The world's population is expected to hit seven billion in the next few weeks. After growing very slowly for most of human history, the number of people on Earth has more than doubled in the last 50 years.
The BBC has one of the greatest webpages on the Internet where you can find out where you fit into this story of human life by filling in your date of birth.
When i was born i was the 3,601,852,773rd person alive on Earth and the 77,682,028,766th person to have ever lived since history began.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-15391515
Monday, 15 July 2013
Saturday, 13 July 2013
UK Government Tobacco Links
“I believe that secret corporate lobbying, like the expenses scandal, goes to the heart of why people are so fed up with politics. It arouses people’s worst fears and suspicions about how our political system works.” Prime Minister David Cameron, MP, speaking in February 2010
Lynton Crosby is an adviser to the Government, he also owns a lobbying firm CT Group and the job of a lobbying firm is to try and influence decisions made by officials in the government. One of his customers is Phillip Morris the cigarette manufacturer.
Sounds dodgy immediately but it gets even more sleazy.
Lynton Crosby was hired by the Government as an adviser and this week the government revealed that it was overruling it's own Health Ministers to shelve plans to introduce plain packaging on cigarettes.
Last week it was announced that e-cigarettes are to be classed as medicines and the e-cigarette companies subject to tough new tests before they can sell their wares, a decision that benefits the tobacco companies who are seeing their profits hit by the adoption of e-cigarettes.
All very reminiscent of the Blair/Ecclestone affair when Bernie Ecclestone, then in charge of Formula 1 motor racing, 'donated' a million pound to to the Labour Party and months later, Tony Blair, then Prime Minister, changed Government policy to Mr Ecclestone's advantage: Formula 1 would be exempt from the general ban on cigarette advertising at sporting events.
Is there anybody out there in a position of authority who isn't screwing us over for a profit?
Lynton Crosby is an adviser to the Government, he also owns a lobbying firm CT Group and the job of a lobbying firm is to try and influence decisions made by officials in the government. One of his customers is Phillip Morris the cigarette manufacturer.
Sounds dodgy immediately but it gets even more sleazy.
Lynton Crosby was hired by the Government as an adviser and this week the government revealed that it was overruling it's own Health Ministers to shelve plans to introduce plain packaging on cigarettes.
Last week it was announced that e-cigarettes are to be classed as medicines and the e-cigarette companies subject to tough new tests before they can sell their wares, a decision that benefits the tobacco companies who are seeing their profits hit by the adoption of e-cigarettes.
All very reminiscent of the Blair/Ecclestone affair when Bernie Ecclestone, then in charge of Formula 1 motor racing, 'donated' a million pound to to the Labour Party and months later, Tony Blair, then Prime Minister, changed Government policy to Mr Ecclestone's advantage: Formula 1 would be exempt from the general ban on cigarette advertising at sporting events.
Is there anybody out there in a position of authority who isn't screwing us over for a profit?
Thursday, 11 July 2013
Poetry War
As i have stated here many times, i dislike poetry. I especially dislike poetry that doesn't rhyme which seems the whole point so just to annoy me, the man formerly known as the Archbishop of Canterbury and now just plain old Rowan Williams has written a poem about organ donation of all things.
He does give a detailed explanation of what the poem means but doesn't mention once how none of it rhymes and if you have to explain it then you have obviously missed the point.
The poem is called 'Host Organism' and begins:
I have been living
under the layers
of grain and moisture,
earth in my nostrils
and the years ahead
sitting like hard
pebbles in my gut,
and then it just meanders along for another 12 lines not rhyming and mumbling about birds dropping seeds.
Call me old fashioned but poetry is easy, any idiot with a basic grip on the English language can make lines that rhyme so to prove my point, here is my effort which i have called 'My Heart Won't go on'.
To die before you think your ready,
isn't what anybody would like,
But if you're ladder feels unsteady,
Or you own a motorbike.
There are ways you can help lots of folk,
Be patched up as good as new,
As they unwrap you from the massive oak,
They can take bits from what's left of you.
If you fill out a donor card today,
Your life won't be greatly improved,
But when you arrive at that fateful day,
You'll be dead with nothing to lose.
Your organs could help all of society,
If your bike slips away in the rain,
But if you're a fan of Spurs or Stoke City,
Nobody will want your brain.
He does give a detailed explanation of what the poem means but doesn't mention once how none of it rhymes and if you have to explain it then you have obviously missed the point.
The poem is called 'Host Organism' and begins:
I have been living
under the layers
of grain and moisture,
earth in my nostrils
and the years ahead
sitting like hard
pebbles in my gut,
and then it just meanders along for another 12 lines not rhyming and mumbling about birds dropping seeds.
Call me old fashioned but poetry is easy, any idiot with a basic grip on the English language can make lines that rhyme so to prove my point, here is my effort which i have called 'My Heart Won't go on'.
To die before you think your ready,
isn't what anybody would like,
But if you're ladder feels unsteady,
Or you own a motorbike.
There are ways you can help lots of folk,
Be patched up as good as new,
As they unwrap you from the massive oak,
They can take bits from what's left of you.
If you fill out a donor card today,
Your life won't be greatly improved,
But when you arrive at that fateful day,
You'll be dead with nothing to lose.
Your organs could help all of society,
If your bike slips away in the rain,
But if you're a fan of Spurs or Stoke City,
Nobody will want your brain.
Flag Burning Returns
As long as i can remember the television news would show people burning the British and American flags somewhere around the World but that has been strangely missing recently so it was nice to see the practise has not gone out of fashion and the people of Egypt have rediscovered that Old Glory goes very well with a box of matches.
The anger and flaming stars and stripes are coming courtesy of the former President Morsi supporters who blame America for bankrolling the people who removed their man from power last week and their mood wasn't improved when it was announced that the US still intended to deliver F-16 fighter jets to the Egyptian military as well as continuing the $1.5 billion aid cheque.
Supporters of Morsi, protesting his removal, have been carrying anti-Obama posters.
'I have no problem with American people, I have a problem with American politics that tries to interfere with the way we want to live and that is not right' said one member of the Muslim Brotherhood taking a break to refill his cigarette lighter presumably.
Anti-American feeling is increasing in Egypt and not just amongst the people who go home smelling of smouldering flag, the Pew Research Centre concluded that eight out of 10 Egyptians are negative towards the US, with just 16 percent having a positive attitude towards the United States.
When it comes to President Obama, nearly three-quarters are unhappy with the way he handles American foreign affairs but he isn't doing so well in his own country with a Quinnipiac University survey released today putting approval for Barack Obama’s foreign policy dropping to an all-time low, with just 40 percent of Americans backing the president’s handling of international affairs.
For the reason America aids countries that hate them when it is $14 trillion in debt itself, you will need to ask Israel who have urged President Obama to keep subsidising Cairo.
The anger and flaming stars and stripes are coming courtesy of the former President Morsi supporters who blame America for bankrolling the people who removed their man from power last week and their mood wasn't improved when it was announced that the US still intended to deliver F-16 fighter jets to the Egyptian military as well as continuing the $1.5 billion aid cheque.
Supporters of Morsi, protesting his removal, have been carrying anti-Obama posters.
'I have no problem with American people, I have a problem with American politics that tries to interfere with the way we want to live and that is not right' said one member of the Muslim Brotherhood taking a break to refill his cigarette lighter presumably.
Anti-American feeling is increasing in Egypt and not just amongst the people who go home smelling of smouldering flag, the Pew Research Centre concluded that eight out of 10 Egyptians are negative towards the US, with just 16 percent having a positive attitude towards the United States.
When it comes to President Obama, nearly three-quarters are unhappy with the way he handles American foreign affairs but he isn't doing so well in his own country with a Quinnipiac University survey released today putting approval for Barack Obama’s foreign policy dropping to an all-time low, with just 40 percent of Americans backing the president’s handling of international affairs.
For the reason America aids countries that hate them when it is $14 trillion in debt itself, you will need to ask Israel who have urged President Obama to keep subsidising Cairo.
PC v Tablet & Netbook
Global personal computer sales have fallen for the fifth quarter in a row, down 11% from this time last year and the blame is being put on tablets and netbooks.
I did once have a netbook but found it slow compared to the PC and the tablet even slower so they got passed down to the kids.
Netbooks and tablets seem to be just any use for Internet surfing and checking email if you don't mind a bit of a wait and being close by a plug to recharge the battery every few hours and in the case of a tablet, an on-screen keyboard so anything other than that, they are not really much use.
I have always used Mac's and PC's, not that i understand them, but it seems if you buy anything else you are not getting anything other than a glorified smartphone for triple the price but then maybe i am missing something.
As the price of a decent PC are only marginally more than a netbook, i do wonder why you would pay all that for something that does a fraction of what the extra £100 will give you.
Apart from it being small enough to carry around with you and not being restricted to sitting in one place, why bother with a tablet just to check email and read websites? I don't get it.
I did once have a netbook but found it slow compared to the PC and the tablet even slower so they got passed down to the kids.
Netbooks and tablets seem to be just any use for Internet surfing and checking email if you don't mind a bit of a wait and being close by a plug to recharge the battery every few hours and in the case of a tablet, an on-screen keyboard so anything other than that, they are not really much use.
I have always used Mac's and PC's, not that i understand them, but it seems if you buy anything else you are not getting anything other than a glorified smartphone for triple the price but then maybe i am missing something.
As the price of a decent PC are only marginally more than a netbook, i do wonder why you would pay all that for something that does a fraction of what the extra £100 will give you.
Apart from it being small enough to carry around with you and not being restricted to sitting in one place, why bother with a tablet just to check email and read websites? I don't get it.
Wednesday, 10 July 2013
Royal Mail Sell Off
The Royal Mail made a profit of £403 million last year, money that went into the public coffers but the Government have decided that in future, instead of the public getting the money to pay for schools, roads and hospitals, it would be better for the money to go directly into someones bank account instead.
Royal Mail is to be privatised as the Government announced today: 'Now the time has come for government to step back from Royal Mail, and allow its management to focus wholeheartedly on growing the business'.
What they didn't say was as happens with all privatisations, a small number of wealthy people will make more money from the privatisation and the service will deteriorate and the workers who are not made unemployed in an inevitable streamlining, their pay and conditions will worsen and the service will get more expensive.
Maybe i'm being pessimistic and what will evolve will be a superior and cheaper service but then you would have to ignore all the evidence of previous privatisations and nobody is that daft.
This is just yet another transfer of public assets from us all to the wealthy dressed up as something good for the public because privatisation doesn't work, it's a con as any trip on a train or glance at your water/gas/electric bill will testify.
NHS next.
Royal Mail is to be privatised as the Government announced today: 'Now the time has come for government to step back from Royal Mail, and allow its management to focus wholeheartedly on growing the business'.
What they didn't say was as happens with all privatisations, a small number of wealthy people will make more money from the privatisation and the service will deteriorate and the workers who are not made unemployed in an inevitable streamlining, their pay and conditions will worsen and the service will get more expensive.
Maybe i'm being pessimistic and what will evolve will be a superior and cheaper service but then you would have to ignore all the evidence of previous privatisations and nobody is that daft.
This is just yet another transfer of public assets from us all to the wealthy dressed up as something good for the public because privatisation doesn't work, it's a con as any trip on a train or glance at your water/gas/electric bill will testify.
NHS next.
MP's Pay Rise
David Cameron has rejected a proposal for MP's to receive a 12% pay rise to around £74,000 a year.
Downing Street said the prime minister would tell the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority that the overall cost of politics should go down and MP's should not receive a pay rise while public sector workers face restraint.
The prospect of a pay hike comes while the expenses abuses are still being dealt with and is especially galling when the rest of the country is suffering austerity measures and public sector workers pay has been held down to a 1% increase.
I now wait to hear the first complaint about this from some greedy backbencher. Go on, i dare you.
Downing Street said the prime minister would tell the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority that the overall cost of politics should go down and MP's should not receive a pay rise while public sector workers face restraint.
The prospect of a pay hike comes while the expenses abuses are still being dealt with and is especially galling when the rest of the country is suffering austerity measures and public sector workers pay has been held down to a 1% increase.
I now wait to hear the first complaint about this from some greedy backbencher. Go on, i dare you.
Arming Our Biggest Threat
Syria wasn't supposed to be like this, it was meant to be another Libya.
Hijack a popular protest and when it turns violent use the violence as a pretext for a 'humanitarian intervention' in the form of a no-fly zone and then bomb the Government armed forces into surrender and mop up the rebuilding and oil contracts.
Only this time Russia and China said no, Al Queada are on the team we are supporting and they have videoing themselves eating the hearts of their enemies and using chemical weapons which means the Obama and Cameron have got themselves into a bit of a pickle.
Even Colin Powel and one of his legendary sham PowerPoint presentations can't save this one now that the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) have reported that the greatest threat to Britain is the elements fighting against the Al-Assad Government in Syria.
Britain's security and intelligence chiefs ast MI6 decided that 'al-Queada elements and jihadists in Syria currently represent the most worrying emerging terrorist threat to the UK and the west. There is a risk of extremist elements in Syria taking advantage of the permissive environment to develop external attack plans, including against western targets.
Russia said on Wednesday it had proof Syrian rebels used Sarin in a missile attack on Aleppo in March and the ISC expressed 'serious concern' over the elements trying to acquire sarin, ricin, mustard gas and VX.
Two years on since the uprising, the Syrian army are rolling back the 'rebels' and America and the UK find themselves in a bit of a quandary.
Arming the people who our own intelligence are described as the biggest threat to us doesn't sound particularly clever so it seems Obama and his mates have got themselves into something that they can't get themselves back out of again.
Hijack a popular protest and when it turns violent use the violence as a pretext for a 'humanitarian intervention' in the form of a no-fly zone and then bomb the Government armed forces into surrender and mop up the rebuilding and oil contracts.
Only this time Russia and China said no, Al Queada are on the team we are supporting and they have videoing themselves eating the hearts of their enemies and using chemical weapons which means the Obama and Cameron have got themselves into a bit of a pickle.
Even Colin Powel and one of his legendary sham PowerPoint presentations can't save this one now that the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) have reported that the greatest threat to Britain is the elements fighting against the Al-Assad Government in Syria.
Britain's security and intelligence chiefs ast MI6 decided that 'al-Queada elements and jihadists in Syria currently represent the most worrying emerging terrorist threat to the UK and the west. There is a risk of extremist elements in Syria taking advantage of the permissive environment to develop external attack plans, including against western targets.
Russia said on Wednesday it had proof Syrian rebels used Sarin in a missile attack on Aleppo in March and the ISC expressed 'serious concern' over the elements trying to acquire sarin, ricin, mustard gas and VX.
Two years on since the uprising, the Syrian army are rolling back the 'rebels' and America and the UK find themselves in a bit of a quandary.
Arming the people who our own intelligence are described as the biggest threat to us doesn't sound particularly clever so it seems Obama and his mates have got themselves into something that they can't get themselves back out of again.
Tuesday, 9 July 2013
Bin Laden's Hat
Around 2002, a Pakistani traffic policeman stopped the Al Queada leader for speeding but let him of with a ticking off and let him drive away again and the most searched for man in history evaded detection from from the Worlds most sophisticated satellite and surveillance systems by wearing a cowboy hat.
The third floor was built illegally without planning permission but due to staff shortages in the local town planning office department, it wasn't tackled.
Unbelievably that the most recognisable and hunted man on the planet managed to evade capture for a decade simply by wearing a big hat but then the CIA may have been confused by the Arsenal fans singing 'Osama, woah-woah, Osama, woah-waoh, he's hiding in Kabul, he loves the Arsenul'.
The Gooners got it wrong because he was in Abbotaland in Pakistan not Afghanistan. Nor was he, as one Spurs fan said, hiding undisturbed in Arsenal's trophy cabinet since 2005.
If i was Edward Snowden i would be looking up the telephone number for the local Moscow hat shop straight away.
Wrong Decision By EUCHR On Whole-Life Sentences
I have never understood the point of a concurrent sentence when a criminal is convicted of two or more crimes and the judge sentences him/her to a certain period of time for each crime but the sentences may all be served at the same time.
So if someone murders four people he/she gets a life sentence for each but instead of four 25 years sentences so he/she serves 100 years, he/she gets one 25 year sentence for all of them.
The judge can designate a whole-life sentence which will see the criminal behind bars for the rest of his/her life and Jeremy Barber was one of three prisoners challenging his whole life sentence which he received in 1985 and the European court of Human Rights today decided that whole-life jail sentences, without any prospect of release, amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners.
The judgement said: 'For a life sentence to remain compatible with article 3 there had to be both a possibility of release and a possibility of review' which means that the sentence must be reviewed after 25 years.
As uncomfortable as it is, i agree with the Prime Minister and his colleagues who have come to say that they 'profoundly disagree' with the verdict.
There are 50 prisoners on whole-life sentences including Ian Brady, Dennis Neilson, Steve Wright, Peter Tobin, Dale Cregan, Rose West, Peter Sutcliffe, Mark Bridger, Peter Tobin and Robert Black and it is beyond me how anyone can argue that these abominations should ever be released and shouldn't rot in prison until they die.
If the UK is forced to comply then i sincerely hope it will just be lip survice and it will be a parole hearing after so many years for lifers, an inevitable ruling that they are unfit for release and pencil in the next parole hearing in 20 years and repeated until death.
The EUCHR has got this one very wrong.
So if someone murders four people he/she gets a life sentence for each but instead of four 25 years sentences so he/she serves 100 years, he/she gets one 25 year sentence for all of them.
The judge can designate a whole-life sentence which will see the criminal behind bars for the rest of his/her life and Jeremy Barber was one of three prisoners challenging his whole life sentence which he received in 1985 and the European court of Human Rights today decided that whole-life jail sentences, without any prospect of release, amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners.
The judgement said: 'For a life sentence to remain compatible with article 3 there had to be both a possibility of release and a possibility of review' which means that the sentence must be reviewed after 25 years.
As uncomfortable as it is, i agree with the Prime Minister and his colleagues who have come to say that they 'profoundly disagree' with the verdict.
There are 50 prisoners on whole-life sentences including Ian Brady, Dennis Neilson, Steve Wright, Peter Tobin, Dale Cregan, Rose West, Peter Sutcliffe, Mark Bridger, Peter Tobin and Robert Black and it is beyond me how anyone can argue that these abominations should ever be released and shouldn't rot in prison until they die.
If the UK is forced to comply then i sincerely hope it will just be lip survice and it will be a parole hearing after so many years for lifers, an inevitable ruling that they are unfit for release and pencil in the next parole hearing in 20 years and repeated until death.
The EUCHR has got this one very wrong.
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