsory in some countries? I don't mean the so-called democracies where a dictator stands unopposed, but countries like Australia.
My system would involve both compulsion and choice. Firstly, the right to a free vote is precious and must never be lost, therefore make it compulsory for every UK citizen of voting age. This is obligatory and a condition of UK citizenship.
Then add the element of choice. There are lots of them, that's why they're called choice. My favourite would be to abolish political parties and have every candidate stand as in Independent. The candidate would then have to be someone well known to the electorate, thereby ensuring that local interests are put before party lines.
Anyway, let's say that the political parties are retained and the names are put on the ballot paper, along with one extra box marked "NONE OF THE ABOVE". Each voter must tick one box. The extra option can be used as a protest vote where instead of the customary practice of voting against a candidate by voting for a rival.
The votes are counted. It's still "first past the post". If the "None of the above" candidate scores the highest number of votes, then the election must be retaken, perhaps with different candidates.
I can see a hundred reasons why a system like this would be unpopular with the political parties,which is why it won't happen, but it is democratic. I'm as sick of our politicians as the next man, but if we are to retain democracy as the least worst option, something must be done, or else we'll see ever more extreme polticians elected with ever decreasing majorities.
What about the problem of elections being declared null and void? That's the price of democracy, and the art of politics is to get people with differing viewpoints to agree on something. The current political system gives the real power to the unelected government officers. In local politics, the council officers make the decisions and the councillors tweak them before rubber stamping them. If the council wishes to build a house, the councillor can choose the curtains and the colour of the front door and no more. He can't choose not to build the house, or build it somewhere else, or build more or less. This is not democracy, but that's how it is, because the electorate aren't encouraged or compelled to contribute any more.
I've read of lot of books and enjoy the speculative and prophetic fiction of authors like Ayn Rand, Robert Heinlein ( The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is an excellent political what-if book), George Orwell and others.
Brown's proposal is crazy, an act of a desperate man looking for allies in the Liberal Democrat party. Like everything he devises, from tax credits onwards, it's badly thought out and impossible to implement. In short, it's rubbish and will only hasten the demise of the current system. Maybe that's the long term plan?
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Quote of the day
"Libertarians are so often portrayed as cruel and heartless, but nothing could be more wrong. We believe in people. We trust them. The statists of right and left do not. They see humans as fundamentally evil; to be controlled at all costs. We see evidence everywhere (despite the odious exceptions on whom they focus) of humanity's essential goodness."
Can I recommend this blogger to you?
http://lastditch.typepad.com/lastditch/
Can I recommend this blogger to you?
http://lastditch.typepad.com/lastditch/
Been robbed or mugged recently? Don't call the Police until after April 5th
You really couldn't make this up. Inspector Gadget has blogged this-
"
In a conversation which I recorded on my mobile for a “rainy day”, and a “blanket” email which I have kept to show HMIC, we have been told that the proactive teams are to come back into Jack Straws warmth, and start clearing up any outstanding crime reports.
They must not, under any circumstances, get out on the street and find any more crime. Not until the next financial year anyway. All their accumulated leave (and there is lots of it being as we don’t pay overtime any more) is to be taken between now and April. It’s best to have them out-of-the-way, they just cant be trusted to stay indoors......
Please visit Inspector Gadget's blog for the rest of the article.
"
In a conversation which I recorded on my mobile for a “rainy day”, and a “blanket” email which I have kept to show HMIC, we have been told that the proactive teams are to come back into Jack Straws warmth, and start clearing up any outstanding crime reports.
They must not, under any circumstances, get out on the street and find any more crime. Not until the next financial year anyway. All their accumulated leave (and there is lots of it being as we don’t pay overtime any more) is to be taken between now and April. It’s best to have them out-of-the-way, they just cant be trusted to stay indoors......
Please visit Inspector Gadget's blog for the rest of the article.
Never let them forget it
I'm an ordinary civilian member of society. A citizen if you like. I've lived a long time and can remember the days of Dixon of Dock Green. In those days we had a Police Force. These days we have a Police Service.
One of the strange inconsistencies is that when we had a Police Force, the Police never had to resort to using it. Now we have a Police service and increasingly they do.
I can remember when the local constable was local. He lived locally and knew everyone on his beat. He had the unwritten permission from my parents to dole out such punishment as he saw fit, in order to keep me from straying from minor to more serious transgressions.
These days any policepersons who live near me work somewhere else in the county. They work a shift pattern which means that their involvement in the community they police ends when they clock off. They have been increasingly politicised over the years and are now target driven.
I recommend Inspector Gadget's blogsite to anyone in doubt at the ludicrous targets they have to work to.
http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/
Lest we forget, the modern Police force was set up by Sir Robert Peel. He set out his "Peelian Principles" and they are set out below. I have highlighted point 9, because it has been all but forgotten in the chase to meet Home Office targets.
One of the strange inconsistencies is that when we had a Police Force, the Police never had to resort to using it. Now we have a Police service and increasingly they do.
I can remember when the local constable was local. He lived locally and knew everyone on his beat. He had the unwritten permission from my parents to dole out such punishment as he saw fit, in order to keep me from straying from minor to more serious transgressions.
These days any policepersons who live near me work somewhere else in the county. They work a shift pattern which means that their involvement in the community they police ends when they clock off. They have been increasingly politicised over the years and are now target driven.
I recommend Inspector Gadget's blogsite to anyone in doubt at the ludicrous targets they have to work to.
http://inspectorgadget.wordpress.com/
Lest we forget, the modern Police force was set up by Sir Robert Peel. He set out his "Peelian Principles" and they are set out below. I have highlighted point 9, because it has been all but forgotten in the chase to meet Home Office targets.
Principles of policing
- The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.
- The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon the public approval of police actions.
- Police must secure the willing co-operation of the public in voluntary observation of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
- The degree of co-operation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.
- Police seek and preserve public favour not by catering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
- Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice, and warning is found to be insufficient.
- Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent upon every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.
- Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions, and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
- The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.
By the rivers of Babylon
I've had this recurring dream for the last seven or eight years. I think it was triggered by Chancellor Brown's statement that presonal indebtedness was beginning to be a concern, yet we must all continue spending in order to maintain economic growth.
I kept waking up having dreamed that the media were announcing the takeover of UK Plc and that all moneys owed were to be repaid immediately.
What would happen if all the people who we owed money to demanded instant repayment?
At that time I was a Bible student and couldn't help notice parallels between Old Testament Israel and modern day UK.
The nations we defeated all those years ago have long memories. Their revenge will be served cold. It will be brutal.
This once fine nation is being looted of all its treasures. Once they have all gone, what will happen to the people?
As Boney M once sang
"By the rivers of Babylon, where we sat down, yea we wept, when we remembered Zion."
A paraphrase of Psalm 137.
I kept waking up having dreamed that the media were announcing the takeover of UK Plc and that all moneys owed were to be repaid immediately.
What would happen if all the people who we owed money to demanded instant repayment?
At that time I was a Bible student and couldn't help notice parallels between Old Testament Israel and modern day UK.
The nations we defeated all those years ago have long memories. Their revenge will be served cold. It will be brutal.
This once fine nation is being looted of all its treasures. Once they have all gone, what will happen to the people?
As Boney M once sang
"By the rivers of Babylon, where we sat down, yea we wept, when we remembered Zion."
A paraphrase of Psalm 137.
Double standards?
Two recent reports in the papers made me sit up and ask what is going on.
The first concerns Dr Andrew Wakefield, a long time critic of the MMR vaccination programme.
"Andrew Wakefield, who first linked the triple jab to autism and bowel problems, acted ‘dishonestly and irresponsibly’ when publicising his research, the General Medical Council ruled yesterday.
Its verdict at the end of the longest and most expensive hearing in its 148-year history was supposed to draw a line under the 12-year saga provoked by his study of 12 autistic children published in the Lancet.
The first concerns Dr Andrew Wakefield, a long time critic of the MMR vaccination programme.
"Andrew Wakefield, who first linked the triple jab to autism and bowel problems, acted ‘dishonestly and irresponsibly’ when publicising his research, the General Medical Council ruled yesterday.
Its verdict at the end of the longest and most expensive hearing in its 148-year history was supposed to draw a line under the 12-year saga provoked by his study of 12 autistic children published in the Lancet.
The second concerns a GP, Dr Jane Barton.
"Grieving families reacted with horror yesterday as a doctor who gave lethal cocktails of drugs to 12 elderly patients 'to keep them quiet' was allowed to carry on working.
Relatives of the dead pensioners walked out in disgust as GP Jane Barton escaped being struck off the medical register despite being found guilty of serious professional misconduct by a General Medical Council panel."
Relatives of the dead pensioners walked out in disgust as GP Jane Barton escaped being struck off the medical register despite being found guilty of serious professional misconduct by a General Medical Council panel."
It does make one wonder. One expressed doubts about a vaccine and has been silenced. The other made decisions that contributed to the deaths of many pensioners and is allowed to continue working.
I've always had my doubts about the GMC. It's body of professionals that polices itself. A bit like Parliament (except for the professional qualifications). Play the game and you're invulnerable. Rock the boat and you're out.
Is this the future for us all?
Aside from that, there is evidence that we are but a few years away from euthanasia. Voluntary of course. But voluntary soon becomes obligatory. How long before we hear the whispers that old age pensioners are costing us too much money, are blocking beds in the hospitals, are stopping unemployed families from living in nice houses, are using valuable resources, etc etc?
Here's an interesting post on Biased BBC that reinforces my misgivings
http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2010/01/have-mercy.html
"See that the BBC is pushing the merits of "mercy killings". A poll for Panorama seeks to inform us that almost three quarters of respondents would support assisted suicide for the terminally ill. The liberal BBC agenda has been a fervent advocate of the death cult of assisted suicide and this Panorama poll is but the most recent manifestation of it. I do appreciate the sensitivities surrounding this issue and the great pain people go through, including the families of the person with the terminal illness but I have to say that the BBC persistently pushes just ONE side of this debate, as it chooses death."
Here's an interesting post on Biased BBC that reinforces my misgivings
http://biased-bbc.blogspot.com/2010/01/have-mercy.html
"See that the BBC is pushing the merits of "mercy killings". A poll for Panorama seeks to inform us that almost three quarters of respondents would support assisted suicide for the terminally ill. The liberal BBC agenda has been a fervent advocate of the death cult of assisted suicide and this Panorama poll is but the most recent manifestation of it. I do appreciate the sensitivities surrounding this issue and the great pain people go through, including the families of the person with the terminal illness but I have to say that the BBC persistently pushes just ONE side of this debate, as it chooses death."
Friday, January 29, 2010
GIGO
GIGO is an acronym, meaning "garbage in, garbage out". It was the first thing taught to me when I started using computers back in the middle of the last century.
It is the first law of computing. A computer is, after all, only an adding machine. if you input incorrect data, you get a wrong answer. As the meerkat says- simples.
The recent bad weather and the global warming fiasco has hammered the point home.
This is the BBC's description of the Met Office's new supercomputer
"The computer is about the size of two football pitches and can make about 750 trillion calculations a second - equivalent to 100,000 PCs."
Yes but- if you feed duff data in, you'll always get duff answers. Remember the first rule?
All these computer models are doubly or even triply flawed.
1. If you devise a computer model according to your specifications, the results will be in line with your model. So, if you believe that global warming is happening, you will devise a model to reflect your views/beliefs, and no matter what data you feed in, the answer will come out the way you programmed it.
2. If you filter the data to take out any anomalies before inputting it, the result will be flawed.
3. If you then publish your results (in the form of a weather forecast) and it's wrong, people will get upset.
And it doesn't matter how big your computer is. Garbage in, garbage out, remember?
It is the first law of computing. A computer is, after all, only an adding machine. if you input incorrect data, you get a wrong answer. As the meerkat says- simples.
The recent bad weather and the global warming fiasco has hammered the point home.
This is the BBC's description of the Met Office's new supercomputer
"The computer is about the size of two football pitches and can make about 750 trillion calculations a second - equivalent to 100,000 PCs."
Yes but- if you feed duff data in, you'll always get duff answers. Remember the first rule?
All these computer models are doubly or even triply flawed.
1. If you devise a computer model according to your specifications, the results will be in line with your model. So, if you believe that global warming is happening, you will devise a model to reflect your views/beliefs, and no matter what data you feed in, the answer will come out the way you programmed it.
2. If you filter the data to take out any anomalies before inputting it, the result will be flawed.
3. If you then publish your results (in the form of a weather forecast) and it's wrong, people will get upset.
And it doesn't matter how big your computer is. Garbage in, garbage out, remember?
HowManyOfMe dot com
Go to www.howmanyofme.com and find out who shares your name (in the USA). I checked and there are five David Clemo's in the US!
I think one's quite enough thank you.
I think one's quite enough thank you.
The dam is cracking
Andrew Neil is at it again. A few weeks after he savaged the head of the Met Office for their lousy weather forecasting on his lunchtime TV show, he's blogging on the BBC website that the global warming dam is cracking.
You can read it here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/dailypolitics/andrewneil/2010/01/the_dam_is_cracking.html
Copenhagen was about money. The distribution of my money to so-called poor countries to combat so called global warming. It is and never was about saving the planet. The UK even has a "climate change" minister to massage the collective guilt of the population and to carry the bag of loot. The chief conspirators in the scam are the BBC, who have bought into it lock stock and barrel; the Met Office, who publish doom laden forecasts that cannot possibly be backed by science, and provide short term forecasts that cannot predict snow in winter, or sun in summer. The boss of the Met Office used to head up the third party in this conspiracy, namely the World Wildlife Fund. It was their report on the Amazon that the IPCC used and subsequentky had to retract, and the was the WWF report on the Himalayan glaciers that was found to be pure speculation. For more about the WWF and AGW read this
http://climateaudit.org/2010/01/25/the-wwf-and-the-epa-endangerment-finding/
A few brave voices are beginning to be heard above the roar of the mob. The science is not proved. I believe that the climate is changing. I believe that it is constantly changing. I don't believe for one second that cherry picking a few stats gathered over a quarter of a century can be used to predict what will happen to the climate a century from today. I don't believe that CO2 is the cause of global warming. A great many wiser, better educated and more qualified people agree with me.
So why are the governments of the world so obsessed with AGW?
They gotta have a bogeyman. Once it was the reds under the beds, then it was Alky Ada, now it's global warming.
Their weapons of control are fear and guilt. We supply their weapons. We fear and we feel guilty and they use those weapons to keep us under control.
If I don't feel guilty and I don't feel scared what power do they have over me?
Life or death?
I have leukaemia. My treatment means that my immunity to infection is shot to pieces. I'm not going to spend what remains of my life cowering in a bunker at some preceived threat, or shivering in an unheated house through choice.
In the meantime, let's be glad that some voices of sanity are beginning to be heard. Please check out Andrew Neil's blog
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/dailypolitics/andrewneil/2010/01/the_dam_is_cracking.html
You can read it here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/dailypolitics/andrewneil/2010/01/the_dam_is_cracking.html
Copenhagen was about money. The distribution of my money to so-called poor countries to combat so called global warming. It is and never was about saving the planet. The UK even has a "climate change" minister to massage the collective guilt of the population and to carry the bag of loot. The chief conspirators in the scam are the BBC, who have bought into it lock stock and barrel; the Met Office, who publish doom laden forecasts that cannot possibly be backed by science, and provide short term forecasts that cannot predict snow in winter, or sun in summer. The boss of the Met Office used to head up the third party in this conspiracy, namely the World Wildlife Fund. It was their report on the Amazon that the IPCC used and subsequentky had to retract, and the was the WWF report on the Himalayan glaciers that was found to be pure speculation. For more about the WWF and AGW read this
http://climateaudit.org/2010/01/25/the-wwf-and-the-epa-endangerment-finding/
A few brave voices are beginning to be heard above the roar of the mob. The science is not proved. I believe that the climate is changing. I believe that it is constantly changing. I don't believe for one second that cherry picking a few stats gathered over a quarter of a century can be used to predict what will happen to the climate a century from today. I don't believe that CO2 is the cause of global warming. A great many wiser, better educated and more qualified people agree with me.
So why are the governments of the world so obsessed with AGW?
They gotta have a bogeyman. Once it was the reds under the beds, then it was Alky Ada, now it's global warming.
Their weapons of control are fear and guilt. We supply their weapons. We fear and we feel guilty and they use those weapons to keep us under control.
If I don't feel guilty and I don't feel scared what power do they have over me?
Life or death?
I have leukaemia. My treatment means that my immunity to infection is shot to pieces. I'm not going to spend what remains of my life cowering in a bunker at some preceived threat, or shivering in an unheated house through choice.
In the meantime, let's be glad that some voices of sanity are beginning to be heard. Please check out Andrew Neil's blog
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/dailypolitics/andrewneil/2010/01/the_dam_is_cracking.html
Joe Dolce
One of my Facebook friends announced that she's now a friend of Joe Dolce, so I became one too. Ten or more years ago I was so sick of the Princess Diana funeral moneymaking rip-off, that I speculated what if.....
Not for me the conspiracy theories concerning her death. Oh no. What interested me was the conspiracy theory concerning her funeral.
Dying young isn't a bad career move. Look at what it's done for Michael Jackson. Or Elvis. Or Freddie Mercury. Or John Lennon. I mean, if Lennon was still alive, we wouldn't have to put up with bloody "Imagine" in every popular music poll, with Bohemian bloody Rhapsody at number 2.
No, dying young can help you sell an awful lot of records.
So, no sooner had Diana's body been brought back to England when they began sorting out her funeral. And it seemed that everyone knew that her favourite song was candle in the bloody wind, a song that dates from when she was a little girl.
Her favourite song was "Candle in the wind".
Really? I mean, they didn't just make that up did they?
What if.....?
What if her favourite song was Joe Dolce's classic "Shaddup ya face"? Can you imagine Joe with his mandolin in the Abbey, regaling the great and good with the immortal lines
"What's a matter you, hey?
Got no respect hey?
Whatta you thinka you do?
Why you look so sad?
It's not so bad
It's a nice place
Ah shaddup ya face!"
And yes you can play it at my funeral.
And here's Samuel L Jackson's version
Not for me the conspiracy theories concerning her death. Oh no. What interested me was the conspiracy theory concerning her funeral.
Dying young isn't a bad career move. Look at what it's done for Michael Jackson. Or Elvis. Or Freddie Mercury. Or John Lennon. I mean, if Lennon was still alive, we wouldn't have to put up with bloody "Imagine" in every popular music poll, with Bohemian bloody Rhapsody at number 2.
No, dying young can help you sell an awful lot of records.
So, no sooner had Diana's body been brought back to England when they began sorting out her funeral. And it seemed that everyone knew that her favourite song was candle in the bloody wind, a song that dates from when she was a little girl.
Her favourite song was "Candle in the wind".
Really? I mean, they didn't just make that up did they?
What if.....?
What if her favourite song was Joe Dolce's classic "Shaddup ya face"? Can you imagine Joe with his mandolin in the Abbey, regaling the great and good with the immortal lines
"What's a matter you, hey?
Got no respect hey?
Whatta you thinka you do?
Why you look so sad?
It's not so bad
It's a nice place
Ah shaddup ya face!"
And yes you can play it at my funeral.
And here's Samuel L Jackson's version
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
How politics works
Dizzy has an easy to understand chart to explain how politics works. You can find his original post here.
http://dizzythinks.net/2010/01/how-politics-works-and-why-people-hate.html
And here's the chart.
http://dizzythinks.net/2010/01/how-politics-works-and-why-people-hate.html
Monday, January 25, 2010
SETI and the digital revolution
Dr Frank Drake founded the SETI unit more than fifty years ago. (SETI= Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence) They basically point radio telescopes at the sky in the hope of hearing something that sounds artificial (I almost said man made!) You may recall that Jody Foster made a film called Contact based on their work.
There's an article in the Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1245970/The-digital-revolution-making-Earth-harder-detect-inquisitive-aliens-worlds-leading-ET-hunter-says.html
And it reports that Dr Frank is concerned that the digital age is making it more difficult for aliens to hear us. Why? because the digital signals sound like noise. This is how the Mail reports it
"To a race of observing aliens, digital TV signals would look like noise, said Dr Drake
Correct me if I'm wrong but.....
We're looking for an alien civilisation. As advanced or more advanced than our own. And we're scanning the skies listening for analogue signals?
We've spent fifty years listening for for a message from space in a format that is now officially obsolete on Earth. From an equally or more advanced Civilisation?
There's an article in the Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1245970/The-digital-revolution-making-Earth-harder-detect-inquisitive-aliens-worlds-leading-ET-hunter-says.html
And it reports that Dr Frank is concerned that the digital age is making it more difficult for aliens to hear us. Why? because the digital signals sound like noise. This is how the Mail reports it
"To a race of observing aliens, digital TV signals would look like noise, said Dr Drake
Correct me if I'm wrong but.....
We're looking for an alien civilisation. As advanced or more advanced than our own. And we're scanning the skies listening for analogue signals?
We've spent fifty years listening for for a message from space in a format that is now officially obsolete on Earth. From an equally or more advanced Civilisation?
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