Sauce

Stone Huggers

2010-06-27T20:29:00.006Z

Spent the weekend down in Wiltshire with Lioba, Neeto and family. Went through Avebury on the way back and managed to catch these Witches casting spells and annoiting themselves with somekind of satanic liquid. Judging by their accents they had travelled from North America to engage in this incorrigible behaviour.

But did you spot the other Gordon Brown Gaffe?

2010-04-29T17:38:00.004Z

When asked by Mrs Duffy about Eastern European immigration Mr Brown quotes the estimated number of illegal immigrants in the country.

Forward to 2.40

My new favorite band; The Low Anthem

2010-02-13T10:00:00.008Z

Had the great privilege of seeing The Low Anthem at Shepherds Bush Empire on thursday. I saw them on their last visit to London 3 odd months ago at The Tabernacle and after such as short space of time this band have easily migrated their performance to the larger venue (the Empire gig, was their biggest show ever). The Low Anthem are made up of three permanent members all of whom are multi-instrumentalists who continuously change individual roles in creating their sometimes bluesly, sometimes gospel, folky, always inventive 'New Americana'. This is definately a band that have made a commitment to be their best when live rather than using studio gimmickry, you simply wouldn't be able to appreiciate them fully without seeing them perform. The Gospel thing i mentioned? well, yes, the live show is like that; almost as though its the spirituality of music itself, for its own sake, is what they are trying to convey. A fantastic band

Here's a beautiful stop motion video to their single "Charlie Darwin", a worthy visual accompaniment to their single, one of the best videos i've ever seen.

And inventive stuff at Paste studios, "This God Damn House"

Tribute to great songwriting. Part 1

2009-12-05T16:39:00.004Z

Hopefully i can keep this one up unlike 'Things I Hate' etc. Several months ago i acquired Iron And Wine's Norfolk Album a live recording from Sam Beam's band. After several listens on the MP3 player i became utterly capivated by the encore tune 'The Trapeze Swinger', i was so totally caught up in the lyricism and delivery of this song that i would often listen to it again and again, something i very rarely do. Now i'm back at it and cannot stop listening to what i believe has to be the greatest song ever written. I am not alone.. all of the comments at youtube and other sites such as those concerned with lyrical meaning are rammed with tributes like 'Best Song Ever', 'Eargasm', and the most popular - 'This is the song i want played at my funeral' Unfortunately, the Norfolk recording is not available on youtube, which is shame as its by far the best as the warmth and depth of the song come accross so well when the audio is taken straight off the desk. Of all the many live videos however i think that this one at our own Green Man festival in 2008 is the best, just a shame that there is a bit of happy clapping by the audience at an inappropiate time. For those that are wondering this song is about memory of a long gone adolescent love, the muse, that had a transformative effect on the artist, i think its mind-blowing.

Laptop Repair

2009-11-28T19:36:00.002Z

Yep, its fucked.

UK media in mad scramble for photo award

2009-10-24T16:18:00.005Z

Photo editors have been trawling through gigabytes of images of BNP leader Nick Griffin in the hope of recieving a coveted new award called the Goofy Pursed Lip trophy. The competition has been organised by a coalition of antifacist campaigners including Grimace For Peace and Resist The Inner Bigot.

One photo editor slumped over his monitor in a Farringdon office was candid about the photographic merits of the genre;
"Its not just that there is an award at stake its the fact that this prize is about capturing something very specific. Essentially, in photographic terms, its a form of pornography but there is a kind of unspoken understanding between us that in the face of such unspeakable evil the word 'Porn' doesn't apply"

The award will be presented by the Welsh Secetary Peter Hain outside the U4ria nightclub in London's east end, scene of many a fistycuff and general nastiness between youths in the ethnically diverse local community.

for use elsewhere

2009-10-21T23:40:00.002Z

The Daily Wail, 15.10.09. Credit Crisis - One Womans Story

2008-09-29T19:25:00.008Z

Its been a full year since Gordon Brown bankrupted the country and many people have a story to tell. One particular personal tragedy stands out from all the others - that of the green suited bowler hatted model who used to be the face of junk mortgage lender Bradford and Bingley. In a Wail exclusive she talks about what its like to be one of the faces of economic catastrophe.

"When i first got the job i was overjoyed. They didn't want me to be associated with any other brand so i was paid a retainer and only required for photo shoots every now again when there was a marketing drive on the latest Buy-to-let or self certification products. Call me a little vain but i was chuffed to bits when B & B plastered my face all over the London Underground in a new initiative, this time to attract savers, i guess i should of put two and two together and realised that if they were all of a sudden marketing to savers then there must have been something very wrong."

Within a few short weeks of her biggest exposure ever Bradford and Bingley had collapsed and the UK taxpayer was lumbered with its toxic mortgage book.

"It was a nightmare - the media had my face everywhere in that bloody ridiculous outfit, its just got worse and worse as the economic disaster gathered pace. B & B was the only bank that had a human face so when there was any kind of general analysis of the situation in the media it was me that would be put up as a background image, my face became synonymous with disaster - Toxic Lending policies!, mortgage defaults!! increased taxation!!! its just went on and on."

Despite her best efforts she found that publicly owned toxic mortgage assets was a look that just wouldn't wash off.

"Who was going to employ me in anything like what i was doing with B & B? With such negative associations i was a brand managers worst nightmare. I tried working on the continent but didn't get on very well when people i was working with learned of my past. I remember being picked on at drinks night one evening by a load of models who lectured me on how a hyperinflating housing market is not just very poor economics but morally repellant and socially corrosive."

Now living in Hull and married to a Taxi driver she looks back and just thinks she was plain unlucky.

"I was having a great time in that green suit and bowler hat, i didn't for a minute think there anything was wrong with promoting buy-to-let and self-certification mortgages, that there would be far reaching personal consequences for myself. There was a alot of programmes on the TV at the time - nothing seemed unusual or out of the ordinary.

New Bicycle, well sort of..

2008-05-28T21:51:00.007Z

Check out my long trusted cycle, i've had this traditionally styled touring bike for 11 years and it has served me well on countless day rides, mini tours and the occassional extended trip.

Then the other week there was a loud clunk and all of a sudden it didn't feel so good, the seat tube had snapped:

Now, it just so happened that i had retained the the original documentation and over the years this had been sloshing around in the bottom of my tool box so that everytime i clawed around for spanners i could help but notice the warranty statement which says: "This frame is guaranteed for a period of 15 years against faulty materials or poor workmanship". Well, i know 11 years is long ime and i didn't really want to make a fuss, but (a) i haven't got any spare money for a new frame and, (b) a warranty is a warranty - i hadn't abused the bike in any way, there must of been some slight defect somewhere. Sure enough after recieving my emailed photos the manufacturer agreed that they should give me a new one. Aside from a new headset and replacement bottom bracket all the components transfered OK and i must say i'm very pleased with the results. The new frame is better quality 631 tubing over the 531 i had before and has the more contemporary slighty sloping top tube geometry, i rekon i'll get a new rear rack though - get it ready for a bit of summer touring. Here it is fresh after the build.

Brown & Darling's Miracle Economy Roadshow

2008-03-02T23:07:00.005Z

They're Back!! yes folks the UKs greatest comedy duo return with what promises to be their biggest ever sell-out tour.

They'll make you laugh. They'll make you cry, and by the time the show is over you will think that taking a blowtorch to bundles of fifty pound notes is funny.

This show is not just a regular routine of all new gags; no, you'll be splitting your sides as Brown & Darling make it all up as they go along.

Here's what people have been saying:

The comic timing was excellent. They bail out Northern Rock then the housing market goes into decline. Brilliant! Ed Foxton, estate agent.

Trust me, i've been pissing myself since day one. Frank Tudor, hedge fund manager and investor in Granite bonds.

I quite literally gave up my home for a ticket. Janice Smith, Ex. Labour voter & Northern Rock mortgagee.

expatwannabe comment to historic post

2008-02-09T02:07:00.000Z

My logging on this evening led me to review the few comments that have been left here and i found a very fresh one by expatwannabe to my post from last summer entitled "Britain - What a Shithole" I thought it was an interesting comunication and thought i would put it up on the front page, I assume expatwannabe doesn't mind, thanks for popping round.

This country is a shithole which will only ever get worse as long as it is ruled by plutocrats who live in a ‘safe’ bubble which is so far removed from what the voting majority have to endure day by day.
I get sick and tired of the nimbys who constantly harp on about how we should embrace diversity and welcome immigrants with open arms as they have so much to offer us. The pratts who spout this shite would cause uproar in their village halls if an immigrant site was proposed within a 50 mile radius of them, worried about the crime rate and the affect on the property prices.
The UK is now officially the dumping ground of the world, with all and sundry arriving at our ports and raising their hands high and screaming ‘ASYLUM’, just before they drop their raised hands outward to claim their lovely benefits.
Hang on, we are a relatively small water-locked island in the middle of Europe and most of these parasites arrive here having travelled from other European ports, where they have already escaped whatever persecution they were running from. How come some of them are willing to risk their lives to get over here strapped to the undercarriage of a train travelling at 125 MPH, when they have already escaped their so called persecution and arrived in France? They are not being persecuted there, nor are there lives in danger in any way over and above what they would be in the UK, so why do they want to come here so badly? Bit of a no-brainer really, its just that the immigrants of the world are more than aware that the state benefits are more generous here than anywhere else, and that our government is a soft touch.
That’s the immigrant question answered, but the same state benefit nonsense means that the system is abused on a larger scale by our own home grown parasites, who make a healthy living from mugs like me who go out an earn a living. It seems that breaking a fingernail qualifies you for disability, or incapacity benefits these days, or if you are a single mum with 5 kids by different fathers, you can earn a good living simply by being a slapper.
If you are a thug, a chav, a repeat offender, a druggie, a kiddie fiddler or even a murderer, worry not as some do-gooder will see that you are well looked after and that your human rights are not abused. Sod the victims of crime, sod the Gary Newloves of the country, sod the hard working tax payers who keep this country afloat and sod honest people in general, as they are the easiest for the government to target simply because they are honest.
The message that goes out in the media every day is that crime pays, as the consequence really isn’t that bad at all, cos in the unlikely event you are brought to justice, your punishment is 3 meals a day, SKY TV, leisure facilities etc.
The police are lethargic and ineffective at best, but lazy and useless on the whole, probably as their hands are tied through beaurocracy and a ridiculous amount of paperwork, which keeps them from policing duties.
The Muslims want the Islamic flag flying over Downing Street and now they want Sharia Law in this country as well, with idiots like Dominic Casciani the Archbishop of Canterbury, backing this ridiculous notion.
I could go on for days here but I close with a message to Gordon Brown, WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE and listen to the people of this country and stop pandering to the parasites and misfits of the world who are trying to make fools of the British government.
Stop burying your head in the sand and make a serious effort to stop the rot and turn this country around, by leading with the courage to say enough is enough to the scumbag element that exists in this country, both home-grown and imported.

Marketing in the Film industry

2008-02-08T18:54:00.000Z

I guess you could say i would roughly be with Bill Hicks on marketing but i wouldn't go so far as to get up on a soap box about it, i am a salesman of sorts afterall. However, when it comes to creative endeavours serious people need to draw a line around their work to stop the marketeers from turning it into another product and those who just unashamedly make 'product' need to wise up to the damaging effect of allowing too much influence from the people charged with putting bums on seats.

The biggest offender at the cinema last year had to be Atonement. I wasn't familiar with the novel on which it is based rather I just took it at face value based on a couple of brief reviews i read and the clips that were aired on television. The problem I had with the film is basically that viewers are essentially presented with a twist at the end when it is revealed that the storyline played by Knightly and McAvoy is actually a invented one by the thrid character; Ceilia's sister, Bryony. Now, i've hated this kind of surprise in a film since M Night Shyamalan's 'Sixth Sense' on the basis that the twist is such an enormous shift of focus that the only option available to the viewer is to entirely dis-regard the main body of the film. Although Sixth Sense can probably get away with this device (because of the type of film it is) Atonement can't; events in the film are portrayed not only as real but also the subject matter when in fact they aren't either, for me this felt like a massive con, not only a fraud but also a catastrophic flaw in the film. I think clues as to why the director and production team went along with this ridiculous premise can be found in the way the film was/is marketed. The poster for the film featured a lovelorn Keira cupping her face mirrored by McAvoy bravely fighing in occupied France, who cares if this is not what it is about - its a sure fire way to sell it. The idiots are still at it now that the film is available to buy on DVD. Ladies, fill me in here but isn't a movie about a lifetime's worth of guilt not such a good idea as 'the perfect gift for valentines day'? Unforgiveable is what it is.

Don't even start me on those 'War On terror' inspired films. 'The Kingdom' which has the tag line 'how do you kill an ememy who is not afraid to die' is intriguing given the fact that suicide bombers don't appear in it. As for 'Rendition' i would say that the second parallel plot of how characters are linked by the Egyptian square bombing was a blatant Inarritu lift and after thought when they realised that the film they had was fuck all. And if anyone has any clues whatsoever about Robert Redfords 'Lions For Lambs' i might be vaguely interested but what do you reckon the budget was on the Hindu Kush mountain top scene, anyone want to raise me on 500 bucks?

I went to see 'Cloverfield', wouldn't recommend it but it was a trailer beforehand that led to me to this post. The idiot marketeers are out in full force for the forthcoming Star Trek film. The trailer is a teaser for the CGI to be deployed with a panning shot of the USS Enterprise docked in a space hanger with sparks flying as panels are welded to it - "Under Construction". But your going to have to wait folks because after this news we are told that the movie will not be delivered untill..................Boxing Day 2008. Don't these idiots know that consumerism breeds dis-satisfaction, that no CGI fest could ever live up to such a promise. I'll be carefully timing my entries to the cinema to avoid the trailers for the next 11 months.

I'm looking forward to new David Gordon Green film 'Snow angels'. A recent conversation about birds flying in formation reminded me of a scene in his second film 'All The Real Girls'. DGG is a class act - his films are all set in rust belt USA and he does some amazing things with the camera, you need to crank up the volume on this youtube clip and stick to the end to get the thing about birds flying.

Christmas cheer

2007-12-22T17:59:00.000Z

I suppose if your a kid or have kids then Christmas could be something vaguely resembling what its cracked up to be in the festive M&S tv ads. I Guess a bit of time off work is welcome but for me personaly this is nothing to get too excited about as I'm self employed, and anyway i should imagine that for alot of people the cost of the festivities equate to many hours at the corporate grindstone anyway. As for the whole commercial/consumer side of it in the high street, and lets be honest, its pretty worrying don't you think? - people being compelled to franticaly rush around buying all kinds of crap whilst jingles blare out from every orifice. If people enjoy the indulgence of excessive boozing and partying then why doesn't everyone just decide to do that all year round?

Anyhoo, i'm off to southern Spain so i'll get some better weather at least, yes i'll have good time getting pissed up and eating in the best places, so it will be a merry christmas i suppose, and at a push i guess i could wish good tidings on others, there i said it.

The Sables, Baby you Don't Know

2007-11-16T20:19:00.000Z

My mate Chris has had a four track EP made up of some of the songs he's been working on. Although not available in the shops yet it was sent to Mark Radcliffe & Stuart Maconie and they put on their Pick and Mix record of the week, a great result and just goes to show what perseverance can do. You can listen to The Sables Here and vote for it as Mark and Stuarts record of the week Here. Voting closes on Sunday 18th November.

EDIT Well, if any visitors voted then The Sables send their thanks - they won, so well done to them, congratulations Chris.

iPhone....unleashed

2007-11-09T21:16:00.000Z

The eagerly awaited iPhone was made available in the UK today at precisely 6.02pm. Although scenes in central London failed to match those seen in US cities earlier in the year there was a significant contingent of (M)acolytes who couldn't wait to pay not only a premium for the handset itself but also sign up to what is undoubtedly a hugely uncompetitive airtime contract. Expect to see (M)acolytes in pubs and other public places showing off their handsets and the wonders of the iPhone GUI in gross displays of conspicuousness. Plenty more will wonder into O2 and Carphone Warehouse stores to establish if it is worth their while joining the urban uber techno-elite, but most of these will be savvy enough about the nature of the mobile phone industry that they will decline.

It may be that a new breed of social mis-fit will appear - the iPhoner. Sick to death of phrases like; "I looked at the iPhone but didn't think the contract was very good" or, "Yeah, but it hasn't got 3G or GPS like my Nokia and the Orange shop gave me this for free on a cheaper and better contract than yours" Shunned and hurt by the society they seeked to dazzle with techno-cool the iPhoners may congregate together and pursue bizarre rituals such as bluetoothing each other custom skins for iPhone applications in a desperate attempt to derive value from their purchase before the expiration of the 18 month contract marks their return to normal society.

The rejected handsets will wind up being endlessly circulated on the used mobile phone markets where such markets exist; sink estates and other areas with high crime rates. Endlessly hacked, unlocked and generally abused, being seen with an iPhone may become something akin to being seen with a crack whore whilst the arrogance shown by Apple who believed they could walk into a highly competitive market dictating new rules goes down in business history as a legendary blunder.

Definition of Sub-Prime

2007-11-06T18:24:00.000Z

Applies to the Banking and financial services sector, monetary policy and Government. Generally means less than optimal, inadequate or failing, hence; "Sub-Prime"

Banking and Financial services Rampant short term profiteering with complete absence of risk management. Exploitation of lax regulation.

Monetary Policy Complete breakdown of economic control by interest rate manipulation. Decisions held to ransom by excesses caused by historic monetary policy mis-direction.

Governmental Over-reliance on debt as instrument for societal control & economic growth. Admission of failure of economic policy. Denial. Delusion.

Really cold calling

2007-10-28T19:25:00.000Z

So there I am chatting with a mate who is stopping over for a couple of nights. We're chatting, drinking Red Stripe, smoking pot and listening to music...then the landline goes.

Me. Hello, Smash speaking

Caller. Hello Mr Smash I'm (posh sounding name) from so and so writing services, I hope you don't mind me calling this evening I would just like to ask if you have considered writing a will?

Me. (resisting a roar of laughter) I do appreiciate your call but this is not something I can discuss right now.

Goodbye

Goodbye

If any readers are worried, no I haven't been diagnosed with a terminal illness and had my contact information passed onto the Governments chosen will writing firm by the PFI suite at Hammersmith hospital - it was just another telephone directory cold call, but what a sales job that is. I just wonder how the sales patter would of developed if I was the type of person who be taken in by the slick sexy voice on the other end....what would be the hook I wonder?

Cinema stuff

2007-10-16T23:00:00.000Z

I've seen some truely awfull films of late...I mean stuff that has left me shaking my head in dis-belief at the many monuments to poor quality and distorted expectations created by marketing imperatives. This evening I was pleasantly surprised by "Michael Clayton" staring George Clooney and Sydney Pollack from the Soderburg stable, this is the best that mainstream Hollywood can produce. I do have an issue with the cinema where I saw it however and I felt a little mean in sending this email to VUE customer services, I assure you that what I describe is genuinely the case and it is very annoying.

To Vue Guest Services,

I wish to highlight what for me is an issue of poor customer service at the Shepherds Bush VUE cinema complex, but for you is a combined customer service and security/revenue protection issue, I hope therefore that I have your attention, allow me to explain. Being a frequent user of this VUE cinema it has come to my attention that there appears to be a "resident" within the complex who frequently walks into a screening mid-way, or who may decide to leave a screening shortly after it begins. I wouldn't ordinarily take issue with such behaviour in a public cinema but this particular individual has other traits which annoy me greatly. This evening the said person was occupying the front row for the duration of "Michael Clayton" and was continually rumaging around in the luggage on her person which consisted of lots of plastic bags and empty plastic water bottles, the continual messing around of which is enormously distracting to other people present in the cinema. I hope i'm building up a picture of what it is I am complaining about - yes, the Shepherds Bush VUE has its own resident vagrant "Bag Lady" who appears to be entering the complex early in the day and then wondering between numerous screenings at will, she may even be sleeping on the premises for all we know. At this point i would like to say that I am not that comfortable with victimising others who quite clearly have mental health issues, but as a customer who pays for each individual screening I believe that I have a right to expect you to guarantee un-interuped enjoyment of the films I pay to see - especially if those who are doing the interupting have not paid. I wish to establish with yourself what is my best course of action in the event of my enjoyment of a film which I have paid to see being disruped in this way - if I purchase a ticket and then find that the bag lady is present am I entiled to a refund for viewing the movie on another occaision when your resident is not present at my chosen screening?

I look forward to your response and am happy to provide assistance in dealing with this issue.

regards

Corporate Chaos pt. 1

2007-09-16T16:53:00.000Z

The single minded focus of commercial activity can sometimes throw up some over-blown manifestations of the need to shift more product and lever your brand. After having attended an event hosted at Mercedes-Benz World I can attest that if it wasn't for the sense of humour which alerts to the absurdity of the most arrogant form of brand building the world would be a much grimmer place than it already is. Located on the old Brooklands race course in Weybridge, Surrey MBW is a temple of worship to driving in glorious mono-brand and billing itself as great day out for all the family. Under tens can take driving lessons whilst dad drives around a tight circlular road which is continiously hosed down so that the vehicle occaisionally loses traction, exciting eh? Smash is probably the last person in the world to be seduced by a motor car but surely i can't be the only one that finds the main activity of car browsing enjoyed by visitors to MBW to be completely ridiculous:

I must say that the lunch was good and it was the first time i've dined amongst SUVs and people carriers. For me the whole dis-honesty of dressing up a marketing exercise as leisure activity backfired for MBW big time - this is the de-mystified Mercedes business model, i'll call it production entrophy. The factory in Stuttgart doesn't make different models of motor vehicles; it makes several designs of chassis, a few engines and several different bodies. These are then modified in varying degrees to create a seemingly endless array of choice for consumers whilst maintaining minimal production line costs. Last picture; Smythie in a sports model, fortunately you would have to go alot further than MBW has done to pull the consuming as leisure trick on Smythie, otherwise he would look as conned as the many car browsers who were also taking photo opportunities, i kid you not.

Hedge Funds Bag New COLOSTOMY Product

2007-08-16T02:52:00.000Z

Original available here

Here's an e-mail currently doing the rounds on Wall Street (we amended it slightly).

'Investment Dealers are excited to announce the newest structured finance product - Constant Obligation Leveraged Originated STructured Oscillating MoneY Bridged Asset GuaranteeS, or COLOSTOMY BAGS.

Designed to accommodate the most sophisticated investment strategies, Colostomy Bags contain the equity tranches of Structured High Interest Taxable Derivatives, or SH IT, and are leveraged an infinite amount of times through the innovative use of derivatives.

'Its an actively managed, unlimited liability, open ended investment with no maturity date, which pays LIBOR plus 5,000 and has no correlation to traditional investments' said a spokesman for the Investment Dealer who engineered the product. 'It's based on a CDO structure, but it's designed to default BEFORE the first coupon payment, which you'll agree has no correlation with stodgy traditional investments and is a perfect fit for portable alpha strategies'. Following the default, each month more leverage is added to the structure to pay for the coupon and the Dealer's fees which are set at 80%. 'We feel the fees are reasonable, given the adrenaline rush you'll get each month attempting to mark these'.

The Colostomy Bags carry a AAAA rating, based on the rating agencies opinion that they are even safer than Treasuries. 'You can't use traditional credit analysis to value these babies, no sir-ree', said a spokesman for a rating agency. 'Just like Icelandic Banks, we give them the highest rating because you just know that the Fed will bail out all the hedgies who buy these things. And the best part is, the beauty of this structure is that the loss given default is NEGATIVE, so by extension we feel that the CDS will trade through Treasuries'. Inhaling deeply on a fatty, he continued, 'We've been tinkering with our model, which served us well for Enron and the Telecoms in '02, and our stress testing shows that the probability of loss in the senior tranche is close to zero'.

A real money investor, huddled high-up on a windowsill outside his office, said he remained optimistic about holding the Colostomy Bags, but was a bit concerned with the 95% decline in value on the first day they traded. 'We've taken a bit of a haircut on these but I'm waiting to see the first servicer report, which should arrive in a few months. At first I was annoyed that the dealer who sold them to me refused to make a market in them, but that makes my job easier since I'm not tempted to sell'.

We located a hedge fund manager at a due diligence meeting in the VIP room at Score's. He said he was skeptical of the structure at first, but was dared into buying it by a fixed income salesman. "He said to me, 'what's wrong with you, its quadruple A-rated, just buy it, what are you a pu ssy?' He also said it was going into 'an index' (although he didn't say which one). But that was good enough for me, bro, as most our funds belong to clients anyway'.

Solar powered "sustainable" multi storey car park

2007-08-16T02:40:00.000Z

Found this when hunting round www.kunstler.com a place i can highly recommend. J H Kunstlers recent entries on his clusterfuck nation blog will tell you everything you need to know about the impending unwinding of the sub-prime, cheap credit and derivatives ponzi scam that enriched the bankers and hedge fund guys whilst screwing up the economy for the rest of us. Here's his "Eyesore of the month" from July:

Santa Monica, California, presents a contradiction in terms: the nation’s first "sustainable solar-powered parking structure." Apparently nobody informed these idiots that happy motoring is not a sustainable activity, and neither is the parking that necessarily attends it. This is apart from the sheer appalling monumental ugliness of the building. The official PR handout is a prime example of how America is blowing green smoke up its own ass:

The six-story, 882-space structure at the Civic Center features photovoltaic roof panels, a storm drain water treatment system, recycled construction materials and energy efficient mechanical systems.

The $29 million structure -- which sits near the entrance and exit ramps at the end of the 10 Freeway -- also features ground-floor retail, art works on every floor and sweeping city and ocean views.

City officials hope the 290,000-square-foot-garage will become the nation’s first parking structure certified by the U.S. Green Building Council Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).

The structure’s photovoltaic panels -- which cost $1.5 million -- will pay for themselves in 17 years by generating $90,000 a year in electricity,” said Craig Perkins, director of Environmental and Public Works Management for the City.

Ground control to Santa Monica: in 17 years the automobile age will be over.

Sauce - stuff that goes with other stuff

2007-07-17T00:35:00.001Z

Well as you can see i've re-vamped the blog i hope visitors prefer this as much as i do, i got rid of the mad-eyed dude and am using a puffin as my atavar although this may change. I have had a measurable amount of interest in a holiday i had in June so i thought I might share some pics - these are from a three week sailing trip i had with a freind starting in Harwich and ending in Lerwick, Shetland.

The weather was un-favourable (on the nose) most of the way but after ducking into the Humber and a bit of time in Hull (surprisingly good) we were making good progress. In the long, Long Forties we had a pod of maybe twenty Dolphins playing alongside for an hour or so.

This was a wierd thing - i was on watch round about 11pm and i saw something travelling on toward us which at a distance through the binoculars i thought was a water spout, as it came into view i saw the square rigs - i snapped this as it passed along side

We finally put into Kirkwall, Orkney and went see some the amazing Neolithic sites on the mainland.

Ring of Brodgar:

Next stop north, Fair Isle:

70 inhabitants and a mad Bird Observatory the facilities of which we used (and were gratefull for) but the thing going on there kinda reminded me of a Ballard novel. Heres some Fair Isle pics. i loved this place.

Puffins

Headed north - arrived in Shetland and there was a festival going on - this band were great;

8 autobiographical facts

2007-07-11T15:02:00.000Z

Well i suppose as i got nominated for this by ion and kebz i better give it a go.

1. I once caught myself urinating into the open CD tray of my ghetto blaster.

2. Whilst I was performing an Elvis number at a karaoke night and on Flyagaric mushrooms washed down with Absinth a chap in the pub turned to my mate and said - "He knows what karaoke is all about that fella"

3. I've been learning to play the guitar for 17 years and still can't play anything.

4. When working as a motorcycle courier i went to the doorstep of No 10 Downing street on 2 occaisions.

5. I couldn't be bothered to go to my O level computer science exam (the only one i had a chance of getting a decent grade in)

6. I once had a rat in my Kitchen.

7. Have served on the jury of an Old Bailey murder trial.

8. Whenever i give my date of birth the reaction is usually a banal "Thats easy to remember" Please dont ask me to explain why.

Mortgage misery

2007-07-11T13:44:00.000Z

Well, i never thought i would be quoting the Daily Mail but I like this from todays cover story:

The problem is being fuelled by a sharp rise in the number of borrowers allowed to 'self- certify' their income. Mortgage brokers and lenders stand accused of turning a blind eye when customers have lied about their salary to get a bigger loan, in the confidence that the value of their property would rise.

These same people, who are now burdened with debts they cannot repay, are leading the rise in repossessions and bankruptcy. There are disturbing parallels with the U.S., where thousands of so-called sub-prime mortgage collapses have led to a property price crash over the last 18 months.

But of course Mortgage fraud is quite probably one of the biggest going and this and previous Governments have failed to tackle it prefering the financial services industry to police themselves. Now as the moneyenders get their fingers burned they will no doubt cushion themselves from increased risk by tightening credit, precipitating a downturn and the greed and fear that drove the market up will apply opposite pressure.

Should be interesting to see how Gordon Brown manages to pull off the miracle feat of maintaining the feel good factor with the nation awash with equity whilst simultaneously tackling the "housing crisis" (actually a financial one). Oh well Gordy - its your tree mate.

EDIT Yvette cooper "housing minister" just been on CH4 news. Seems that the plan is to create more houses and make them affordable by part own options. When she was specifically asked by Jon Snow if the new houses will mean that prices will go down she completely and utterly evaded the question; Gordys spin surgeons would have no doubt been very specific on this; "keep uncle Gordy in power and the miracle of free money will continue ad-infinitum" When asked to explain 60% price increases in Northern Ireland she said this was due to economic growth and... peace - 60% in one year! all down to peacemaker Blair, not speculative investment and an abundance of money in the form of 40 year / 6 combined salary mortgages Yvette? She also seems to be under the impression that Buy-to-Let is not as much an issue as those properties left empty despite the fact that BTL is now accounting for 1 in 10 of all property transactions and an utterly staggering 67% of London new builds. So she wont be de-incentivising BTL through tax legislation and the great bun-fight for contested resources will continue, - just to keep Gordy in power, great init. But you've forgotten something -Isn't BTL capital potentially mobile? once amateur landlords realise that there is jack shit for the late entrants whats going to happen Yvette? are you sure you've thought this through? Whats going to happen if the banks decide to tighten money supply? - something that Gordy has no control over. Either by a complete meltdown of the economy or by a return to fuedalism the UK is shafted.

Britain - What a shithole

2007-07-10T18:58:00.000Z

Travelling back from Gatwick this afternoon i thought i wont do what i did last time; take the Gatwick Express, as i know its a con - nearly double the price to save about 20minutes. Now, the ticket machine has hot keys set up on it for common destinations and the user is presented with the common types of tickets (cheap day return/single etc.) for his selected destination, I looked on both pages and i'm certain that the option to travel on the non-express train was not there. Determined no to be defeated i queued up to be served by a person. After purchasing my ticket i asked the lady behind the counter why i couldn't see this option on the machine and she replied that it is possible to get that ticket if one selects some other function on the menu, yeah right but why can't it be presented straight away like all the options for the express are? Its like some other bollox they have on the Liverpool St to Ipswich service where at peak times there is some smoke and mirrors about different operators etc. that means that the non-wary end up buying and excessively priced ticket. Yeah sure, such devious practices are common place in all commercial activities but for essential services people need to be protected.

Arriving home i noticed that the bins to the block i live in had not been emptied as they should of been when the binmen went down our street this morning. The reason - we are having some re-surfacing done in the rear yard and the bins have been temporarily re-located, but you can see where they are..., they're like just there. So now, the bins are at capacity with a full 7 days to go before the next collection, and its summer.

House price tedium.....Satan awaits

2007-05-31T21:26:00.000Z

With new mortgage approvals declining month on month but speculative investment still driving the market onwards and upwards ("soaring" to use Daily Express parlance) could it be that the media are trying to apply the brakes before Gordon Brown enters no.10? In tonights feature on news at 10 the BBCs choice of background music was intersting if not amusing to say the least, no it wasn't Our House by Madness but the operatic build up music from the film The Omen.

Mind you i suppose a financial system where individuals feel they have a divine right to make money for doing nothing because the interests that lent them the money tell them they do does sound like a bit of a cautionary tale.

Madeleine McCann...who really gives a fuck?

2007-05-18T20:03:00.000Z

I remember when the bodies of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were discovered. I was visiting my brother who has cable TV and was watching Sky news. I watched incredulously as this one story went on for hours and hours with news presenters introducing "the breaking news of the day" continually after every commercial break like the world had stopped turning, nothing else mattered that day. If tommorow we were contacted by alien beings from another planet the news teams would be hard pressed to place as much emphasis and import as a couple of girls who, sadly, stumbled accross a psychopath. The gruesome media parade culminated in a temporary boom in the town where they were from with people taking souvenier snaps in the church where a service in their memory was held.

Such ridiculous nonesonse and media manipulation of our emotions now appears to be repeating itself with the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, or "Maddie" who has probably been abducted in the Algarve, Oooh this terrible tragedy the thoughts of the nation are with the family etc. etc. The collective concern is now focussed on the findmadeline website.. the "official website" where you can share your grief with others on the forum and make donations. The website has now had over 65M hits. Given that the Portugese police don't know where she is what possible use is the website and who are the visitors? How many emotionally conned cranks have contacted the authorities in the belief that they think they may of seen Maddie on Southend pier? I wonder what the thoughts of the senior police officers on the case are on the excessive exposure? Surely if she is still alive the media circus surrounding the enquiry would no doubt effect the plans/movements of the abductor(s).

I do hope that she is found, i don't think i could stand another national day of voluntary crucifixion in front of Sky news and the tabloid press.

Picture; Holly & Jessica - Vodafone brand managment run for cover.

UK / Iran "hostages" debacle. Assessment of produced evidence

2007-04-11T19:01:00.000Z

With the events surrounding the capture of British Sailors and Marines by Iranian forces having evolved into a full blown media tragi-circus it could be a good moment to backtrack a little and assess the evidence presented by both sides by an expert in marine navigation and navigation technology, thats me by the way.

Navigation is a precise and detailed method of ensuring the safe passage of all types of vessels. Such precision is enormously important to prevent collision and grounding scenarios that can result in catastrophic pollution of the marine environment as well as ensuring people at sea are not at risk, technology is a key enabler to this. To give you an idea of what i mean i would be very surprised if the Iranian patrol boats that apprehended the UK sailors couldn't pull up to their charted border to within 5M then proceed along its length staying at all times this distance within their own territory on autopilot, whilst tracking and recording the movements of every single vessel in the area. The crew would want to do this day or night and in all weather conditions, whilst drinking cups of tea and chatting with mates on other patrols over the radio.

Given this amount of precision and detail that everyone on the sea has access to i was somwhat perplexed to see the Royal Navys side of the story which is available here and utilises this graphic:

I almost choked on my beer when i saw that; a representation about as useful for depicting maritime events as a sieve is useful for holding water...where is the detail and precision? the bathymetric features? the offshore engineering? To give you an idea of what i mean the position of the merchant vessel is shown here as being at sea, but its not - its at a location that dries out at low tide....lets flesh it out a little with the help of an image from the International Boundaries Research Unit(IBRU) at Durham University.

Now we can see a bit more - the waterway on the seaward side is actually a very narrow channel and the alleged positions are all by the kink in the boundary at the close approaches to the channel. Ahhh, i hear you say, the merchant vessel is clearly on the Iraqi side of the boundary as is the first point provided by the Iranians. Well, true, but that still leaves a number of questions. Firstly, the merchant vessel, which the MoD say was anchored for 2 days, was at a position that dries out every 12hours, (depicted in green) looking at that ship such anchoring would seem very, very unlikely, what do you think:

Also, so what if the merchant ship was on the Iraqi side, what route did the UK crews take to get to it and what route did they take when they got off it? In regard to the corrected position(s) that the MoD says Iran provided I'm afraid to say that I think this is nothing more than news management. Somewhere on Craig Murrays blog you will find a claim that Iran actually provided a total of four positions, this is all irrelevant however as Iran had alot more evidence to prove its case which i will come to later. The main problem with he UK evidence is that it does not contain anything meaningful in navigational terms: a false representation of the waters in question, at an inappropriate scale, and, crucially, the fact that they haven't provided anything recorded in realtime, from the MoD page linked above:

One of the seaboats was connected via data link, which communicated its position continually to the ship where it was displayed, superimposed on an electronic chart, on a purpose built console. During the boarding this console was constantly monitored and indicated, throughout, that the boats had remained well within Iraqi territorial waters.

This is a part of the Xeres system that the Royal Navy has deployed throughout its fleet, and, having lost the seaboats to Iran, would of been the best evidence the MoD could of produced, they could of got an image of the boats track superimposed on an electronic (vectorised) chart, recorded in realtime back on HMS Cornwall, why did they not produce this? More questions for the MoD.

Shortly after the release of the MoDs version of events the UK media was relaying the first images what the Iranians were showing to the world, i took one look at this and instantly knew that the UKs case was sunk.

What we are looking at here is a screen grab from one of the Iranian apprehending patrol boats vectorised charting system focused on the specific area in question - the approaches to the channel. Look closely at the pink flagged positions, that black symbol below and to the left of the pink flags is a skull and crossbones symbol that the crew have selected from their system as the desired symbol for recording the positions of the royal navy seaboats. Each of these positions will have the exact latitude/longitude recorded along with time and date of when each was logged. There are 2 possible scenarios for how those positions were recorded, they could of been manually entered but more likely is that they are there because a member of the crew was tracking the seaboats on radar, each time he pressed a button on his radar system this transmitted the exact position of the tracked radar target to the charting system which recorded it as a symbol (along wih accompanying text box) - positions showing the UK incursion of Iranian charted waters captured and logged in real time. So what i hear you say, such records could be easily fabricated. True, but of course Iran was/is in possession of further records of the UKs boats movements, namely the GPS chartplotter that was on at least one of them plus any handheld GPS devices. GPSs always record a track and stores this in its internal memory on the plotter page, it would be like a breadcrumb trail showing the course that the boats took, all recorded in realtime. These two independent records (the radar tracking and the seaboats GPS track) would corroborate each other enough to convince any maritime investigation inquiry.

It is my view that Iran knew of its strong position on the basis of what i have just described and this was confirmed when on the 30th March an Iranian delegate was being interviewed by Jon Snow on CH4 news. He was saying that he wanted the UK to admit to be being in Iranian waters and said "afterall we are not living in the dark ages, we know from the GPS that they were"

The following day the MoD issued a press statement saying they were looking into "Navigation Issues" as reported by the Observer on the sunday;

But the Ministry of Defence hinted for the first time it may have made mistakes surrounding the incident. An inquiry has been commissioned to explore 'navigational' issues around the kidnapping and aspects of maritime law.

Now that the MoD have effectively withdrawn their initial evidence we can only wait for the results of this inquiry, but as things have moved on my guess is that it will all be forgotten. Iran still has the two captured boats with their GPS systems and can prove at anytime that those boats strayed into their waters. Final picture, Cpt. Chris Air in his Iranian televised confession in front of a paperchart, look at the positions and see how they correspond with the vectorised image, the bathymetric features the depth contours, thats what i expect... detailed and precise navigation.

Uks phantom economy

2007-03-21T20:41:00.000Z

Take a look at this article by Nick Cohen, it makes a change from his usual stuff about the anti war movement being aligned with fascism and is a basic summary of the mortgage crisis facing the US at the moment. NC mentions a couple of issues related to house price inflation that one does not read too often; that it stifles creativity and risk in individuals and all it really represents is generational transfer of wealth, although he probably got this from elsewhere. However, like other commentators in the mainstream media NC has missed a vital aspect to the sub-prime mortgage meltdown story; that the US gov. is considering bailing out sub-prime mortgagees in order to stave of recession at the tax payers expense. Such a policy would be designed to cushion the financial services industry that (with the help of the Gov.) offered cheap credit to risky individuals with limited ability to pay, fuelling a free money frenzy as property prices did the bleedin' obvious. Not a day goes by without reading something new in the media about the state of the US economy on the back of this failed monetary policy; last week i read a story in the Guardian about an 85 year old demented man who was seduced into signing a re-fi. deal that meant his monthly payments exceeded his total income, you can bet that the broker actually got rewarded via a commission for his skillful targeting.

There are many who often say "the UK economy is more like the US than continental Europe" This is undoubtedly true in many cases; both countries have very poor wealth distribution ratios, poor provision for the elderly and vulnerable as well as some the worst in the world for child welfare, similar parallels can be noticed when looking at personal indebtedness. But what of the important stuff; hows the "economy" doing? Speak to many and you hear something about house prices; I'm OK i've got a 300K mortgage on a 2 bed in Fulham, we're thinking about re-financing and buying a place in Spain - apparently the Costa de Almeria is nice....,...or, i don't need a pension - i've got a mortgage. Debt it seems is the new asset. The US scenario is clearly in its downward swing but the UK is still buoyant. The guardian have run a couple of features on "extreme mortgages"; they're all there: the 40 year, the part ownership deals and my favorite the Interest only Buy-To-Let mortgage, the twenty five year old who took out the later (after parting with 15%) believes all kinds of things contrary to what the market is actually doing. The Guardian aren't just giving editorial coverage of this they are giving advice to readers on how to become a subterranean brick in these pyramidal ponzi scams; extreme debt is portrayed as in someway exciting, but like high-altitude snowboarding risks are high.

In a startling confession this week the ex head of the MPC admitted that a monetry policy was put in place in an attempt to stave off a recession despite the fact those who set the policy knew that it would cause massive house price inflation and consumer borrowing, this it seems was a price worth paying. So you got that right? The MPC were so concerned about the "economy" that they decided that the public should effectively be used as a huge inflatable cushion - effectively taking responsibility not just for their own individual finances but the UKs entire economy and ultimately will be baring the brunt in the event of a significant downturn. Which kind of begs the question what economy were policy makers so concerned about?

Computing industry watch pt1

2007-03-05T19:54:00.000Z

The computer industry has a position that must envied by others, what other business can expect its consumers to put up with a certain amount of frustration and non working functionality? The complexity of a PC means that it is always possible to blame a hardware resource conflict or even operator error. Billions are made by all vendors throughout a supply chain reliant on consumer ignorance, misunderstanding and even fear - the later of which is best exemplified by the popups of leading virus protection suites "Your computer is at Risk!"

Several weeks ago i bumped into a neighbour as he was carrying in a PC World bag with a new monitor in it, having done some maintenence on his PC i looked at the 19" widescreen TFT and immediately thought "is your graphics card going to provide a suitable resolution for such a display?" Sure enough several weeks later he calls me up and asks if i can pop round and get it set up for him. On arrival i found that he hadn't even managed to get the display out the box and plugged into his machine; he had brought the deluxe model with a "built in" TV tuner and was confused by the mass of wiring etc. Firstly, the TV tuner was not built in; it was a modular system where an additional box clipped onto the rear of the TFT and then daisychains the VGA connection into the monitor itself. I couldn't believe it when i noticed that the TV module had its own power supply rather than slaving power off the monitor - another cable required along with active antenna he had purchased for the TV. Further incredulity occurred after i scanned the tuner for available stations only to find out that it was an analogue tuner - a product with a 2 year usable life! Moving onto the monitor function i was relieved to see that he actually had a half decent graphics card (Nvidia FX5200) that had come with a mainboard upgrade after the original machine failed and he took it down a local computer shop. Now, the monitor had a stated best resolution of 1440x900 written all over the box as a consumer benefit which is an aspect ratio of 16:10 rather than the more popular widescreen format of 16:9. The driver that was currently installed was the default windows one that only gave a maximum resolution 1024x768 (XGA, 4:3) so of course when this is presented on a widescreen you get a stretched effect that looks totally crap. After downloading the latest Nvidia driver i managed to get a 16:10 ratio but only with 1280x800 resolution; the 1400x900 is not selectable and apparently can only defined after creating a custom resolution - this feature of the Nvidia software was not an option on this particular installation, i suspect that you need the very latest gaming card to get this resolution.
In short what a performance, was my neighbour advised of all these issues when he purchased his new display? I would say that the average customer in PC world is not going to be tech savvy kids with the latest graphics card but more likely people such as my neighbour. I bet theres loads of people like him who have wandered into PCW, seen a widescreen monitor and thought that will be a nice replacement for my old CRT. Thousands of people up and down the country hanging widescreen format off mainboard integrated graphics cards that can only handle XGA in 4:3 ratio - stretched spasticated GUIs to their PCs. Working with other forms of technology myself i can tell you that if i were to supply a solution to customer which is as wrong as the scenario i just described the first thing you can expect to happen is for him to be on the phone winging a moaning; you sold me the wrong thing...it doesn't work properly blah blah..
Walking round one of these stores its just incredible the amount of crap on offer; ridiculous software suites, absurd keyboard and mouse solutions and of course acres devoted to the inkjet scam. I found the display model of the one in question and the point of sale actually indicated that it had a best resolution of 1280:1024 which is SXGA, 4:3, completely wrong, what the fuck are trading standards doing about this? An industry that will collapse under the weight of its complete disregard for the interests of its customers.

The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky

2007-02-01T21:31:00.000Z

Being a big fan of this directors previous two outings, Pi and Requiem for a dream, i've been looking forward to this and my interest was heightened by the several critical reviews i've read of it. I guess you could crudely say that The Fountain follows 3 narratives taking place in different time/space(s) that are inter-connected; in the present Hugh Jackman plays a gifted but flawed surgeon looking for a cure to the disease of death, driven by his passion for his terminally ill wife played by Rachel Weiss. In the past a Spanish conquistador searches for the tree of life in Amazonia to save Spain and win the heart of its queen, this is a tale spun from the imagination of Weiss's dying character and one she asks her surgeon lover to complete. Finally, Jackmans character has a spiritual journey through space to a dying star to find awe through death. So you got that right? yes, its a Romantic, Metaphysical, Sci-fi, Fantasy Adventure. On the face of it this film has it all, the central premise/themes of love, death, imagination and the futility of human vanity pitched against the awe of the cosmos , fine and noble material for a movie of course. The film is superbly crafted with compelling performances and stunning imagined spaces, the score and background audio is complementary. Direct criticism of this film's plot, themes or execution is unfair i think, its failing is that it is just too broad, too big and ambitious which is not necessarily a bad thing as it does break new ground and raise the bar, i would urge people to see this film.

Property Ladder - live the dream

2007-01-22T20:33:00.000Z

This has been doing the rounds in a few media outlets today; a "property" in Chelsea measuring 11' x 7' on the market for 170K plus 30 required to make it habitable, I recall a similar story about a Knightsbridge broom cupboard at the tail end of the last boom. Picture below shows potential for a combined kitchen/bathroom. Interested? Estate agent here or story at BBC.

Ghosts by Nick Broomfield

2007-01-17T22:35:00.000Z

At the time of their death the 23 Chinese cockle pickers who died at Morecambe Bay in febuary 2004 were given a rather unique status in the british media; "illegal workers", "economic migrants" etc. etc were phrases that were endlessly used to describe the tragedy. It was only recently that i became aware of a recording of a final desperate mobile phone call to the emergency services where one of the trapped individuals pleaded for help with the operator with inadequate language; "Sinking Water! Sinking Water!" Nick Broomfields excellent dramatisation does an great job of turning the tables and finally acknowledges the victims for what they were: hardworking but exploited and desperate people. According to the films dialogue a Ghost is a term the Chinese workers use to refer to any white person they come across in their endless bid to earn a fair wage in exchange for their labour; bribe taking employment agencies, slum landlords and finally cockle pickers who jelously/violently guard the productive areas of Morecambe bay. Broomfield chose to use real people rather than actors for the cast with the lead role played by real life chinese migrant Aiqin Lin who does a brilliant job of bringing a compassionate role to a cast otherwise made up of the cruel spirits that inhabit the Norfolk and Cumbrian landscape. The film ends with an emotional Lin on a flight back to China for a re-union with her family, what the film crew capture at the arrivals gate is not acting, it is raw human emotion distilled in a cruel and exploitative world, a directoral master stroke from Broomfield.

Back from Wales....heres my plans for the immediate future

2007-01-02T23:44:00.000Z

Thanks Peter & Katie for putting up with me for the the later half of my Wales trip, as much fun for yourselves as it was for me i hope. I'm intending on making sure i get out my bike a bit more regularly; my traversing of the beautiful welsh countryside on Thursday is a proof positive that despite a period of being out of the saddle i'm still a shit hot touring cyclist. Alcohol is going to be consumed in much smaller quantities in the coming weeks and i may need to start a series to detail any withdrawal symptoms i experience. So thats the usual news years stuff out the way.

THINGS I HATE PART 2: spammers
On returning home and having been offline for a while i have discovered that some phuker has got my email address, if i find out that this is as a result of the only organisation i regularly communicate with that has scanned their HDDs with a harvester program i am going to go fucking mental.

CRAP PROPERTY OF THE WEEK pt1
Following on from my post on the absurdities of the UK housing market i will be delighting visitors with some amusing/depressing insights into this worrisome side to the UK economy, simply go to one of the many estate agent websites and search a crap London post code; this week Stratford, E15, ex local authority, offers in excess of £300K...(i kid you not)

......

2006-12-24T07:53:00.000Z

Future of UK housing market

2006-11-27T21:06:00.000Z

It seems to me that getting anyone to acknowledge the reality of the UK housing market bubble is like trying to find a part of the London public transport system thats not overrun with ads for online gambling sites - damn hard. So lets just review how this market has evolved in recent years, what characterizes it now (and how this differs from the past) and look at future predictions, if you find yourself disagreeing with anything I say here then please leave your thoughts in the comments section and i will attempt to respond. Firstly, people need to understand that by very definition of the word, property is not an investment - property requires financial input to maintain it at a steady state/condition, unlike stocks and shares which (apart from admin. fees when shifting investment) go up or down without need for constant input. Also, its important to remember that when house valuations go up the owner/mortgagees does not gain any material benefit from the increase - people still live in the same houses, unless of course you sell up and trade down. These simple matters of fact (along with others) appear to have been entirely forgotten with the rampaging bull market that is fuelled by vested interests, namely the credit/debt industry, and copious amounts of property porn broadcast on our TV channels on a nightly basis, when will people realise that it just aint possible to make something out of nothing? I do admit that some people have managed to extricate themselves from the current situation to the positive benefit of their wealth but these are largely professionals who know the market/building trade, if this were universally applied (ie. anyone can do it) to every industry then i may as well set up a brain surgery, anyone volunteering to be my first customer?

Those that say "property can only go up" are quite simply incorrect, take a look at the graph below which plots the adjusted trend for UK house prices from 1973-2006, the red line/area plots the long term trend. (apologies for the poor quality of image)

As we can see property does not only go up..it goes down also. In the graph we can see the downturn from the '73 crash (precipitated by global oil shocks) the '79 peak (and downturn) and the the more memorable 90-91 crash that occurred after increases in interest rates, the third peak is the current one where "asset" values have tripled in 10 years. Of course there is much to be discussed about a possible repeat of the causation of the first crash depicted here but this is deserving of another post entirely, lets just consider the 90-91 crash and the current scenario. The "only goes up" brigade will quip back with the assertion that this graph proves them right; that a stabilised decrease in interest rates has made property more affordable and that it is this that has driven up the current valuations to the current level, partly true perhaps in the early days of the upward swing but this blinkered approach ignores the reality of their own arguments as well as factors that have otherwise not been seen in previous bubble scenarios. Firstly, the affordability argument simply no longer holds water. According to the Halifax national house price index report of 01/06 85% (eighty five percent) of towns in the UK are unafordable to first time buyers. In fact in 1993 55% of market activity was down to first time buyers, in 2006 this is down to 29% with 71% being the rest of the market...affordable? not according to the land registry figures, without any new blood any market will suffer a heart attack. Of course markets don't just blindly follow text book mathematical predictions, the other major factor is of course human psychology, but an economic text book will tell you that when this factor has had a major role in determining a bull market then the negative effects, in the event of a downturn, can be severe, in the case of the housing market this is most strongly represented by the Buy-to-Let sector. According to the council of Mortgage lenders the number of buy-to-let(BTL) mortgages has risen from 50,000 in 1999 to a staggering 750,000 in 2006. Investors in the early days may be able to make a reasonable return on investment but these days you've got to be pretty shrewd to make anything out of that game; property developer Galliard Homes who specialise in BTL "investments" are currently offering "off plan" (that means not built yet) properites in Canary Wharf that can guarantee.....6% ! How much? you've got to have rocks in your head to invest a capital sum in such an historically risky market for such a paltry return, everybody knows that any city hedge fund can pretty much guarantee three times that return with very little risk, but this is a bull in full rampage and all common sense has gone out the window with the china, its not the return but the escalation in value, thats the way the debt industry (along with Kirsty and Phil on CH4) pitches it.

In market studies the psychological aspects of a bull market are often referred to as "irrational exuberance" think Dot Coms in 1999-2000 (not unrelated to this subject) the trouble is that once the sentiment turns things go the other way. In his report of last week David Miles the chief economist to Morgan Stanley predicts a major slowdown and devaluation of the housing sector citing "expectation" as the single biggest cause of the tripling of values in the past ten years, yes thats right expectation, no guarantees no expanding market (FTBs are out of the game remember) nothing, just a speculative imagined bubble of greed in persuit of the belief that it is possible to get something for nothing. You can download the pdf. here he predicts up to 30% fall in valuations, Homebuilder Wimpey had 5% knocked off their share price within a few hours of this reports release.

So whats going to happen? Well, lets go back to the graph and consider the possibilities. (i) the market continues to go up - extremely unlikely for the nation as a whole for the reasons i gave above, namely no newcomers to the market, i do however think that London and parts of SE will stave this off for a while due to overseas investment and city bonuses. Possibility (ii) stagnation, this is what the believers are at least hoping for - that predictably low interests rates for the foreseeable future represent a paradigm shift in property valuation, but ask one of these people what their feeling is on the long term trend line and you'll get no analysis just phantasaying. In fact its all far more tenuous than that as it doesn't factor in the sentiment of "investors" - buy-to-let who can get better returns elsewhere and have all along been relying on appreciating value as the only motive for hanging on, stagnation is no good for this massive sector, when they offload the market will be awash and the sentiment will turn. That only leaves (iii) devaluation, how far and for how long is anyones guess, as to its effect on consumer spending and the economy as a whole when Reuters are predicting the worst retailing christmas for 25 years is anyones guess.

Personal debt in the UK now stands at 1.2trl(one point two trillion) up from 0.5trl in '95...funny how that almost mirrors the increase in property values with mortgage equity withdrawal accounting for the remainder.

Ditch the delusions and put on your hard hat.

a DVD and a cinema release

2006-11-19T19:00:00.000Z

I got this out of the DVD shop this weekend, the excellent Wal-Mart, the high cost of low price by Robert Greenwald creator of Outfoxed and Uncovered: The War on Iraq. Wal-Mart are the largest corporation in the world, overtaking the more traditional Mega-corp GM several years ago, their humongous size means that they are able exert a dis-proportional power amongst the communities they seek to exploit as well as the political establishment that administers capitalism on an unsuspecting public. Wal-Marts business model is founded on all the usual: drive down (or externalize) cost, drive up profit margins and sell more, more and more, its a turbo bandit capitalism so vast that that it bucks the very idea of fair competition in favour of monopoly and exploitation. The film is broken into various sections starting with examples of how long established family businesses are rapidly forced to close down when Wal-Mart, usually with the financial aid of local authorities, decide to set up shop. There are many ex-employees who sing like canaries about the methods used; "We would drive down the street and point out hardware stores and say 3 months, an electrical store, 2 months" said one former store manager turned whistleblower. So vast is Wal-Mart that its poison has global reach from the sweat shops of Honduras to toy factories in China, endless toil for the underpaid workers to work in what basically amounts to enforced prison labour. There are many examples of Wal-Marts advertising (or more precisly, propaganda) neatly juxtaposed with the reality where supposed concern for shoppers is false a reality where revenue protection and staff surveillance consume all security resources so as to make abduction, rape and murder commonplace in Wal-mart parking lots. The near total abandonment of civic responsibility proceeds on a line paralleled by ever increasing growth. There is reason for hope however as the film finishes with many examples of grass roots activism that has effectively mobilised and prevented (against all odds) to stop the retail bohemoth from decimating their communities. Once they have come to town the formula ensures that its a permanent condition; It doesn't take much to stop them coming but once they've arrived there is no amount that can be paid to make them leave.

I've often thought the very best kind of film is one which immerses the viewer in a complete illusion, where the plot line presents an staged illusion to the audience only for the viewers to find the film is itself a clever deception when the characrters and plot have been played out, Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall is the best example of this device. Christopher Nolan's The Prestige pursues a very similar strategy; a conjurers trick of a film about rivalry between masters of the Victorian conjurers trick, and very well executed it is too. The characters are very well played with Christian Bale giving another fine performance after the recent (and excellent) Harsh Times, Michael Caine and Scarlett Johansson also star. I wouldn't dream of telling anyone here what the twists and turns of the plot are, but will be generous enough to leave a picture of the lovely Scarlett.

The Flaming Lips, Hammersmith Apollo, 13.11.06

2006-11-14T15:58:00.000Z

The Flaming lips have gained deserved recognition in recent years, pretty much since the release of The Soft Bulletin, which is undoubtedly a very fine album, and one which they have so far failed to better. Maybe 1999 was their creative zenith and the self congratulatory bombast that defines them today is a stark warning that a bit of success can be a bad thing, despite publications such as Uncut heralding them as "The Greatest Band on Earth". Their previous live performances in support of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots were a novel experience with the band flanked by animal costume wearing minions shining torches into the audience and big balloons bouncing around the venue but they have taken this formula a bit too far and somehow the music has been replaced by theatre. The Lips enter the stage to an announcement that those present are about to witness something akin to the greatest experience in the Universe, after opening with race for the prize, Wayne Coyne announces to the audience that we are here to celebrate the begining of the end of George Bush, a noble cause perhaps but for Wayne to describe Democratic control of The house of representatives and The Senate as "We" (the people/fans etc) taking control seems a little over-optimistic, sorry i forgot this is the greatest experience in the Universe. As the technicolor confetti dazzles the audience the backdrop screen bombards with garish imagery, including some slightly dubious sexual innuendo. When the prog rock theatre finally runs out of energy the encore is....wait for it...a cover of Bohemian Rhapsody. Is it a joke? they seem to be quite serious about it, this was all way, way lost on me.

Lucinda Williams, Shepherds Bush Empire, 11.11.06

2006-11-12T20:35:00.000Z

Finally, this gig came around. I purchased the tickets in like april last year for what was supposed to be a july 05 concert which was canceled due to illness, a long wait and i enjoyed the looking forward nearly as much as the evening when it finally came. I've seen the beautiful Luncida before (at the same venue) about 4 years ago so i kinda knew what to expect; one of the most fantastic voices backed up by a very finely honed country rock machine that just rocks and rocks, Lucinda rules.

We caught the later half of the support act which was Teddy Thompson (son of Richard and Linda) and he sounds just like his old fella - very good, i'll be checking him out later, now on with the main course, i will attempt to describe the delectation.

There is something about Lucinda that just makes me swoon, so elegant in every way, she has one of the best high range vocal abilities of anyone recording today but her songs have gritty realness about them, she may be dis-approving of my thoughts here but shes a bit trailer park, know what i mean? She is actually more middle class (her father was a professor) but the endless blues that make up her creative output, where she describes emotional territory riven with gravel roads, broken hearts, betrayal and downright losing everytime, when i said trailer park i meant she is a voice that is brutally honest and not afraid of dealing with life in that way. "I changed the Locks", "Those 3 days" are angry, emotional cathartic songs that the listener knows represents something very real. So what does it all sound like?, she plays the rhythm and has tight bass, drums and lead in support, i'm talking real tight...the guitarist was truly awesome, one guitar sounds like ten, with effortless ripping solos, with bass and drums section solidly thudding along. I always think this when i see US bands; European bands cannot play like these guys, the only real way to forge a gigging band is endless nights on the circuit snatching naps in an Econoline. Her voice though, man..it is awesome, real high vocal range with incredible sustain, lucky the Empire has a decent PA because no way would your regular gear be up to the job. I'm ramblin', emotional and i think i may be in love.

2006-11-12T20:22:00.000Z

Lucinda Williams - C'mon

Country Rock goddess doing new number a few days ago in NL

Dolphin with extra set of fins

2006-11-06T20:41:00.000Z

Check this out, japanese fishermen last month netted/trapped a bottlenose dolphin with an extra pair of fins to the rear of its body. Scientists believe that a genetic mutation has thrown up this anomoly and are pointing to the specimen as proof of the evoloutionary theory that dolphins (like all marine mammals) had, as their ancestor, a four legged land dwelling animal that took to the marine environment some 50 million years ago, studies on the creature have found that it uses the extra pair of fins for manuvering. It is widely believed that the ancestor may have been similar to a hippo, a deer or possibly something resembling a dog, i prefer the latter theory as it seems to me that they are very playfull around human activity, a bit like a domestic canine. I guess this one should count itself lucky it has an extra pair of appendanges, else he may of ended up in the sushi.

Shirley Collins; America Over The Water

2006-10-31T23:51:00.000Z

Had the great pleasure of seeing Shirley Collins at the at the South Bank doing a talk, largely in promotion for her book, which describes a wonderous journey through the American south in 1959 with music archivist Alan Lomax. At the age of nineteen and as a rising star on the British folk scene she travelled to New York and then, with Lomax, headed for a tour of the Southern states equiped with recording equipment in order to capture some of the rich folk music that inhabited the Apalacian backwoods and penitentiaries. A screen on stage presented photographs taken during the journey and there were many breaks to play the recordings. All of the characters she talked about were very interesting; the god fearing Baptist priest holding a congregation in the mountains who swore that the recording equipment that Shirley and Lomax setup was the work of the devil and demanded that it was removed. My favorite was an 82 year old woman who lived alone in an isolated shack in the mountains, who they went to see to record her awesome banjo playing, As their journey progressed south they hit the chain gangs who worked the cotton fields "from cant to cant" (from when you can't see to when you can't see; dawn till dusk). It was there they met James Carter and the recording they made of him and his fellow inmates was many years later to form part of the soundtrack to the Cohen brothers film Oh Brother Where art Thou. A top night out i'll be reading Shirley's book soon, you can check it out here

Things I Hate pt.1

2006-10-18T12:33:00.000Z

If my little jolly to Palma had gone according to plan and i had found time for a bit of hiking in the hills that surround the city i may have posted something a bit different, but as things turned out the way they did i've decided to start a little series: Things I Hate.

It seems that whenever i travel to a destination in Spain the passengers on the return flight always seem to include a category know as the middle seat hogger. Its usually a couple who make a concerted effort to board the aircraft as early as possible and occupy the window and the aisle seat whilst reserving the seat in between them for items of clothing or reading material. These people fall into two sub-categories; the first timer or inexperienced who jelously guard the un-used seat with various shifting around of items and peer up at the boarding passengers with concerned expressions as the aircraft fills up. The second sub-category have clearly perfected the art and simply occupy the entire row and then bury their faces into a copy of the Daily Express without a care that there could be the possibility that the plane is going to reach capacity. How selfish and ignorant can a person get eh? On the profit margins that Easyjet work on having a 30% decreased carrying capacity would effectively put them out of business, nevermind that the whole environmetal economics of aviation is completely unsustainable anyway. To think that there are people that are actually taking the risk of being told by the flight crew that they cannot occupy seats they have not paid for in the event of the plane reaching capacity is just beyond me.....the degree to which a person can lose their self respect.

Rogues Gallery - Pirate Ballards, Sea Songs & Chanteys

2006-10-13T20:25:00.000Z

This is an interesting compilation, a kind of alternative soundtrack to the Pirates of the Carribean. Theres lots of great artists performing maritime themed songs, including; Richard Thompson, Nick Cave, Bryan ferry, Rufus wainwright, Eliza Carthy, Gavin Friday Lucinda Williams, Ed Harcourt, Lou Reed and Jolie Holland....so a very intersting mix. Compiled by Johnny Depp and film producer Gore Verbinski, well worth checking out.

Went to see Scorsese's The Departed this week, not essential viewing by any means and a complete lift of the first, and classic, Hong Kong film "Infernal affairs" which is genuinely existential as fuck. My advise is to get the latter out the DVD store and wait for the former to arrive there.

Off to Palma, Mallorca this weekend, should be a laugh.

Scott Matthews

2006-10-02T20:09:00.000Z

Went to see Scott Matthews at a little showcase at a record store in town today. The Album Passing Stranger has been available before but Marco's San Remo label has just done the deal with Island records so they've chucked a load of cash at it (people may have seen ads for the album in various places, so its good to see that the honchos at Island want to see Scott gain popularity.) Hes certainly got alot more talent than many of the singer songwriters around at the moment. Lots of people are saying sounds like John Martyn circa. Solid Air and One World, so it should appeal. I hope so anyway.

Live from the crime scene

2006-10-01T19:42:00.000Z

Just hobbled back from the Shepherds Bush Empire having failed in my attempt to get a ticket for Ryan Adams (+The Cardinals). These were always going to be highly saught after and were sold out within minutes but i thought its sunday, its raining and there are always touts around - i think i'll try my luck be it with limited funds and leaking footwear. Face value £22.50, £50 best knockdown price from a tout, in better times i would of gone for this no problem and was nearly tempted tonight but given the fact that after an entire 4-6 months of mainly sitting on my arse and that i have no footwear that doesn't let in water i decided to head home to savoury rice and a tin of sardines, like the filthy wretched, criminal i am, being poor sucks.
Still it aint been a bad week, got to see Sparklehorse at the Bush hall on thursday, which of course was fucking excellent, Kitty Empire reviews it here and Steve Hands here - compare and contrast the quality of writing between those that are paid to do so and those that aren't. The new album is well worth checking out and interesting to note that its produced by Dangermouse (1/2 of Gnarles Barkley), its that classic mix of sweet soulfull slowies and rocking distortored vocal genius that define the other albums.
I said that i would post a review of the new Bonnie Prince Billy album, so here it is - Its fucking Ace.

2006-09-21T06:06:00.000Z

bonnie prince billy - B Withers, The Same Love made me laugh

Bonnie "Prince" Billy - the letting go

2006-09-19T02:07:00.000Z

My grubby undeserving hands managed to get hold of BPB's latest release today, i quick rush round the west end for the "enhanced" edition (limited to 1000 copies with bonus CD) was well worth it - after a few major stores Selectadisc on Berwick Street had one copy left, i will be posting a review shortly.......

2006-09-18T02:08:00.000Z

An Inconvenient Truth clip

An inconvenient Truth

2006-09-18T00:45:00.000Z

You've got to hand it to Al Gore, after having a presidency stolen from him by GWB he is still persevering with trying to reform the US and the rest of the world in its attitude to climate change. Please spare me the stuff about how he fluffed his campaign, and the mistakes of the Clinton administration, this guy, for a mainstream politician, is a made dude in my book. The build up to the disaster that was Floridian hanging chads and finally a supreme court decision neatly co-incided with me leaving university with a ropey applied ecology degree and learning about Gore's credentials - that he has been a climate awareness campaingner since the 70s. As the dispute over who won the peninsula was taking place i went out to purchase a copy of AGs Earth In The Balance, i was somewhat bemused that this title was unavailable from stock from any store on Charing Cross road and eventually had to order it from Amazon. As the news relayed images of pugnacious Bush supporters disrupting re-counts i was reading a book written by a major mainstream politician who had a total grasp on the issue of climate change, I thought, man, this dude is for real - so sad then that things all went wrong. In the film Gore cites the heavy blow of losing that election but is not perturbed: "I know i thought i'll get the slide slow out again and go on the road" The film is basically made up of the presentation where he succinctly displays the correlation between CO2 emmisions and global temperatures, what has occured in the past when certain geological/atmospheric events co-incide along with film and stills of shrinking glaciers and freshwater melts in Greenland. As he does with the book the eveidence is clearly presented so as to not leave any confusion about what the situation is and how urgent are our needs to address it. There is a certain amount of dry humour when, for example, standing in front of a shocking graph projected onto a large screen he says; "the spectics say..." as well as highlighting the fact that California hopes to be able to meet Chinas present day motor vehicle energy efficiency standards in err.....12 years time, giving the lie the nonesnese used by the Bush admin. about economies such as China and India needing to take the burden of climate action as well as showing how big US business like Ford and GM are losing out to Toyota etc. Yes, this film will not tell many people what what they don't know already but if it just corrects mis-conceptions in a few peoples minds AG has done something worthwhile.

Linux Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake)

2006-09-05T21:09:00.000Z

OK, i admit it, i did get into some bother with my first foray into the world of Linux with Ubuntu 5.10, although in defence of the open source community this was largely due to my decision to go with a 64bit version to match my AMD Athlon. Its not that there aren't performance advantages with a 64 bit system but unfortunately the world just aint quite ready - or rather major hardware vendors aren't; Linux drivers for your Lexmark printer sir? sure but only in 32 bit architecture. Get the picture?, not if you want to print one off. With this in mind i waited with with great anticipation for my new set (available completely free of charge) of discs of version 6.06, this time i thought i'll just install 32bit so an upgrade in one sense and a downgrade in another. The installation of 6.06 works slightly differently - one disk serves as both live CD and install CD, this works well once you've got your partitions sorted out, again this process was different from the previous version as you need to create at least the file system partition and the swap file (you are also given the opprtunity to create partitions for Home, Usr. directories etc.) all this is easily achieved using the Gnome partition manager that installs with the Live CD, once thats done just hit install and you've got the system installed on your HDD within approximately 15minutes. So what do you get? Well as before there is a fully featured office suite (Novells Open Office), and yes, this is fully compatible with M$ office, the excellent Gimp photo editor, along rhythmbox media player, soundjuicer CD ripper/encoder (with full auto tag download) plus access to thousands of other open source packages all available free of charge. Also you don't have to agree to let M$ interogate your system for serial numbers etc. in order to stay secure, in fact for the time being Linux users can forget about security issues so long as you've got a firewall in your router, even if you are concerned just download them - thats right no need to have nagging popups from Norton etc telling you that your system is insecure and that you should go to their website and provide credit card details - that stuff quite rightly should be ancient history. Once you've got the system installed its time to think about customising it, and there are plenty of options. One of the things i really wanted from my last Ubuntu system (i tried in Suse also) was XGL/compiz which is super cool 3D virtual desktop/application switching and environment, this is easily cracked in 6.06. Only got one desktop you windows system? how about something like this?

with multiple windows/apps/directories open throughout your 4 screen 3D environment, just use ALT, TAB to switch, if your chosen window is on an opposing side of the cube then it spins around and settles in a nice springy action, all with super cool transparency;

Rumour has it that Microsoft are going to make the Windows Genuine Advantge Scheme (read: monopoly protection policy) compulsory on their forthcoming Vista OS, also, i've got a tenner that says that the whole media based environment will be rife with other protectionist restrictions, principly those termed Digital Rights Management (DRM). Not only that but if the experience is anything like XP then when a user downloads crucial security updates users who find the update has resulted in a system crash may well have to fork out for a new licence, consumers in the US are already reporting this for XP. Of course you could just do the sensible thing and follow the link at the top of this post your get your software for free and download updates that allow a revert, or just format and re-install at will. No Brainer.

Violent Porn Ban

2006-08-30T20:32:00.000Z

The mother of a woman brutally murdered by a man "obsessed with violent internet porn" is celebrating a victory in court today that has resulted in Government plans to enforce a ban on possession of such material with 3 years in prison, a straightforward story? No.
Now, i'm no expert on such things but i would say that the very vast majority of such material available on the internet is between consenting adults simulating their activities for the enjoyment of others. If an individual has a penchant for any form of "kinky sex" then that is their God given right to do so as it is to freely distribute the images amongst like minded others. Further, there is no evidence that such measures will prevent violent individuals from attacking others in the event of being denied such material. Put into a wider context this forthcoming legistlation is yet another attempt at trying to regulate internet usage, no wonder then that Harriet Harman MP has endorsed the proposal. Controversy is emerging already, my guess is that this law will be dropped as soon as any politician, high court judge or police officer find themselves on the wrong side of it.

Music

2006-08-28T23:11:00.000Z

Looks like i missed a good gig last week at the Jazz Cafe, heres Neetos no-nonesense, all you need to know emailed review of Candi Staton;

Candi Staton was fucking excellent. Began with Suspicious Minds, also
her towering version of In The Ghetto, and Stand By Your Man, finished
with an extended Young Hearts Run Free and encored with You Got The
Love her big late eighties dance anthem. Great tight 10 piece band
backing her, a sublime night. But the centrepiece was His Hands the
Will Oldham song which she acknowledged as the greatest song she's
sung, drenched in heartache and misery, but also love and compassion,
a wailing gospel howl to her man. An amazing night.

Heres one to watch, major deal in the offing through San Remo, could be become big:

Scott Matthews

BP Barmy Petroleum

2006-08-28T14:15:00.000Z

The recent promotion of the Targetneutral scheme by Britains biggest company BP may seem on the face of it like a responsible attempt to avert global catastrophe, closer scrutiny reveals a very different story, so lets see how the figures stack up. Say for example that one drives and average car with a consumption of 25-35 MPG covering an average annual milage of 12000 miles. The targetneutral website calculates that to neutralise the climatic impact of your motoring you would need to pay £16:73 (sixteen pounds and seventy three pence) annualy, or to put it another way, climate tax yourself 0.0013 pence per mile of motoring. That seems like extraordinarily good value for salving your consience of the negative impact on the atmosphere your driving is having, how can the cost of 3.50 tonnes of CO2 work out so cheap? Well, target neutral reckon the 16 quid can be invested renewable power generation technologies in developing countries, so for example biomass generation in India, in fact the only projects that Targetneutral seems to be operating are in India along with a few "potential" projects scattered around various parts of the globe. For this scheme to actually deliver anything like it claims the poor old Indians will have to give up the idea of having equal aspirations to the rest of us along with their currency not commanding a good exchange rate against sterling, Euro and the dollar, go tell that to the inhabitants of Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Meanwhile, continued british motoring behavior is having a catastrophic impact on the ecomony at home, Transport 2000 calculated that the external costs of motoring (read: subsidy) in road maintenence, congestion, air polution and crashes (cost to tax payer in health care) along with climate change and noise is 21p/mile rising to £1/in London. Thats some subidy, what the hell are we doing chucking windmills and biomass generators at India for?

Unless you suffer for a form of autism that impairs your arithmetic it is probably better to look at an import caveat on the BP target neutral page to understand what this is all about:

BP will also make a cash contribution, for every litre of BP fuel purchased (excluding fuel card purchases), by targetneutral members using their Nectar cards.

Hmmm, so to pass on the full benefit consumers would need to purchase their fuel only from BP stations? If i were cynical i would say that the re-branding of BP is nothing more than a strategy to gain greater market share, if this scheme does actually take off then expect similar absurdities from Shell, Esso and the rest. I wonder how much BP will contribute? if they are generous and double the consumers then that would amount to an 8076th of the actual cost to the UK economy rising to a nearlya 40000th in London.

The great petroleom fraud trundles on.

2006-08-24T21:34:00.000Z

Thanks Neeto for dropping those CDs round. The good ones so far: Kate Rusby, New Handsome Family album, the awesome Sandy Denny Anthology and The Tom Paxton best of - something i simply can't believe i have not come across before.

2006-08-24T04:01:00.000Z

Denim - Middle of the road

Guess it should be like this.

Denim

2006-08-23T23:28:00.000Z

Found this on youtube today - the excellent Middle of the road from Denim. Never seen this video before, hearing this tune brings back alot of memories for me.