Friday, December 09, 2011
US General Martin Dempsey warns of unrest
The top US military commander, Gen Martin Dempsey, says he is concerned about "the potential for civil unrest" in the Eurozone, as Europe's financial crisis unfolds.
IMO: I hope we do not have to put in the troops to calm these feckless and inconsiderate people, like BAOR in the old days. Although BAOR people told me that it wasn't too bad, and was properly paid work at least. Britain has always been Europe's army, and I feel we could get French support as well, when 'cuts' bite. Maybe better than WW2.
IMO: I hope we do not have to put in the troops to calm these feckless and inconsiderate people, like BAOR in the old days. Although BAOR people told me that it wasn't too bad, and was properly paid work at least. Britain has always been Europe's army, and I feel we could get French support as well, when 'cuts' bite. Maybe better than WW2.
This general effect applies to reviewers of scientific manuscripts as well as Taxi drivers, I suspect
Cabbies who acquire "the knowledge", a stern test involving in-depth mastery of London's streets, suffer changes to their brains that could make them blinkered, research at the Wellcome Institute has shown. Those who pass the test develop more grey matter in the posterior hippocampus, the part of the brain they use to recall a mental map and calculate the shortest route from A to B. But this comes at a price because the tens of thousands of streets and landmarks they need to remember "fill up" their brain to its maximum capacity, researchers said.
Research shows that taxi drivers struggle more than most drivers to adapt to changes in the road network or to driving in unfamiliar cities.
Research shows that taxi drivers struggle more than most drivers to adapt to changes in the road network or to driving in unfamiliar cities.
Euro Crisis
The "Daily Mail" and the "Telegraph" both have reasonable articles about the Euro crisis today, referenced on my blog.
Briefly, officials have noted that because the new pact will be outside binding EU treaties, sanctions against future fiscal offenders will be based on a “political declaration of intent". These will have no legally binding character and could be revoked following the election of a new government.
IMO: It is a wine lake on stilts. Such a lake is impractical and will overbalance to the amusement of others.
Briefly, officials have noted that because the new pact will be outside binding EU treaties, sanctions against future fiscal offenders will be based on a “political declaration of intent". These will have no legally binding character and could be revoked following the election of a new government.
IMO: It is a wine lake on stilts. Such a lake is impractical and will overbalance to the amusement of others.
John Bull too honest for euro
I think Cameron actually seems to have been victim of underhand behaviour by Merkel, Sarkozy. See Financial Times Dec 9 article by Parker. He was actually trying to help but Merkel and Petain (Sarkozy) had their personal agenda. At least the UK is out of the gillimaufry of that pair but it seems a shame that a sensible consensus had been made impossible. Still we are out of the way of the abominable Eurobeggers for the moment. The euro's fast speed seems simply absurd and impractical, without clean, honest, straightforward John Bull honesty.
Thursday, December 08, 2011
Boris Johnson may be correct
Is fiscal union, in actual fact rather than legal fiction, actually possible ? Are the fools now playing into the hands of the anarchists ?
Boris said: "If there's a new treaty of the 27 that creates a fiscal union, we'd have absolutely no choice either to veto it or put it to referendum". But he went even further in arguing that fiscal union itself was fundamentally undemocratic and economically disastrous. Or as Boris put it: "We're in danger of saving the cancer and not the patient"
This is very much not in the Number 10 script, which still clings to the Osborne line that fiscal union is the 'inevitable logic' of monetary union. But it is very much the same script of John Redwood and others who have warned the Chancellor to his face that backing fiscal union is 'insane'. And Jo Johnson may end up agreeing.
IMO: EU actions, right from the days of the wine lake and sugar mountain, have seemed like fiction to me. Or read Tuttle. How much more fiction can the world tolerate ? Continuous suggestions of uncontrolled anarchy - some would call it 'libertarianism' - become more and more credible.
Boris said: "If there's a new treaty of the 27 that creates a fiscal union, we'd have absolutely no choice either to veto it or put it to referendum". But he went even further in arguing that fiscal union itself was fundamentally undemocratic and economically disastrous. Or as Boris put it: "We're in danger of saving the cancer and not the patient"
This is very much not in the Number 10 script, which still clings to the Osborne line that fiscal union is the 'inevitable logic' of monetary union. But it is very much the same script of John Redwood and others who have warned the Chancellor to his face that backing fiscal union is 'insane'. And Jo Johnson may end up agreeing.
IMO: EU actions, right from the days of the wine lake and sugar mountain, have seemed like fiction to me. Or read Tuttle. How much more fiction can the world tolerate ? Continuous suggestions of uncontrolled anarchy - some would call it 'libertarianism' - become more and more credible.
Wednesday, December 07, 2011
Chris Huhne
Chris Huhne has said he is confident that the police investigation into claims he persuaded his estranged wife to take his speeding points will exonerate him.
IMO: Seems quite likely that he is being framed, possibly both by his ex-wife and the police. CRI said Strauss-Kahn was probably framed in just that way, and Assange almost certainly was. Anyway, Huhne certainly couldn't have done a worse job for the Libdems than silly Clegg has. I'm sorry for the Libdem voters.
IMO: Seems quite likely that he is being framed, possibly both by his ex-wife and the police. CRI said Strauss-Kahn was probably framed in just that way, and Assange almost certainly was. Anyway, Huhne certainly couldn't have done a worse job for the Libdems than silly Clegg has. I'm sorry for the Libdem voters.
Zadari may resign
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari was undergoing what his office said on Wednesday were routine medical tests in a Dubai hospital, but which fuelled rumors of his possible resignation.
A report posted on the website further claimed that Zardari was "incoherent" during his telephonic conversation with President Barack Obama which took place over the weekend.
IMO: It's probably the drink. I posted a picture on this blog showing Gilani apparently drinking alcohol. Anna Hazare said that in the good old days, if anyone drunk three times after a warning, he would be tied to a post and repeatedly flogged. About right for leaders anyway. I must say I had a yen to join Sri Ram Sena at one time, and this had very positive attitudes towards dealing with drunks. But Zardari has a rotten job anyway. You can't but feel sorry for him - and if he has been investigated by the Paki Army and they say he is OK, then THATS IT FOR ZARDARI.
A report posted on the website further claimed that Zardari was "incoherent" during his telephonic conversation with President Barack Obama which took place over the weekend.
IMO: It's probably the drink. I posted a picture on this blog showing Gilani apparently drinking alcohol. Anna Hazare said that in the good old days, if anyone drunk three times after a warning, he would be tied to a post and repeatedly flogged. About right for leaders anyway. I must say I had a yen to join Sri Ram Sena at one time, and this had very positive attitudes towards dealing with drunks. But Zardari has a rotten job anyway. You can't but feel sorry for him - and if he has been investigated by the Paki Army and they say he is OK, then THATS IT FOR ZARDARI.
Sunday, December 04, 2011
Silly Clegg and his 'cuts'
Universal benefits for pensioners, including free bus passes and television licences, should be means-tested, Nick Clegg has said.
IMO: A lot of older people desperately need these things, and there is unlikely to be substantial - if any - savings for such a 'cut'. Rather, there would be more useless 'jobsworths' (or babus) required to apply the cuts.
Conservative ministers are understood to be “dead set” against any move to water down universal benefits for fear of a popular backlash.
IMO: Quite right.
IMO: In India, Team Anna are trying to get a Lokpal bill passed, so that reasonably aggrieved people can get people like silly Clegg sacked from his job right away, before he does any more damage..
IMO: A lot of older people desperately need these things, and there is unlikely to be substantial - if any - savings for such a 'cut'. Rather, there would be more useless 'jobsworths' (or babus) required to apply the cuts.
Conservative ministers are understood to be “dead set” against any move to water down universal benefits for fear of a popular backlash.
IMO: Quite right.
IMO: In India, Team Anna are trying to get a Lokpal bill passed, so that reasonably aggrieved people can get people like silly Clegg sacked from his job right away, before he does any more damage..
Friday, December 02, 2011
Is Didi right ?
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee made it clear to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that she did not wish to see the United Progressive Alliance regime toppled, but her party could not under any circumstances support the controversial decision to permit FDI in multi-brand retail.
IMO: Is good old Didi right again ? It is a time that I would be glad not to have to make a decision on the matter. Tehekha seems to feel that FDI made some sense, and even suggested that the regional parties perhaps should not have a voice. To me, that sounds like corruption on top of corruption. I felt at the time, a week or so ago, remembering perhaps many matters like Bhopal and Enron, that the profit-seeking cash-strapped Americans should not have such an easy target. But I remember even much earlier, to the days when my father had to ride daily on a train over the Hawkesbury River bridge in Australia. The train had to travel over the bridge at less than walking speed and he was somewhat worried that it might fall into the river. The bridge was eventually closed and a new one built near it. The reason ? Crap US contractors and engineers. And did we hear the details, again and again. I remember the somewhat unsafe Japanese nuclear power stations being built, and commented at the time, with thorium in mind. Well I hope I am still prepared to look at facts as least as much as sales figures, and I thought at the time of proposal of FDI, that Manmohan Singh, for all his merits, sounded like a Walmart salesman.
And what do we now see ? An attempted U-turn over Lokpal by Congress, allowing 60% of the babus to do as babus like to do. Mamohan Singh promised Lokpal again and again. What can I say now other than make a sordid quip about the "gang of four".
IMO: I hope even more for success and continued dedication from Team Anna. Otherwise it will be bad for all. Ask the still jailed Enron directors, or better still, don't ask them. Who wants to see the Koch brothers and the like in jail ? Let us face it, at this time Team Anna seem to be right. But Bal Thackeray would seem to think there is little chance of its success. India is said to be at about number 83 in the corruption index, barely beating Pakistan. Surely it can at least rise higher than USA which is way down the list for such a place ?
IMO: Is good old Didi right again ? It is a time that I would be glad not to have to make a decision on the matter. Tehekha seems to feel that FDI made some sense, and even suggested that the regional parties perhaps should not have a voice. To me, that sounds like corruption on top of corruption. I felt at the time, a week or so ago, remembering perhaps many matters like Bhopal and Enron, that the profit-seeking cash-strapped Americans should not have such an easy target. But I remember even much earlier, to the days when my father had to ride daily on a train over the Hawkesbury River bridge in Australia. The train had to travel over the bridge at less than walking speed and he was somewhat worried that it might fall into the river. The bridge was eventually closed and a new one built near it. The reason ? Crap US contractors and engineers. And did we hear the details, again and again. I remember the somewhat unsafe Japanese nuclear power stations being built, and commented at the time, with thorium in mind. Well I hope I am still prepared to look at facts as least as much as sales figures, and I thought at the time of proposal of FDI, that Manmohan Singh, for all his merits, sounded like a Walmart salesman.
And what do we now see ? An attempted U-turn over Lokpal by Congress, allowing 60% of the babus to do as babus like to do. Mamohan Singh promised Lokpal again and again. What can I say now other than make a sordid quip about the "gang of four".
IMO: I hope even more for success and continued dedication from Team Anna. Otherwise it will be bad for all. Ask the still jailed Enron directors, or better still, don't ask them. Who wants to see the Koch brothers and the like in jail ? Let us face it, at this time Team Anna seem to be right. But Bal Thackeray would seem to think there is little chance of its success. India is said to be at about number 83 in the corruption index, barely beating Pakistan. Surely it can at least rise higher than USA which is way down the list for such a place ?
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