I’m a Pundit

I was reading a story about a girl who lost her foot in an amusement park accident today here. I have to admit I have pretty mixed feelings on the story.

Firstly, the injury was caused due to poor maintenance, this was purely and simply the amusement parks fault for not maintaining properly. This Should be Fixed.

But what worries me is that the repercussions of this will go much further. The excitement of theme parks is in the, if only perceive, danger. With this perceived danger there is of course the increased risk of Real Danger. Choosing whether or not to risk this is of course a personal decision.

Personally I love theme park rides, I would be distraught if they were forced to become less exciting in the interests of safety, but at the same time I would be absolutely devastated if my feet were cut of because someone didn’t grease some cables regularly enough.

In the meantime, the sun is shining, I’m off to ride a roller-coaster!

written by Oli \\ tags: Danger, Injury, Theme Parks

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson today announced that he could see the end of the US Credit Crunch being in the very near future.  This has raised a lot of skepticism from economists and pundists around the world who ask the question, should someone with such an obtuse view of the US economy really be in charge of it?

Currently the US economy, along with the UK and several other EU countries is under a period of normalization to bring living costs back into line with wages.

Henery Paulson seems blissfully unaware of this fact as he tried to stall the depression recently with a government rebate to his country.  If he thinks a hundred or so dollars is going to stop the increasng number of bankruptcies he really is in trouble.

He mentions the recovery of several lending agencies, however he does not point out that the collapse of these was due to ‘loss of faith’ that saw the Northern Rock Bank Nationalised in the UK in 2007.  The credit agencies will still suffer as people in the countries become poorer and find it increasingly difficult to maintain a lifestyle they hope for without becoming heavily in debt.

written by Oli \\ tags: America, Credit Crunch, Debt, Economy, US, USA

Just incase anyone has been reading the BBC site recently they have reported on the current legal battle being spearheaded by the Greek people of Lesbos.  They claim that a gay rights group should not be allowed to use the word lesbian because it is infact the name used for the people of Lesbos.

Now first off let me say I have a lot of respect for lesbians, especially the fit ones.  If women want to cop off with each other I think that is a great thing.

The legal action against the gay group is most certainly going to fail, after all lesbian is a recognised term for a female attracted to the same sex, most people trying to name the people of lesbos may guess at lesbosian before lesbian.

The Islanders aversion to the use of the name  Lesbian has actually effected them so much that they are now considering renaming their island after their capital Mytilini (Actually a fantastic place to visit)

But this has of course left us with a quandary, The Lesbian people of Lesbos have undoubtedly held the name for much longer than the lesbian movement, should the lesbian movement therefore have the right to take it away from the people of Lesbos?

The Lesbian Movement named itself after the goddess Sappho who expressed her love for women in poetry during the 7th century BC. However Dimitris Lambrou standing for the people of Lesbos said that the the goddess committed suicide over the love of a man and that she mothered a family,  therefore making the connection to lesbianism irrelevant.

Jesus it’s complicated!

written by Oli \\ tags: Greece, Lesbianism, Sexuality

Vivid, the group responsible for realeasing the Tommy Lee Jones/Pamela Anderson Sex tape have today released the Jimi Hendrix sex tape, which shows the iconic rock and roll legend cavorting with two gorgeous brunettes. My first instinct is to say, so what?

I mean this guy was a massive rock star, I am not in any doubt that he bedded more than his fair share of young starstruck women in his time. But Jimi Hendrix’s current publishers who have held the rights to his material after his death are claiming the tape is nothing but a fake.

Personally i am not sure how they are so certain, but to give them their credit they are calling in Jim Hendrix’s past lovers to verify details about the mans.. less public attributes.

I don’t think it makes much difference in the long run though, the man after all was an entertainer, its nice to see that even after his death he is expanding from his main genre.

written by Oli \\ tags: Controversy, Jimi Hendrix, Music, Rock, Sex Tape

Never in all my life have I seen a level of political and economical incompetency equal to that of our government system.

They actually say, and I quote,

“a moratorium would mean missing out on an opportunity to make carbon savings now and reneging on commitments on which biofuels producers had made investments.”

This is basically saying, we can make carbon savings now that make us look good, and we do not disappoint the farmers who have made investments in biofuel production, for instance those that have spent money burning the rainforest.  Don’t worry about THOSE carbon emissions,  they do not count towards our quota.

Yes despite the fact their policies are cutting down rainforest which naturally reduces carbon tehy are pressing ahead to meet their own political targets.  Well done Environmentalists,  Carbon is scientifically provennot to cause global warming but your own unsupported theories that you have pushed to public prominence have taken focus from the worlds real issues and now mean that we are suffering.  Food prices have tripled, thousands more are dieing from hunger and one of the worlds greatest resources the Rainforest,  is not even being cut down, but burned to make way for ethanol crops.

Gordon Brown, Labours most recent stumbling bumbling sock puppet has said that he will look into the situation pending a government review into wether the ethanol subsidies and standards they have set (ie all fuel must have a minimum 5, rising to 10% by 2010 ethanol mix) are causing damage to the environment and starvation in thirdworld countries.

First off, do you really need a government review to see food prices have tripled, or that one in five farms previously used for food is now producing fuel.  Do you really need a government review to see the riots happening because countries can no longer afford food?

On the other hand the National Farms Union (Whos members are now raking in fantastic profits for no extra cost)  representative Peter Kendal said that Biofuels represent the only practical Energy alternative for replacing fossil fuels in transport.  Allthough it is interesting to see that he did not mention electric, which can produce fast cars that travel for hundreds of miles on one charge.

Its re-assuring to know that he is infact jsut an idiot when later he says Biofuels are not the only solution to climate change but only part of a package.

This tpic gets me so wound up, Global warming isn’t going to destroy this world but the people in charge might, tehy do not look at the consequences of their actions, they follow whats popular and they do not fight for their cause.  New Labour? Pah it doesnt even support the labour classes.  The Green Party? They are responsible for a twofold increase in the speed the rainforest is being demolishe, the liberal party? They want to increase the classification of drugs and restrict our freedoms.

The Conservatives, well they just seem to be what every other party is becoming in order to buy votes.

written by Oli \\ tags: , Biofuels, Ethanol, Food, Food Prices, Gordon Brown, Government, Oil

The credit crunch has been a major part of the UK press recently. Due to the recent rise in interest rates the newspapers have suddenly took on a doom and gloom look on the UK Housing and Consumer Market.

Now first of this was predicted several years ago by many of us,  with many peoples earnings not being enough to buy.  But te real fact of the matter is that when people are having to borrow 8 x their earnings to buy a house a 0.5% interest increase is not going to make a huge amount of difference, it is the multiplier, not the interest rate, that is preventing first time buyers from investing at the moment.

On the BBC website today I saw the following quote,

“But 2009 is particularly difficult to predict at the moment as the credit crunch may last for two to three years.

“But this in turn may lead the Bank of England to cut interest rates sharply, which may help stimulate the market, especially as there is now pent up demand from would-be first time buyers.”

Now to me this looks like yet another pile of bullshite from the big boys. Now that the Public has become aware of the fact that people are having trouble affording houses, and there is no longer a ‘boom’ to cash in on there is little posibility of these companies promoting housing as a growing market.  Personally I believe we will be looking at a minimum of a 20-30% drop in housing prices (Enough to get to the 5x earnings barrier at least) before things start to settle, though this may take 3-4 years.

I particularly like the part where this representative states that  “there is now pent up demand from would-be first time buyers.” Of course there is a pent up demand for first time buyers.  The problem is that first time buyers are looking at around 8 to 10 x their annual income before tax to afford their first house.  It was not even fourty years ago that a single person could go out, get a basic job on just over minimum wage and still get a house at no more than 3x yearly earnings.  The social idea that you need to have a partner to buy a house is now quite ironicaly becoming reality after it was the topic of so many jokes in the mid 90’s.

As someone waiting to get in on the housing market and with very little debt I am personally dead on eager for this housing crash, recession and equalisation that has been making the rich richer and the poor poorer.

written by Oli \\ tags: Debt, England, Housing, Recession

Net Nutrality is a very hot topic which is very conveniently looked over by the world media.

What is Net Nutrality?

Basically Net Nutrality  is the protection of the internet from ISPs who are looking to blackmail every single internet website.

International Giant Virgin for instance has already stated that it will reduce bandwidth to it’s customers on websites that do not pay a premium in the near future, many other ISPs have also stated this as well.  So why not th big debate?  Most ISPs are owned by media corporate giants, go figure!

What would this mean to us users?  Well the general degridation of the internet, starting up a new internet business would be harder due to the new lack of bandwidth and many businesses would go out of business because they could not aford to be held to ranom by a multitude of network providers.

Imagine for instance you lived in the midle of nowhere, isolated but in contact by regular bus services.   Now imagine that the bus decided to only go to places that paid a premium, limiting you to comercial giants who could suddenyl afford to rip you off because you had no choice of going anywhere else and they had the excuse of paying costs to increase prices.  Sure you could walk to another place, but it would take all day!

The only option left would be to move house to somewhere with a better ISP.

Of course net nutrality doesn’t just stop at drawing awarness to bandwidth reduction, you may also find that in ISP could cut a site off, cut you off from other ISPs (Whch has already been done in Europe, causing an Uproar in World of Warcraft gamers who can no longer access the game because their ISP failed to reach a deal with another ISP on its Internet strategy)

Now imagine your ISP cut you off from all the news sites but its own, all the shops but its own, and so forth and so on.  The internet would be in danger of becoming sectioned, with most people being forced to use one single provider.

Now you could say that one ISP could stick to net nutrality and keep open bandwidth to all sites connected to it.  Now, just playing a theory here, what would happen if all the other websites turned on it and blocked it completely?

I have to admit the thought scare me.

written by Oli \\ tags: Internet, ISPs, Net Nutrality

As a small break from my usual punditry on the world around me I though I would mention how I am trying to learn to play the guitar again. When I was younger i tried and failed to learn how to play the guitar many times over, so I was pleasently suprised when my friend recommended Guitar Made Easy.

When I first opened it I was a bit skeptical, eBooks tend to be fairly trashy so I avoid them. This however contained an absolute wealth of information for the beginner, with finger training rythem training and chord guides to start you off and then a hellova lot more to follow.

I would heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn guitar, it contains everything you need to get started and enough to progress you onto more complex guitar chords and tricks.

You can get Guitar Made Easy Here!

written by Oli \\ tags: Guitar, Learn Guitar, Personal

Senator Barack Obama has come under fire again for the views of his former pastor and mentor Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  Now a quick way of summing up the controversy surrounding Wrights views is quite simply that he is against the wars recently.  Where the controversy starts is how he compares the USA to the Al’Qaeda.  Both parties he states have gone to war under the banner of a God.

Personally I think he makes a valid point, but I also think its disgraceful that these views are being so teniuosly linked to Obama, who was merely under his tutorage some time ago.

I would like to hear an Americans point of view on this though, do you think the comments made by Wright should impact on Obama’s campaign?  More importantly do you believe the the USA and Al’Qaeda can be compared so easily?

From a European stand point it is very easy to see the similarities that are pointed out in Wrights speech, though it is also easy to see that he oversimplifies  many things, the goals for instance are important.  Both have gone into war quoting God as supporting them.  Despite the fact that Both religions do in-fact have the same God the main difference does seem to focus on the fact that one group wishes to destroy the American presence in its country while the other wants an American presence in the country.

After all it is down to westernised insensitivity to religion that we put Christian military units on their land, something which they have been told to defend against.

My personal belief is that the current wars have been to prevent countries from selling Oil in Euros, Oil being the only current thing holding the Dollar up, this worked up until Iran, who successfully resisted.

I also believe  Wright should not be demonised for his position on the American War, while they are ‘Anti-American’ I do think they hint of a little common sense and grounding that is required to run a successful country.

written by Oli \\ tags: Obama, Politics, Wright

I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Greenpeace, and for that matter a lot of environmental organisations. On the one hand I agree with a lot of their goals, I think what they stand for is a worthy cause and so forth. But unfortunately they are all just SO fucking stupid.

Take for instance the latest debacle. They have today protested outside several Unilever buildings for using suppliers of Palm Oil, used in food and ethanol production. Now it was not that long ago that greenpeace along with pretty much every other environmental agency caught up in the latest fad was proclaiming palm oil to be the saviour to the environmental problems we were facing. They completely ignored sceptics who pointed out what would happen, and as it turns out the sceptics were right.

Due to subsidies enforced thanks to the environmental agencies efforts the rainforst is being cut down at record speeds, not even for lumber just burned down to make farmland. Ethanol cannot be transported by pipeline so is moved in Cargo ships and trucks and world hunger and poverty is increasing as basic food product prices have tripled in recent years.

Of course all this could have been avoided, but all the self righteous ejits in charge jumped on the carbon causes global warming freight train and managed to get their way by creating a public panic over a disproven theory of current global warming. Thanks to their actions a great deal of injustice has been rained down upon our planet, thanks fucktards.

Instead of media grabbing hype promoting idiots in charge of this so called charity I really do think they should tackle some real issues of pollution rather than continuing to support the global warming nightmare that was disproven in the 80s.

Take the mass destruction of the rainforest, the money spent on ’sponsored’ research into global warming could have paid for the protection of huge tracts of the rainforest.  Not a fan of jungles?   Perhaps the hundreds of millions invested in the global warming vote buy in could have cleaned up the great barrier reef.

Global warming is all well and good for votes and donations but personally I would be more concerned about the biological miracle providing our oxygen than a degree or two temprature change.

written by Oli \\ tags: Environment, Global Warming, Green Peace