I was invited to be on the Murnaghan programme on Sky News this morning – which I always find a great deal more intelligent than the Andrew Marr alternative on the BBC. I declined because I did not want to get up and get a 7.30am train from Ramsgate on a Sunday morning. I had a meeting until 11.30pm last night planning a conference on human rights in Balochistan [I still tend to say Baluchistan], and I have a newly crowned tooth that seems not to want to settle down. But I am still worried by my own lack of energy, which is uncharacteristic. Is this old age?
I also have some serious work to do on my Burnes book, and next week I shall be staying in London to be in the British Library reading room for every second of its opening hours. So there may be a bit of a posting hiatus. I have in mind a short post on an important subject on which I suspect that 99% of my readership – including the regular dissident commenters – will strongly disagree with me.
This is a peculiarly introspective post, perhaps because my tooth is hurting, but I seem to have this curmudgeonly spirit which wishes to react to the huge popularity of this blog by posting something genuinely held but unpopular; a genuine view but one I don’t normally trumpet. The base thought seems to be “You wouldn’t like me if you really knew me”.
Similarly when I wrote Murder in Samarkand I was being hailed as a hero by quite a lot of people for my refusal to go along with the whole neo-con disaster of illegal wars, extraordinary rendition and severe attacks on civil liberties, sacrificing my fast track diplomatic career as a result. My reaction to putative hero worship was to publish in Murder in Samarkand not just the political facts, but an exposure of my own worst and most unpleasant behaviour in my private life.
I am in a very poor position to judge, but I believe the result rather by accident turned out artistically compelling, if you don’t want to read the book you can get a good idea of that by clicking on David Tennant in the top right of this blog and listening to him playing me in David Hare’s radio adaptation.
Anyway, that’s enough musing. You won’t like my next post, whenever it comes. Promise.
“I have concern about the poor starving millions NOW.”
Hope we all do but:
UN: A third of all food grown globally is wasted
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-26/rest-of-world/32423812_1_capita-food-food-agriculture-organization-consumers
And last month it was revealed that the USA waste 40 percentof their food (can’t add extra link but easy google)
“Look at the graphs:
http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/clark-energy-resources-and-the-future/
”
I did. Very effective.
I especially like the x-axis going from -6000 up to 10000 with the data all in the middle 5%. Super scary.
What happened to water-mills and wind-mills?
Curiouser and curiouser as Alice said….
Mark Duggan shooting cab police seals ‘broken’
Mark Duggan was travelling in a Toyota minicab when he was stopped by police
Related Stories
Duggan ‘pulled gun from trousers’
PC’s ‘statement delay’ on Duggan
Loaded gun was ‘given to Duggan’
Police seals on the minicab Mark Duggan was travelling in before he was shot by officers were broken a day later, Snaresbrook Crown Court has been told.
Jurors heard a vehicle recovery driver saw a police officer seal the doors but soon after driving it away he was told to return the car to the scene.
Another recovery driver said when he later collected the car from north London the seals had been broken.
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-19704020#
Ben Franklin at 24 Sep, 6:58 pmEdit
About 93 million miles (to the Sun), OR in about two weeks time, if the lunacy against Iran keeps up and our crazy allies resort to H-bombs.
Seriously, I’m not making any guesses about tokamaks and fusion. This technology has proved extremely difficult to develop. But MSRs went critical and worked well in the late ’60s. It’s just a problem of insufficient funding and development. And it looks capable of burning nuclear “waste”, which needs doing anyway.
Must the poor go hungry just so the rich can drive?
It is much more sinister and pernicious than simply starving the poor, this is an attempt at culling human beings. The tedious arguments of the misanthropists, whose hatred of humanity is to the extent that these will blame humanity for all the ills of the world. This line of thought is nothing new, and given the expulsion of “Adam and Eve” from heavens, and the guilt of the original sin (fornication) that is born by the humanity as a whole.
This guilt now has evolved into “man made global warming”, “man made global freezing”, “man made disasters”, and “man made over population”, in fact there is not much that is not man made and best to do away with man before it is too late!!!!!
The fact is those vested interests ie the plutocrats, have long understood to keep their victims separated is the the only way of preying on these victims.
Reading the phrase “deniers” says it all, when in the realm of cock and bull then belief and dogma are the currency. Further this is a display of the fact that tainted science of those bent practitioners somehow as yet is not accepted, akin to the church that did not wish to accept the existence of the vile kiddy fiddling clergy. Hence, the grant hunting money grabbing science practitioners, evidently do not exist. Apparently all those science practitioners are in fact altruistic souls in search of the truth!!!!
Alas the tedium of the back and fro on the subject of “climate change” always overlooks the seasonal changes, and discounts the dynamic nature of the climate. The arguments thereof are reminiscent of a parochial newspapers’ readers letter in response to BBC spending one and one-half million pounds on their weather software.
One of its readers’ letters maintained;
“I would not mind if the weather was 3D, then why does the BBC need 3D presentation, in their overpriced software?”
Zoologist at 24 Sep, 7:16 pm
Oh, you prefer short-term solutions.
They go on the left, with “muscle and firewood”.
Phew, its OK, they found some more oil this week ..
http://www.ogj.com/oil-exploration-and-development/discoveries.html
Carbon Dioxide BAD. Nuclear waste GOOD.
Carbon Dioxide BAD. Nuclear waste GOOD.
Carbon Dioxide BAD. Nuclear waste GOOD.
Carbon Dioxide BAD. Nuclear waste GOOD.
Mary 24 Sep, 2012 – 7:17 pm
At the time the area was alive with rumours of multiple witnesses saying he was shot while on the ground. We shall see if these appear in the trial. But the anger at unchecked police brutality is very real and justified. The first night of the riots was not at all about looting footlocker.
Clark
if the lunacy against Iran keeps up and our crazy allies resort to H-bombs
Crazy is the operative word. The notions of nuking the none nuclear nation of Iran can only be the product of sick and imbalanced minds.
However, the fact that Iranians are rounding on the Western Assets, by trying these in the courts of justice and passing the relevant sentences, is telling of the seriousness that these threats are being taken in Iran. Thus far the ex president Hashemi’s (the favoured oligarch of the West) daughter is imprisoned for her shenanigans, and his son is also facing trial (this guy lives most of the time in London).
Those students of Iran would know this change of tack is purely a signal that Iranians are not about to be cowed, and roll over playing dead, the hard-liners and nationalists are no longer content to sit back and observe their homeland getting threatened on a daily basis without setting about to prepare for any probable conflagration.
Zoologist: “No response from anyone about the MoD spraying Zinc cadmium sulfide all over Norfolk?”
It was said to be used as a tracer to determine possible dispersal extents of chemical weapons. Detectable in very small quantities because of its flourescence, it seems to have no easily discernable ill effects taken in much greater quantities orally.
Militaries are fast and loose with precautionary principle as they are with any principles. They are very problematic, but i expect this this old episode of pollution pales in significance compared to any number of other recent and present exposures to novel and incompletely understood substances.
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=5739
Clark: “What happened to water-mills and wind-mills?”
They go on the left, with “muscle and firewood”.
You see, we disagree.
I am broadly in favour of both water and wind.
I am strongly against nuclear.
21st scent tree at 24 Sep, 5:46 pm:
“Sharp brackets” (“Less Than” and “Greater Than” symbols) are used to denote HTML tags. Except for the ones employed in the examples below the comment window, and those used for links, the WordPress software removes them. This is to prevent JavaScript from being embedded with comments, where it could be used to exploit readers’ browsers.
Zoologist, I don’t particularly agree with the link I’m posting below. I oppose water-cooled, solid-fuelled nuclear reactors; they’re dirty and dangerous. But I think you should read it for balance. It’s quite long; scan-read and persevere. But fossil fuels kill LOTS of people. Nuclear power has a long way to go to catch up with all this death and degradation:
http://energyfromthorium.com/timeline/
Zooloist:”Carbon Dioxide BAD. Nuclear waste GOOD.”
I think you will find that is not a majority postition amongst those accepting the IPCC warnings. I am for reducing nuclear industry to satisfy only those who are really intrested in it as a technology. As a mass power production option it is too difficult and hazardous for my liking. I think there are plenty of other options, but dont like to argue them now.
Clark: Show me a Thorium reactor and I may agree with you. I agree nuclear would not be so horrendous with a half-life of less than 30000 years or so.
Correct me if I’m wrong but they don’t yet exist do they?
I think your Thorium Reactor suggestion lends weight to my “politics” argument. Thorium reactors would not produce fissile materials suitable for weapons as a by-product would they?
If not I don’t think they will gain political support from the powers that be (MIC).
How about this alternative ..
The world’s first osmotic power plant with capacity of 4 kW was opened by Statkraft on 24 November 2009 in Tofte, Norway.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmotic_power
Phil : “
Zoologist, not heard of humility? As it happens stuxnet is something I know about. I know how widely used those Siemens controllers are too. I also somewhat understand how stuxnet targets.
I find it interesting that you happily quote the NYT here.
I am not sure why you ask me if I have heard of stuxnet though. ”
Glad the hear you are so well briefed on Stuxnet. It was just Wikipedia I quoted from (and linked) and I am far from happy.
Let me spell it out ..
Releasing a computer virus onto the web is as bat-shit crazy as releasing one into the wild.
History is littered with examples of such stupidity in nature. Man releasing anything into the wild usually proves disasterous.
I don’t imagine the USA are targetting Germany. Sadly, they didn’t have the control to “target” anyone particularly.
Collateral damage I suppose.
Wikipedia:
A study of the spread of Stuxnet by Symantec showed that the main affected countries in the early days of the infection were Iran, Indonesia and India:
Country / Infected computers
Iran 58.85%
Indonesia 18.22%
India 8.31%
Azerbaijan 2.57%
United States 1.56%
Pakistan 1.28%
Others 9.2%
“Others” include Japan.
Just ONE of the many reasons I don’t support massive investment in current nuclear technologies.
Oh, and on “Humility? Allow me quote you directly :
“stop being such a cunt and you might get better fucked.”
Zoologist 24 Sep, 2012 – 7:09 pm
“Mrs Thatch, that well known left-winger.”
In that comment you reveal your complete lack of understanding of people and politics.
Thatcher was wrong about many things. Most things. I opposed her in ways beyond tapping a keyboard. She was wrong but passionately believed she was doing good. Your suggestion that she was intentionally playing a part in your alleged conspiracy of genocide only highlights that you have no idea how to identify what the real threats are.
There appear to be some false dichotomies which rather slander those of us concerned with GCC. Apparently, we’re misanthropes, and Fedup even goes on to say those we’ve got a secret programme of starving/ culling human beings! (Btw, Fedup – “man made over population”, eh… is there any other kind?) How’s this decades-long programme doing – is the population significantly crashing yet? No – it’s still expanding at an increasing rate?? How come?
Zoologist: I too am very concerned about plants and animals. That’s why I don’t eat meat or drink animal milk, for instance. Why should such concerns be in opposition to concern about GCC? I have seen this before. Arguing in favour of better treatment of animals, and regard to the environment, I’ve been accused of everything from hating humans, fascism, and being a puritanical joy-killer to a child abuser. So why should anyone concerned with GCC not care about plants/animals/people? I’d have thought concern about all these are strongly linked.
*
Wrt overpopulation – how can anyone with any sense consider the massive, unrelenting expansion of the human species as being anything but a direct route to disaster? We have a finite set of resources. As developing countries increase their per capita consumption, the problem is further compounded. And please don’t give me that “Oh – oh, so you think everyone should die, do you?” BS. Of course it would be lovely if everyone could have an easy lifestyle of riches and heavy consumption, but it ain’t possible. And no, I wouldn’t like to live in a fly-infested shanty town. That has zero to do with the problem.
Zoologist, thorium has been used in nuclear reactors. The Shippingport reactor in the US was run partly on thorium for a time, and India are experimenting with it too. But thorium hasn’t been used in a molten salt reactor. If you’ll dare to venture into Wikipedia, you can find all this. I find the articles about molten-salt reactors in the US in the ’60s / ’70s very interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-Salt_Reactor_Experiment
It isn’t the choice of nuclear fuel that matters so much as the chemistry. Read my links on this thread if you’re interested. MSR development was abandoned in the ’70s. I wonder what would it be like now if such research had been funded to the same extent as solid fuelled reactors.
Comments on an earlier thread suggest that MSRs could be much better at producing weapons-grade fuel than solid fuelled reactors, but the necessary nuclear science is beyond my knowledge. The MSR was so versatile that it was nicknamed “The Chemist’s Reactor”, so I suspect it’s possible.
My main interest is in “burning up” nuclear “waste”. There is several tens of times as much energy in the “waste” as was gained by creating that waste in the first place. I regard it as our moral duty to develop reactors to clean up the mess already made. You can’t do that with wind generators.
Zoologist:
Im afraid 4kW is about half of one single European persons average constant energy useage.
Its a very early experimental ‘power plant’ testing a 64 by 64 meter membrane rated at 1 watt per square meter.
Glenn : “I’ve been accused of everything from hating humans, fascism, and being a puritanical joy-killer to a child abuser. So why should anyone concerned with GCC not care about plants/animals/people? I’d have thought concern about all these are strongly linked.”
You will understand why if you read the Club of Rome, Agenda 21. The same people figured highly in the “science” of Eugenics in the 30s.
Hitler et al did nothing for their reputation so they rebranded.
People react that way to you because they conflate your views with white supremacist racism.
Hint: The people they want to kill off (useless eaters) are by and large brown or yellow in colour. We never really banned slavery you know, we just banned the word.
You really should read the literature.
I am slightly yellow myself, before you squeal..
Zoologist at 24 Sep, 8:25 pm: Sorry, you’ve got this all wrong. We, or rather you, are plagued by “computer viruses” for two reasons:
1) Micro$oft Windoze is crap.
2) people choose convenience over security.
I’m sat here happily running my GNU/Linux system with no “anti-virus” software whatsoever, as are millions of other people, {and yet}/{because} there are no viruses for GNU/Linux systems. I don’t use AV because the system I’ve chosen doesn’t need it.
As a zoologist, you may know a bit about epidemiology. Each host of an infection has to infect more than one other potential host before the original host ceases to be infectious, or the potential epidemic dies out. This is why an unvaccinated person in a mostly vaccinated society is protected.
Windoze is just too vulnerable, it passes infections on too fast.
Micro$oft have also encouraged a “use our product without having to learn things” approach; ie. convenience. You can imagine how much more carnage we’d have on the roads if driving vehicles was treated this way.
If you want to learn any of this stuff, feel free to e-mail me, from the link on my name.
Thanks Clark. I too am a programmer by trade, for my sins. I agree about MSW but commerce still uses it so I have to. It’s grim. I don’t know about reactor control systems though.
Not sure how that analogy helps with a digital virus. The initial vector for stuxnet was via USB stick I understand. They don’t die and the virus doesn’t kill the host. It may lurk for the lifetime of the drive.
Surely you must agree that releasing any malicious virus anywhere is a bad thing?
There are malicious / reckless people out there. A nuclear accident, accidental or otherwise is a problem for millennia.
We will allow them and their children to be bombed, shot at, maimed and killed, imprisoned and tortured, their homes destroyed, their land taken and trees destroyed by the Occupier but we will go and play a game of f***ing cricket with them. Bastards indeed.
Pickles seems to be enjoying his tucker in that photo with the representative of the Occupiers. Pickles is one of the more repellent members of this vile ConDem coalition.
‘A combined Lords and Commons cricket team will fly to Israel the day after David Cameron’s speech to the Conservative Party conference. The delegation aims to use Britain’s greatest sporting export to combine Middle East fact-finding with cultural diplomacy.
While there, the UK parliamentarians will play a Palestinian team in the village of Houra and also take in some net practice with young Bedouin players as part of the Cricket 4 Peace initiative’
Friends groups head to Israel
Sporting MPs seek path to peace via bat and ball in Israel this year
By Martin Bright, September 20, 2012
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/82764/friends-groups-head-israel
Sporting MPs seek path to peace via bat and ball in Israel this year
No, the “viruses” don’t die out, and neither do biological viruses. The “immune system” catches up, ie. the vulnerability is patched, or the AV software gets a database update.
What environment do you program in?
As for the Germans – who knows why they are pulling out of nuclear. To suggest that the threat of “cyber attack” from whatever source isn’t part of their strategic energy security planning is ludicrous.
Don’t forget we are in the middle of a “war on terror”.
@Clark: Just the MS standard studio for Client Server stuff. Lots of SQL and more and more I am writing things webby (classic asp, JavaScript, Ajax, XML, json etc) as a breakaway from Windows when I can swing it.