The suspension and cancellation of a number of key armoured vehicle projects since the 1998 defence review has resulted in the Armed Forces facing a significant shortage in the principal armoured vehicles they require, until at least 2024-2025.
Today's National Audit Office report found that the Department's standard acquisition process has been undermined by a combination of over-ambitious requirements and unstable financial planning. Despite the commitment of considerable resources, since 1998, the MOD has received only a fraction of the armoured vehicles it has set out to buy through its standard acquisition process.
Burglar with a cleanliness obsession is spared jail because he'd find it too dirty.
The 20-year-old was allowed to walk free from court after he told a judge he would find jail ‘too traumatic’ because of his obsessive compulsive disorder.
Cassidy smashed his way into an elderly couple’s home while they were sleeping and stole a handbag containing £105.
The thief, who has 14 previous convictions for 29 crimes, committed the burglary while on a suspended sentence for robbery and handling stolen goods.
However, he avoided jail by convincing Cambridge Crown Court he would not be able to cope with life behind bars because he is obsessed with cleanliness.
Instead Judge Gareth Hawkesworth handed Cassidy, of Cambridge, a 12-month sentence in a young offenders’ institution, suspended for two years.
US government lawyers are investigating reports that the former owner of a controversial private security firm has been hired to form a mercenary army for the rulers of the United Arab Emirates.
Erik Prince, the former owner of Blackwater Worldwide, which was accused of multiple killings of civilians in Iraq, has signed a deal to train Colombian and other recruits in a private "foreign legion" to take part in special operations at home and even abroad.
Among its potential tasks are to defend the UAE from uprisings and terror attacks and if necessary to take part in any conflict with Iran, according to the New York Times.
...
According to the report, the 580-strong battalion has been established in Zayed Military City, just off the main road linking Abu Dhabi to Dubai, alongside Emirati troops, and provided by Mr Prince with trainers, mostly veterans of the American, British and German armies and special forces.
Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, is to be investigated by police over allegations that he allowed his wife Vicky Pryce to take speeding points on his behalf.
Essex police have assigned an officer to investigate the claims that would almost certainly result in the end of Mr Huhne's ministerial career and a jail sentence if proven.
The suggestion that the former Liberal Democrat leadership contender persuaded someone else to accept his speeding points, so he could avoid a driving ban, was first raised publicly by his estranged wife Vicky Pryce last week.
The Daily Telegraph has learnt that the person alleged to have taken the points is Miss Pryce herself.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the International Monetary Fund chief who allegedly sexually attacked a Manhattan hotel maid, has delayed appearing in court after agreeing to a medical examination.
Mr Strauss-Kahn, the IMF's 62-year-old managing director, was due to face a judge at New York City criminal court accused of a criminal sexual act, attempted rape and unlawful imprisonment.
But late last night, after police, court officials and reporters had waited more than eight hours for him to appear, Mr Strauss-Kahn's legal team announced that he would be undergoing further tests before being formally charged.
Mr Strauss-Kahn was arrested and provisionally charged by police in the early hours of Sunday morning, after being seized on an Air France jet waiting to take off on the tarmac of New York's John F. Kennedy Airport.
The prominent French socialist, who was expected to challenge Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency next year, allegedly assaulted a 32-year-old maid who had arrived to clean his £1,855-a-night suite at the luxury Sofitel near Times Square, at 1pm on Saturday.
Thanks to James Goldsmith, we were spared the financial death throes that Eurozone members such as Ireland are now experiencing. We can only hope that the Euro is shredded by the markets, causing deadly fissures to appear in the EU façade and 'community'.
If Ireland takes IMF cash, it will largely be under the thumb of Britain - the country whose embrace Ireland could not wait to excape as it rushed to the bosom of the EU.
If Ireland takes Merkel's (expropriation) of EU cash, then it can expect to lose its sovereignty to the EU and would be forced to raise its corporation tax, thereby reducing its competitiveness.
If Ireland does a deal with Britain, it will be even more firmly yoked to Britain than it ever was - this time, via the serfdom which accompanies unpayable debt.
What a a fine mess they've made. If only they'd listened to us and not signed that blasted treaty.
In 2008, before the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, Eric Deakins, MP for Walthamstow West 1970-74, MP for Walthamstow 1974-87, and junior minister for Trade (1974-76) and the DHSS (1976-79) in Labour governments under Wilson and Callaghan respectively, witnessed and have spoken out against the dishonesty exhibited by a succession of leaders in committing Britain to the European Project.
Described are the aims of the Treaty of Rome, and how in subsequent years the process of integration into a European political entity has gradually been forced through, against the wishes and without the knowledge of the majority of British people.
Little by little, we are being roped in by the EU, aided and abetted by their new best friends, Cameron and Hague, who know a thing or two about twisting language to sound like the truth, so to disguise a cleverly crafted lie.
If we do not make a stand, Britain will be in the Euro one day - or in an incarnation of it, the end game being complete political union under an unelected body of totalitarian technocrats, who will transform Britain into an ex-nation of serfs. Except for the politicos, of course, who will be rewarded handsomely.
Ex-Labour MPs Nigel Spearing and Eric Deakins tell of how the British people were duped. They were both Members of UK Parliament at the time of Britain's entry into the 'Common Market' and witnessed how it was pulled off.(7-video autoplay).
British soldiers repeatedly came under attack from US forces in a series of 'friendly fire' incidents, according to Pentagon logs on the Iraq War leaked to the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.
Being shot at had become relatively routine so that by February 2005, according to a report, a three vehicle British convoy strafed by an American gunner did not even bother to stop.
I thought this deserved a wider audience. Mandelson's department of Business, Innovation & Skills wrote off £30m of public money with another £70m due to be lost "in this and future years" because of contracts.
Here's the full article if, like me, you missed it.
If you’ve read my previous posts,( HERE and HERE), you’ll be aware I’m not to keen on these machines due to their high operation and maintenance costs. I was made aware that the life of a wind turbine was only 6 to 8 years rather than the frequently quoted 20 year lifespan.
However I came on these little gems which I link to at the bottom of this post if you really would like to read it all.
This is underlined by an analysis of maintenance records, which shows that while service teams for offshore wind farms are supposed to make two scheduled maintenance visits every year, unscheduled visits to many installations are made 20 times a year.
And,
The heart of the problem is that the technology being used offshore is generally onshore technology that has not been modified sufficiently to meet the different demands of an offshore environment.
The classic example of this is the disaster at the Horns Rev wind farm in 2005, following which Vestas is reported to have removed and repaired 80 of its V90 models, designed for offshore use, owing to the effect of salty water and air on the generators and gearboxes, which became corrupt after only two (My emphasis) years. A similar procedure has been reported this year, with Vestas' 30 turbines requiring a change of rotor bearings, at an estimated cost of €30m.
Have they produced any meaningful power in this time?
And don’t get me started on gearbox failure.
As an ex marine engineer I could have told them the previous. (Providing they’d paid me a large six figure salary of course).
Only ten days prior to the blowout, Halliburton conveniently snapped up a giant marine firefighting corporation for $250.00 million. Persistent suggestions that Goldman Sachs shorted Transocean immediately ahead of the blow-out refuse to be erased from the record, although we removed our initial reference to this pending further research. Most tellingly of all, as always occurs after these atrocities, the stories keep a-changing. There was no Deadman switch. Now, all of a sudden, it is reported that there WAS a Deadman blowout preventer. And to rub in BP’s humiliation, corporation executives are now reported to have been on board at a party to celebrate BP’s safety record, and the first explosion occurred in the room next to where the party was being held. This would have been known days ago, one would have thought.
Given former US criminal Vice President Richard B. Cheney’s integration with Halliburton, what are the odds that this was indeed a malicious sabotage operation against this prime British,(more here)
A couple of nights ago the ABC's Foreign Correspondent program covered the legal use of cannabis for medical purposes in California and how, given the huge financial hole the state is in, this could be expanded to provide a useful cash crop if the state grasped the nettle (or weed, as it were) and simply repealed the prohibition on adults smoking it. A few years ago I saw an episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit! that also dealt with drug prohibition, which if I recall claimed that there were only a handful of people in the whole US who were allowed to smoke cannabis for medical reasons. Judging by Tuesday night's Foreign Correspondent things have moved on a bit since then. The program, appropriately titled 'High Finance', is worth a look and is on the ABC's iViewer here, though I have no idea if that thing will work for anyone outside Australia or if, like Auntie Beeb's iPlayer, will show you the electronic door. If it doesn't work or you don't want to watch a half hour TV program the next best thing is the transcript, which is available here.
For those of you that have followed this blog and it's predecessor ukwebspider I must apologise for the distinct drop off in posts in recent weeks. Things have happened recently that have challenged my world view.
When I first started ukws last year and even the uknewsnetwork, 3 months ago, we lived in the halcion days of a booming stock market, promises of 'green shoots' and relatively few immediate dangers.
All that has changed.
Anyone following the gulf oil disaster will know it is going to change the world forever.
Anyone following the flotilla crisis will know that more ships are coming and confrontation, even war, is on the horizon.
Anyone following the 'Iran problem' must know that a military strike is now highly likely and with it the onset of ww3.
And anyone following the continuing economic collapse must realise what will soon unfold.
The World is changing my friends and not for the better.
I'm no longer interested in provincial politics and irrelevent stories of 'over-bearing' councils and H&S departments gone crazy. These things are irrelevent when there are so many greater problems and disasters unfolding. The UK blogosphere has lost my interest- too much focus on irrelevent stories, little real analysis, few warnings of what is now happening in the world.
I'm abandoning the blog and starting another called 'the crisis report' where I will focus on those things that really matter; Economic Collapse, Peak Oil, the New World Order, Middle East War, The Gulf Oil Disaster etc with a special emphasis on how to survive what is now unfolding.
I will need a few days to set it up and for those of you that want to keep in touch I'll post the link here. I also want to set up a forum where those of you that realise what is happening and are trying to prepare can discuss events and strategy.
The new blog will be better than this one as I will be freed from the constraints of reporting everything that might affect the UK and instead I can post those things that really matter on a global scale.
The world's changing- things are getting much worse- and rapidly.
The new blog won't be pretty and it won't be for the faint hearted but if you want to know whats really going on in the world- stop by sometime.
The Liberal-Conservative coalition government have made good on their promise to release the full list of special advisers - including details of what they earn.
The number of special adviser posts has also been cut from 78 – the number under Gordon Brown – to 68, which includes seven vacancies. It is thought this could reduce the pay bill by as much as £2m. Last year's bill was £6.8m.
Phil Gormley, Chief Constable of Norfolk Police, told his 1,700 officers to tackle the county’s most serious problems – even if some crime figures grow as a result.
Norfolk has the lowest crime rate in England, according to Home Office figures released in April, despite bucking the national trend by recording increases in violent crime and robbery.
At least 16 people were killed when floodwater tore through a campsite in Arkansas, US officials have said.
The flood also washed away records of who was there, making the daunting search for dozens missing in heavily wooded forest even more difficult as anguished families waited for word of their loved ones.
Rescue crews planned to resume their search this morning in the Ouachita National Forest, where heavy rain caused the normally quiet Caddo and Little Missouri rivers to burst their banks. The search was expected to take several more days - and perhaps even weeks.
It will likely surprise you but like a trolley car we are now locked into economic tracks that determine our financial destination. Unfortunately, it isn’t a place anyone would choose knowingly other than possibly the Bilderberg elite.
Financially and economically we are lurching along, rocking from side to side with the occasional unexpected jarring flash crash jolt. But unlike a trolley line, for some reason no one seems to know what the destination is. Many are asking but few are willing to tell. more
David Cameron has been forced to abandon a visit to British troops in a frontline base amid fears that the Taliban were trying to bring down his helicopter.
The Prime Minister had been due to fly in to the patrol base at Shahzad in Helmand province to meet troops from the 1st Battalion Duke of Lancaster's Regiment.
But at the last minute the RAF Chinook helicopter carrying Mr Cameron and his entourage was diverted to the main operating base in the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah.
A Government source said that mobile telephone "chatter" had been intercepted in the area referring to a possible attempt to bring down a helicopter.
Thousands of people could be in line for compensation after they were illegally stopped and searched by police using controversial counter-terrorism legislation.
An urgent review is under way after officials discovered 14 police forces failed to get the correct authorisation for operations that allow them to stop members of the public without reason.
They found 40 operations dating back to 2001 where police who were granted powers to use section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 had no legal basis after they applied for an invalid timescale or were not countersigned quickly enough.
Three Britons, including two female students, have been killed in a bus crash in South Africa, officials said.
The executive mayor of Mbombela, Lassy Chiwayo, confirmed a third fatality, hours after police said two passengers had died.
The crash happened a few miles from Barberton on the Bulembu road, near Nelspruit, at lunchtime when the driver apparently lost control of the bus and it overturned.
The bus was carrying 22 students and a member of staff from the Brooksby Melton College, in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, who were on a field trip. They had arrived in the country on June 1 and were due to return home to the UK tomorrow. The casualties ranged in age from 19 to 25.
Sport is to get a £50 million a year boost by 2012 from the National Lottery as part of reforms to try to secure a strong legacy from hosting the London Games, Olympics Minister Hugh Robertson has announced.
The aim of the plan, backed by order in Parliament, will be to "deliver a mass participation sports legacy from London 2012", he said, after outlining his vision to executives of Olympic sports bodies at the British Olympic Association's central London headquarters.
Former defence secretary Geoff Hoon has described footage of hooded Iraqi prisoners being abused by a British soldier as "appalling".
One of the prisoners is believed to be hotel receptionist Baha Mousa, 26, who died in Basra, southern Iraq, in September 2003 after allegedly being beaten to death by British soldiers.
Mr Hoon claimed he had never seen the footage before, despite its previous widespread circulation in the press. Giving evidence to an inquiry into Mr Mousa's death, Mr Hoon described the behaviour of the soldier in the video as "reprehensible".
A senior commander in the the Israeli military has stated that he believes that action taken by the Turkish government in protecting an upcoming flotilla to Gaza would be considered an act of war.
Major General (Res.) Uzi Dayan stated, whilst speaking with the army radio station that, "If he [Prime Minister Erdogan] comes here with Turkish warships there can be no doubt that it would amount to a declaration of war. We need to draw a clear line and say that whoever crosses it will not be boarded but sunk." more
As the global bankers’ plan to bring down the American and world’s economy continues (so that they can acquire as much of our wealth as possible at ‘fire sale’ prices ~ an old strategy; and herald the introduction of their New World Order), the world is facing another much worse danger. A regional war in the Middle East that will involve global strategic weapons of mass destruction with deaths in the hundreds of millions to billions in North America, Europe, the Middle East and globally. more
Four American troops died today when a Black Hawk helicopter believed to be on a mission to rescue British soldiers was shot down in Afghanistan.
The Taliban claimed they carried out the attack, at about midday in Sangin in Helmand province, firing two rocket-propelled grenades. At least two helicopters are understood to have been sent to pick up soldiers who had suffered serious injuries.
A week after his guns finally fell silent, thousands stopped to remember the victims of Derrick Bird.
His murderous rampage across west Cumbria killed 12 and wounded 11. Today the towns and villages which suffered Britain's worst massacre for 14 years paid silent tribute to their dead.
Many gathered at war memorials in places previously unknown to the wider public. Frizington, Whitehaven, Seascale and Egremont came to a halt at 11.45am, their residents having never wished for such infamy or attention. “It still doesn't feel real,” one Whitehaven resident told the BBC.
Immigrants coming to Britain to marry or join their partner will soon be asked to take an English language test first.
All non-European migrants will have to demonstrate basic communication skills that enable them to deal with everyday life before receiving a visa.
The measure, due to come into force this autumn, will apply to spouses and unmarried couples who are already in Britain as well as overseas applicants. Anyone wishing to come to Britain must first demonstrate they can speak English at the same level required for skilled workers admitted under the points-based system.
Another strike ballot of British Airways cabin crew will be held although their leaders are trying "very hard" to reach a settlement with the airline as the final stage of industrial action ends, a union official said today.
Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, said the sticking point in the long-running row was now a "silly one", about the removal of travel concessions from those who have taken action.
Union members walked out for the 22nd day today in the long-running dispute which has cost the carrier more than £150 million, with further action threatened for the summer unless the deadlock is broken.
They held on, but only just. The courage of 16 Air Assault Brigade’s defence of the “platoon houses” is now the stuff of military folklore.
But the first six months of the Helmand campaign were a disaster for a British mission beset from the start by poor planning and resourcing, weak intelligence, departmental infighting, charges of tactical recklessness, a dysfunctional command structure and an unforeseen Taleban resurgence.
England remains a country of health and wealth divides, with those in the North likely to be poorer and live shorter lives more prone to serious illness.
The disparity — which the previous Government pledged to reduce — has shown little change according to the Office for National Statistics.
The North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber have lower life expectancy and higher mortality rates from cancer, respiratory and circulatory diseases compared with the England average.
Thousands of foreigners who want to marry a British person will have to pass an English test before being allowed to enter the country.
The new rule will come into force in the autumn and will mean that non-EU migrants seeking a visa to marry will need to be able to understand English at the level of a child of 5 or 6. Skilled workers, who already have to be able to speak and listen to English at that level, may have to meet a higher standard.
He has been the Sir Alex Ferguson of British retailing — the man who turned a sleeping giant into a winner, the most feared and sometimes the most hated competitor in its field.
Sir Terry Leahy is so undeniably Tesco that he is referred to as “Terry Tesco” in the grocery industry.
While his rival Justin King at Sainsbury’s rated Sir Terry’s departure “the end of an era in supermarket retailing”, Sir Philip Green, the boss of Arcadia, was more complimentary, saying: “He’s built a world-class business and he’s built a great management team.”
The Dow closed the week sharply lower on Friday at 9932 against last weeks close of 10,136. The stock market had exhibited a tightening of its trading range for most of the week following a bounce off an early week low of 10,014 into a rally peak of 10,315 Thursday, as the market marked time ahead of the Fridays Jobs Report that disappointed market participants and resulted in a 333 point drop on the day right from the opening gap down and trend lower all the way into the close. more
If US energy policy continues on its present path, legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens told Cramer on Friday, the price for a barrel of crude could jump more than five times its present level in a decade. more
The effects of peak oil, including high energy prices, will not be gentle, said Mr. Angelantoni, a Web designer whose company, Post Peak Living, offers the telephone class and a handful of online courses for life after a collapse. more
Asian shares and the euro plummeted Monday as traders took their lead from a slumping Wall Street and worries that Hungary's public finances face a Greece-style meltdown. more
Basically what the world central banks are doing is increasing their money by devaluing it (printing more than it’s worth) and giving it to banks so that they can lend it. Then, when things pick up, simply take the money back and destroy it. more
Other presidents get the picture on paper currency. Obama should have his picture on food stamps. There are now 40 million Americans who choose to have the government feed them rather than feed themselves. This is almost 1 in 7 people who depend on government food. Now do you see how totally and completely hopeless things are? By Christmas 50,000,000 Americans will be eating at the government trough. more
BP’s latest oil spill response update for June 4th says the total amount of the dispersant used in the Gulf of Mexico more than 1,021,000 gallons.
But what most people don’t know is that the active ingredient of the toxic chemical dispersant, which is up to 60% by volume, being sprayed by BP to fight the Gulf oil spill is a is a neurotoxin pesticide that is acutely toxic to both human and aquatic life, causes cancer, causes damage to internal organs such as the liver and kidneys simply by absorbing it through the skin and may cause reproductive side effects. more
A powerful lobbying organisation representing agribusiness interests helped draft a key government report that has been attacked by environmentalists for heavily favouring the arguments of the genetically modified food industry. more
As the economic crisis approaches the two-year point, it is apparent that “this time is different.” Few analysts believe that we are going to recover from this Great Recession in a fashion that resembles prior recoveries. Most argue about how long it might run (Japan’s recovery is now two decades old), and whether inflation or deflation results. Two years into the problem, these issues are still unclear. more
Crazed killer Derrick Bird's murky finances appeared to hold the key to why he launched a massacre that left 12 people dead.
He was apparently resentful about his twin brother's inheritance and feared being jailed for tax evasion when he set out on his 45-mile trail of destruction across Cumbria.
Police revealed taxi driver Bird, 52, first shot dead his twin brother David and the family's solicitor, Kevin Commons, 60, in a distinct phase before murdering 10 others in a frenzied hour of killing.
Cumbria Police Chief Constable Craig Mackey insisted officers could not have stopped the rampage. "At no stage did any police officer have the chance to end this any sooner," he said.
My column this week tries to address the question of whether Britain really deserves to be considered a “safe haven” destination for investors’ money. The condensed answer is: not entirely. At the moment markets seem to be working on the assumption that any country with its own currency should be favoured – presumably because those countries can inflate their debt away rather than having to default on it directly. Although no-one particularly approves of inflation, markets like the fact that at least this leaves a country rather more in control of its own destiny. more
While most analysts and commentators in the Western world are working to affirm that the recovery progresses, Europe seems to live in a relapse of the global economic crisis. There are few stories that account for the implementation of austerity plans to reduce fiscal deficits and public debts in Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal and even the UK. more
Most Americans know that the U.S. economy is in bad shape, but what most Americans don't know is how truly desperate the financial situation of the United States really is. The truth is that what we are experiencing is not simply a "downturn" or a "recession". What we are witnessing is the beginning of the end for the greatest economic machine that the world has ever seen. Our greed and our debt are literally eating our economy alive. Total government, corporate and personal debt has now reached 360 percent of GDP, which is far higher than it ever reached during the Great Depression era. We have nearly totally dismantled our once colossal manufacturing base, we have shipped millions upon millions of middle class jobs overseas, we have lived far beyond our means for decades and we have created the biggest debt bubble in the history of the world. A great day of financial reckoning is fast approaching, and the vast majority of Americans are totally oblivious. more
We've got more CCTV cameras trained on us - four million and rising - than any other country on earth. And they never sleep.
Britain's the third most surveillance-heavy society behind Russia and China. And thanks to internet monitoring, customer loyalty schemes in shops, online medical records and vehicle databases, there is little we do that someone doesn't know about. more
The Labor Department reports this morning that the private sector added a measly 41,000 net new jobs in May. (The vast bulk of new jobs in May were temporary government Census workers.) But at least 100,000 new jobs are needed every month just to keep up with population growth. more
Neeraj Chaudhary writes: With the mainstream media focusing on the country's leveling unemployment rate, improving retail sales, and nascent housing recovery, one might think that the US government has successfully navigated the economy through recession and growth has returned. But I will argue that a look under the proverbial hood reveals a very different picture. I believe the data shows that the US economy is badly damaged, and a modern-day depression has begun. In fact, just as World War I was originally called The Great War (and was retroactively renamed after World War II), Peter Schiff has said that one day the world will refer to the 1929-41 era as Great Depression I, and the current period as Great Depression II. more
Britain will enjoy the last day of a mini-heat wave today before showers move in for the weekend. Temperatures yesterday topped those in Rome and parts of the Spanish Mediterranean — and London is expected to experience highs today of up to 27C. Yesterday’s highest temperature was 23.8C in Crosby, Merseyside, with northern areas having much of the best of the weather.
However, it was a fine day across most of the country, with almost 100,000 people flocking to Bournemouth, where the beach was packed with children on their half-term break.
The Rabbinical Council of Judea and Samaria issued a statement Thursday in which it said that the results of the incident in which Israel intercepted a flotilla trying to break the naval blockade of Gaza seem like the Biblical description of "the beginning of the Gog and Magog process where the world is against us, but which ends with the third and final redemption." more
"The present situation of the Korean peninsula is so grave that a war may break out any moment," Ri Jang Gon, North Korea's deputy ambassador in Geneva, told the United Nations-sponsored Conference on Disarmament. more
Hey, Tea Party. A foreign navy boarded an unarmed ship flying the flag of a NATO member in international waters and shot dead an American citizen with four bullets to the head and one in the chest on Memorial Day. It did this while the head of the belligerent state was on his way to a state visit to Washington, DC, to be awarded a further $200 million in aid on top of the $3 billion of American taxpayer money the US gives away to him every year.
If you are not upset by this, your tea is weak, man. Weak. Source
With each passing day, the environmental horror being caused by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill becomes more apparent. Some of the most unique wildlife habitats in the world are being obliterated, entire species are being threatened with extinction and scientists are telling us that the Gulf of Mexico will never be the same again during any of our lifetimes. This is not just another Exxon Valdez or Hurricane Katrina. This is the end of an entire way of life for millions of people and for millions of birds, animals and fish. It is impossible to even put a price tag on what we are all losing as a result of this spill. BP will never make enough money to repay the damage that has been done already. And yet the oil just keeps gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. It is a nightmare that we can't wake up from and from which there is no escape. more
Top historians, social and financial analysts, along with police bodies are all predicting that Europe and America are set to experience a summer of rage, with scenes mirroring the chaos we have seen unfold in Greece in reaction to draconian austerity measures now being imposed by governments in the west. more
A growing reliance on imported food and other necessities is making First World nations such as the United Kingdom increasingly vulnerable to social collapse, warns Andrew Simms, policy director of the "think-and-do tank" of the New Economic Foundation, writing in The Guardian. more
Labour's supposedly tough points-based immigration system actually led to huge increases in foreign workers and students cleared to live in Britain, it emerged last night.
Experts said the new Government had a 'mountain to climb' to bring migration under control. more
As recently as 2007, the EIA saw a rosy future of oil supplies increasing with demand. It predicted oil consumption would rise by 15 mbpd to 2020, an ample amount to cover most eventualities. By 2030, the oil supply would reach nearly 118 mbpd, or 23 mbpd more than in 2006. But over time, this optimism has faded, with each succeeding year forecast lower than the year before. For 2030, the oil supply forecast has declined by 14 mbpd in only the last three years. This drop is as much as the combined output of Saudi Arabia and China. more
A small band of hedge funds is now building up a series of sizeable bets on Britain defaulting. In the past few weeks, they have placed more than $3 billion worth of bets on that precise outcome in the credit default swap market. History – three centuries without default – suggests that they will be proved wrong. But these are unprecedented times. Had Britain joined the euro, it would certainly have shared Greece's fate, and would have been too big to be bailed out. more
Researchers from Chandigarh's Punjab University claim they have found the cause which could be the first step in reversing the decline: They have established that radiation from mobile telephones is a key factor in the phenomenon and say that it probably interfering with the bee's navigation senses.
They set up a controlled experiment in Punjab earlier this year comparing the behaviour and productivity of bees in two hives – one fitted with two mobile telephones which were powered on for two fifteen minute sessions per day for three months. The other had dummy models installed.
After three months the researchers recorded a dramatic decline in the size of the hive fitted with the mobile phon, a significant reduction in the number of eggs laid by the queen bee. The bees also stopped producing honey. more
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The myriad of facts, conjecture, perspectives, viewpoints, opinions, analyses, and information in the articles, stories and commentaries posted on this site range from cutting edge hard news and comment to extreme and unusual perspectives. We choose not to sweep uncomfortable material under the rug - where it can grow and fester. We choose not to censor skewed logic and uncomfortable rhetoric. These things reflect the world as it now is - for better and worse. We present multiple facts, perspectives, viewpoints, opinions, analyses, and information.
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Although we are powerless to stop the destruction of our society, we can at
least chronicle for the information of future generations how it happened,
a bi...
Amusing Bunni: Urgent Update
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*I can't believe I almost missed this.......*
*AMUSING BUNNI - CAROL MACKIE*
*Re-posted from Opie's blog.......*
*(5/5/13) I will be on an airplane toda...
A plea
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A plea to both of my readers (hi, Mum). I have been quiet for a while,
which is partly due to connection problems but mostly because early in the
New Year ...
To the Fatuous Twat in the seat of POWER!
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*HEY FATUOUS ONE! look below your game has been unveiled and you can no
longer hide behind your pretense that nothing is wrong in the world you are
intent...
Researchers from Chandigarh's Punjab University claim they have found the cause which could be the first step in reversing the decline: They have established that radiation from mobile telephones is a key factor in the phenomenon and say that it probably interfering with the bee's navigation senses.
