Monthly Archives:June 2008

The Big Green Con Trick

a.k.a. Is the wind more expensive now?

Just a quick thought….

Everyone knows that global energy prices are going up and have roughly doubled in the last year. In the UK, domestic fuel companies have for some years offered a “Green” tariff on gas and electricity. The cost has been close to the “normal” tariffs, but a bit more, something some nice middle class people in the mee-jah living in Islington would be prepared to pay.

This is the current British Gas tariff blurb: http://www.britishgas.co.uk/products-and-services/energy/electricity/renewable-energy.html I’m not picking on BG in particular – it’s an example. My current supplier, Scottish Power’s terms are a bit harder to differentiate or show in one place.

You’ll see you’ve got to pay £2 extra a month and then British Gas will source the supply from renewables.

And here lies my problem. Last year, the energy firms still charged the same green premium as they do now!!! But in reality, it should be cheaper.

If I bought renewable energy last year for £1000, then allowing for inflation, it should cost £1035 this year. But it doesn’t. It’s doubled to £2000!!! It’s a pure rip-off con, profiteering on the grossest scale. As I said right at the beginning,

Is the wind more expensive now? No

Is it the law of supply and demand? No

Is there really less wind to go round? No

If the renewable price was the same as last year, like it should be, as it’s renewable energy, the population would be lobbying parliament to get every last one of the cancelled North Sea turbines stuck up and running, the Bristol Channel, The Wash, Morecambe Bay and the Thames Estuary would ALL be barraged off and creating electricity and Elephant Grass and Withies would be grown everywhere as fuel for energy production.

But they’re not. The energy companies are just raking it in, like hay in the summer. And the blame has been chucked at the government. Shame on them all. You can be sure of Shell.

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Why Buy Vista?

Strangely post on June 27th, 2008
Posted in Technology Tags:Embarrassing , fair play , itpro , Machine , Mad , Microsoft , OEM , operating system , Vista , XP , YEARS

Why buy Vista? Now there’s a question.

Microsoft continue to say that Vista sales are much higher than XP ever was. But this is being disingenuous with the figures. The fact is that most of the “sales” are as pre-installs on OEM machines. Fair play to Microsoft, they have driven the business for years and created the ever expanding demand, but they’ve already stopped free and easy major distribution of XP so that if you buy a new machine, and unless you are really picky and argumentative, you’re going to get Vista, no matter what! Full XP availability ends in a couple of days.

Way back in the early nineties, with DOS, Win3.1, Win95-8, Microsoft’s operating system was so closely tied to the calls in the processor of choice made by Intel, that the “system” or two companies together were quite often referred to as WinTel.

News today from ITPro, http://www.itpro.co.uk/604053/intel-sticking-to-xp, is that even the people at Intel aren’t taking up Vista! This is seriously embarrassing and this single fact alone requires people to closely look at the capabilities of Vista and consider if it’s a worthwhile investment. The people at Intel really do know what’s going on in the gubbins and their opinions should count for quite a lot.

For me, the choice is no.

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Zimbabwe c.f. United Kingdom & Justice

Strangely post on June 26th, 2008
Posted in Freedom Tags:Africa , BBC , CHANGE , computer , Court , Death , Democratic , Different , election , experiment , Florida , justice , mugabe , Obama , Paranoid , Patriot , Patriot Act , Police , population , president , public , publishing , Republican , scandal , SHAPE , Sport , The West , UK , United Kingdom , USA , war , Zimbabwe

Sorry to keep banging on about this, but the new laws in the UK which severely limit our freedoms and liberties gained over centuries should be compared to the current Zimbabwe situation and then taken forward in time as a thought experiment.

The nearly current state of affairs in the UK I’ve summarised here in this post.

Currently we are still a reasonably civilised place to be……….. but the ease with which the bad people can get a hold cannot be over-emphasised……..

……..so just suppose the right wing nasties get in by shooting enough of their venom at the immigrant population and stirring up the doleful public to vote for them. (I can’t see any left wing nasties on the horizon currently)

The current laws can then be used to make it treasonable to disagree with their views. And what then?

Look at the following quote from a BBC article today. It relates to Zimbabwe and the paranoid Mugabe.

A Mr Tendai Biti, of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), had been detained on treason charges(…) Mr Biti’s release on bail came two weeks after he was arrested.
He has been charged with treason, which carries the death penalty, and also with publishing false statements and insulting the president.
His bail was set at one trillion Zimbabwe dollars, the equivalent of about $200 (£100).

The court said that Mr Biti had to remain in his home, hand in his passport and the deeds to his house, and report once a week to a police station.

Now compare this story to the UK or the USA where the premier/president is routinely ridiculed and all actions questioned. A lot different eh?

But the thing is, it’s not. It only takes a small shift, much like what the Republicans will be doing soon to vilify Obama, and just like they did at the last two presidential races.

The Florida vote rigging hanging chad excluded voters scandal demonstrates that in the grubby contest to remain in or gain power, we in the west are not far removed from Mugabe and his 5000 cronies. We in the UK are following the USA and their Patriot Act to the edge, and if we are not vigilant, over the edge.

On the subject of Mugabe and his psychotic coats. I think they’re covering about three bulletproof and stabproof vests. Nobody can be the shape he is – I mean really – look at him. There’s more than a man stuffed in there.

What’s he frightened of? He’s won the “vote” and killed off all opposition in more ways than one.

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Nichiren and Einstein, words trancending time and space.

Strangely post on June 26th, 2008
Posted in Buddhism Tags:authoritarian , authority , battle , CERN , conflict , courage , Court , Death , debt , Dream , duty , Earth , Einstein , enlightenment , ENTITY , EVIL , existence , FAIL , FORM , Genuine , GREAT , Human , INHERENT , justice , LOVE , Mad , mind , MYSTIC , nam myoho renge kyo , Nature , Nichiren , Patriot , physics , property , Religion , Secrets , truth , violence , war , WHOSE

Who said what?

Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.	What then does myo signify? It is simply the mysterious nature of our life from moment to moment, which the mind cannot comprehend or words express. When we look into our own mind at any moment, we perceive neither color nor form to verify that it exists. Yet we still cannot say it does not exist, for many differing thoughts continually occur. The mind cannot be considered either to exist or not to exist. Life is indeed an elusive reality that transcends both the words and concepts of existence and nonexistence. It is neither existence nor nonexistence, yet exhibits the qualities of both. It is the mystic entity of the Middle Way that is the ultimate reality.
I just want to explain what I mean when I say that we should try to hold on to physical reality.(…)For what is thought to be a “system” is after all, just conventional, and I do not see how one is supposed to divide up the world objectively so that one can make statements about parts.	If you wish to free yourself from the sufferings of birth and death you have endured since time without beginning and to attain without fail unsurpassed enlightenment in this lifetime, you must perceive the mystic truth that is originally inherent in all living beings. This truth is Myoho-renge-kyo. Chanting Myoho-renge-kyo will therefore enable you to grasp the mystic truth innate in all life.
Try and penetrate with our limited means the secrets of nature and you will find that, behind all the discernible concatenations, there remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion. To that extent I am, in point of fact, religious.	Though you may move among the most exalted company of court nobles, your hair done up elegantly like clouds and your sleeves fluttering like eddies of snow, such pleasures, when you stop to consider them, are no more than a dream within a dream.
Our situation on this earth seems strange. Every one of us appears here involuntarily and uninvited for a short stay, without knowing the whys and the wherefore. In our daily lives we only feel that man is here for the sake of others, for those whom we love and for many other beings whose fate is connected with our own. I am often worried at the thought that my life is based to such a large extent on the work of my fellow human beings and I am aware of my great indebtedness to them.	I have believed it is most important to understand one’s obligations to others, and made it my first duty to repay such debts of kindness. In this world, we owe four debts of gratitude. One who understands this is worthy to be called human, while one who does not is no more than an animal.
My passion for social justice has often brought me into conflict with people, as did my aversion to any obligation and dependence I do not regard as absolutely necessary. I always have a high regard for the individual and have an insuperable distaste for violence and clubmanship. All these motives made me into a passionate pacifist and anti-militarist. I am against any nationalism, even in the guise of mere patriotism. Privileges based on position and property have always seemed to me unjust and pernicious, as did any exaggerated personality cult.	Great individuals fight abuses of authority. The truly strong do not lord it over the weak. People of genuine strength and courage battle against the powerful and the arrogant, the authoritarian, the evil and corrupt-all who look down on the people with contempt.

Answer:
Einstein on the left, Nichiren on the right.

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Monthly Archives:June 2008

The Big Green Con Trick

a.k.a. Is the wind more expensive now?

Is the wind more expensive now? No

Is it the law of supply and demand? No

Is there really less wind to go round? No

Why Buy Vista?

Zimbabwe c.f. United Kingdom & Justice

Nichiren and Einstein, words trancending time and space.

Who said what?

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