Happy New Year

May I wish all my readers a Happy & Prosperous New Year! All The Best!

£100k pa for Bloging?!!

I've just been given a book with that approximate title. Why because 1 guy can make over £100k a month does some idiot writer thing he can give a prescription so that we ALL can do this! The book is obviously a total rip-off written by a fraud who thinks he can make some money by publishing it!

Transaction Tax

Here's an idea for a way to make a financial transaction tax palatable to more politions.

¤ Transactions within areas such as the EU & attached areas are not taxed.

¤ Transactions to normal tax areas outside the financial area's 'local zone' should be taxed at 0.1%.

¤ Transactions going to minimal tax areas, such as known tax havens, should be taxed at the equivalent tax rate that would have been raised if the money had stayed within the financial area's taxation jurisdiction.

¤ Transactions bringing funds into the financial jurirdiction that are liable for tax should have any outgoing taxes refunded in full.

Hell, it may just work!

Posted from my mobile via e-mail.

Culling Tax Avoidence

OK, this is a bit off the wall, and to work it would have to be adopted worldwide, but if multinational companies had to pay tax in the country or contries that their shares where traded in, would this not reduce tax avoidence and help to kick start the global economy?
Now that was a long scentance!
Posted from my mobile via e-mail.

Haloween Greetings

In his house in R'lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming! Iä, Iä, Cthulhu fhtagn!
Happy Haloween, Clutists! Wait until the stars are right!

Save Test Cricket!

There is a campaign starting on Twitter & Facebook to save Test Cricket as attendances outside the UK (& Aus when we play them) are going down.

Please support this campaign if you wish to preserve Test Cricket.

Premier League, Promotion & Relegation

It would seem that a group of overseas owners of a number of Premier League teams seem to be be looking to stop relegation & promotion.
Who do they think they are!
This is totaly stupid!
These owners need to be taken out, put up against the nearest wall & shot!
I am so furious I can hardley text!

OK, Villa lost their unbeaten record at the weekend, but I would prefer them to go down rather than lose promotion & relegation!!!

Piracy With Violence

As piracy seems to be becoming a major break on the profitability of world trade, perhaps the crime of Piracy With Violence should be bought back as a capital ofence? Would this act as a deterrent? I'm not in favour of capital punishment, but I could be convinced about this.

Return Of The 'Q' Ship

The Monsoon is ending in the Indian Ocean, leading to fears that Somali pirates will be back out in force. In fact an Anglo/US force has just liberated a vessel that had been recently hijacked.

To me it appears that the forces arrayed in the Indian Ocean to deal with the pirates are not suited to the job. Destroyers, frigates and the like are not suited to chasing fast skiffs or similar fast motor vessels, they are designed to fight large scale 'formal' wars.

At the start of WWI there was no easy way to engage submarines. This led to the creation of the 'Q' Ship. This was a medium sized merchant vessel, crewed by the navy, armed with a number of consealed quick firing guns. The ship was chosen to be just too small to be worth a torpedo, so the sub would surface to try and capture and scuttle it, or sink it with fire from the sub's deck gun(s), whereupon the 'Q' Ship would engage the sub with its weaponary. It proved moderately successful.

I would think a number of 21st century versions of such 'Q' Ships may prove a major deterrent against Somali pirates who are preying on merchant vessels. Perhaps such things should be deployed.

Via e-mail.

The Defence Secratry

Dr. Fox.
I was always very baffeled as to why a DJ was made Defence Secratry. Knowledge of cotemporary music should not give someone the ability to run our armed forces!

Joke!

Health Service Reforms

With the greatest of respect to the Department of Health, we do not want more meaningless 'Choice', we want decent care close to where we live!
The Tory's are trying to reintroduce the market, which will never work in an organisation that is mathematically 'chaotic', back into the NHS as the people who fund them would like it!
I trust my GP to treat me, but GPs are not trained to run the NHS, so they will have to outsource their provisioning to the private sector. Typical free market capitalist thinking!

Health Lottery

Why does the new Health Lottery have Erico Morricone tune the 'Extacy of Gold' (sometimes refered to as the 'Lust for Gold') from the classic 'The Good, The Bad & The Ugly!

It would seem that the people who made that ad are trying to tap into peoples greed!

Could Christiania Happen In The UK?

I've just been happening to listen to a prog on Radio4 on the Danish comune cum anarcho-capitalist society cum hippy/squatter/leftist dreamer free area in Copenhagen.

I started to think, could a similar society take off in the UK? With the prevailing economic situation (which slightly resembles that which created Christiana) I feel that a social experiment like this may be viable, but would be an amathama to 90% of the political class, thus rendering it impossible as it would be stamped on very hard!

While it may not be possible to engender such a social experiment here in the UK, I would like to see such a thing happening, possibly in a neo-cyberpunk sort of way.

Posted by e-mail via mobile.

Faster Than A Ray Of Light

CERN researchers are baffled by measurements that appear to show nutrinos traveling in excess of the speed of light. Those of you who are familiar with Einstien's Special Theory of Relativity will realise that this should be impossible.

There are a number of possible explanations for these observations:
a) The distance between CERN and the lab in Italy has been incorrectly measured or calculated.
b) Timing between the labs had been incorrectly synchronised.
c) Other forms of systematic measurement error.
d) Nutrinos do not work like we thought they did.
e) Einstien was slightly off in his theory (but not to the extent a number of sensationalist journo's have suggested, otherwise sat navs and other stuff would have stopped working!)

A, b or c of the above are the most likely explanations. Nutrinos having a different nature to that which we have assumed they have, such as being able to take on a negative rest mass for short periods, would be very interesting. The most intriguing posibility would be that Relativity Theory is not complete & needs to be extended/reworked.

Posted by e-mail from mobile.

Another Villa Draw

Another Saturday afternoon, another Villa draw. How we managed not to win is beyond me. Newcastle probably had the majority of possession, but Villa had the best chances which we failed to put away. Well, at least we are still unbeaten, but will all of these draws be enough?

At least my Scotish team, Stranraer won!

By e-mail from my mobile.

This Weeks Audience

This weeks audience:

When Fabio Goes, Who Should Replace Him?

In about 10 months time Fabio Capello will be standing down as England football manager.

When he goes, who should replace him?

I personally favour giving 'Psycho' (our current U-21 manager) a go, but what do you think?

Stick in a comment below with your pick for the new England manager, even if you favour Roy Hodgson!

Is THIS A Conspiracy Theory? ...

Is this article in the Jerusalem Post an Conspiracy Theory promulgated by ultra-Zionists, a genuine SNAFU by a (possibly) hungry observer, or a load of rubbish?

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=236772

I will leave it to the readers to make their own minds up!

Have The Moon Landing Conspiracy Theories Been Scotched?

Have the latest HD photos from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter finally laid to rest the 'NASA never landed on the Moon' conspiracy theories?

As the people who adhere to this type of theory as are almost Messianic in their beliefs, I think not. For those who have a slightly sceptical attitude towards the Moon landings, these new photos may change their minds.

Personally, I think that some of the early still photos may have been taken down here in order to make people more enthusiastic about the Lunar missions, as NASA were not sure that the astronauts could take decent pictures with the equipment they had under the harsh Lunar conditions, but even this is unlikely.

Austrailian Sheep Farmers Wrong In Persecuting Thylacine.

The Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine), an extinct(?) Australian marsupial predator has been shown to have favoured small agile prey, which probably weighed under 5kg.

Aussie sheep farmers persecuted the poor beast, claiming it was a massive sheep killer, which led to its probable extinction (there are a few, sparse, unconfirmed sightings of the Thylacine floating around).

Shows how being in possession of sharp pointy teeth and a distinctive pelt gets you lynched by farmers wherever you live!

A big thanks to Cryptozoolgy.com for info on this.

Interview Technique (For Creative Types)

Part 1: http://www.dilbert.com/fast/2011-09-05/

Part 2: http://www.dilbert.com/fast/2011-09-06/

Turkish DNS Hijack

A bunch of Turkish hackers apparently hijacked the web addresses of a whole bunch of sites on Sunday evening, redirecting people to a web page that they control. This DNS hijack hit both The Telegraph and El Reg. The hijack seems to be over now.

They claimed it was 'World Hackers Day' and that the DNS hijack was "just for fun".

Probably had some ulterior motive that this "just for fun" was hiding.

The Reith Lectures 2011 - A Ex-Spook Talks (Updated)

Tomorrow at 9am BST  on BBC Radio4 the 3rd Reith Lecture for 2011 will be broadcast.

Spook watchers may find this of interest as it will be given by Eliza Manningham-Buller, former Director General of MI5 (the British internal security organisation) on the subject of Terror.

While it is likely that this will have been pre-recorded, it should be interesting to listen to the broadcast in the light of the documentation that has come light in Libya regarding British intelligence services' possible involvement in 'extraordinary rendition' to the Gaddafi regime.

Note: Next Reith Lecture will be on the 13th Sept 2011 (9am)

Impossible Star Found

Astronomers using ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) have discovered that the composition of SDSS J102915+172927 (the faintest star in the constellation of Leo - the lion) is mainly hydrogen and helium, with only very small amounts of any heavier elements. Conventional theories of stellar evolution say that it should not exist. 

Read the full details at ESO - eso1132 - The Star That Should Not Exist

9/11 - Dust Demons?

I wonder if the rather toxic dust cloud that emanated from the collapse of the towers may end up shortening the lives of more people than died in the original tragedy (the most drastic shortening of life)?

If it does, then politicians may well have been to blame for some of this as they rushed people back into the area when the EPA said the asbestos risk was acceptably small, not thinking of PM10s, heavy metals, and similar nasties in their eagerness to show the terrorists that they hadn't won.

The following links may be of some interest to people wanting some background and fellow conspiracy theorists:

• http://www.villagevoice.com/2006-11-21/news/death-by-dust/
• http://discovermagazine.com/2007/oct/the-9-11-cover-up
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/mar/12/world-trade-centre-911-payout
• http://infowars.net/articles/may2007/160507Probe.htm
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqrr-xyqxfs
• http://www.911dustdeath.com/toxicdustbackground.shtml
• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1306032/9-11s-Toxic-time-bomb.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_arising_from_the_September_11_attacks

Humorous Radio 4 Programme

The Castle, a radio comedy that uses the conceit of setting itself in medieval times to reflect upon modern shibboleths and 21st century bugbears, is back on the BBC.

I find it quite hilarious. You may also enjoy it.

Follow this link to the Castle's homepage. 

Welsh 6th Former Discovers Asteriod Which May Be Named After Her

Welsh 6th Former, Hanna Blyth, on a summer placement on the Faulkes Telescope Project, based at the University of Glamorgan, has been credited with assisting in the discovery of 22 new asteroids!

It is hoped that one of these may be named after her.

Link to more details on this story.

American Astrophysicist Reduces Plane Boarding Times

Dr Jason Steffen, an astrophysicist working at Fermilab, has developed a plane boarding strategy that may be able to reduce the time taken to board a plane by 50%.

In testing his theory, which was initially developed in his spare time using mathematical modeling, Dr Steffen found that passengers boarding a plane at random is actually faster than the commonly used block boarding method!

Full details of the Steffen Method may be found here.

Villa Buy Someone!

Right at the last knockings of the summer transfer window, Villa buy one, get one on one years loan from Spurs. Up to then we had more players out than in (as can be seen here), but now we have picked up Alan Hutton (permanent signing), who has played under McLeish, and Jermaine Jenas is with us on a years loan.

Even with the upcoming (January window) signing of Stevens from Shamrock Rovers, I still think that the numbers and quality of players out are greater than the numbers and quality of the players in. I hope I am wrong in this, and Villa get better for these transfers.

Well at least we aren't doing too badly to date.

See Also: http://deadmanchatting.blogspot.com/2011/08/villa-sell-another-good-player.html

This Weeks Audience

Here is a map of this blog's audience for the week: