Strangely Perfect

R.I.P. Actor Nicholas Courtney So farewell Brigadier! Many a time you and your UNIT chums saved the world from horrible alien monsters.  It wasn’t always “The Doctor” and your calm panic and belief in the Doctor’s powers (despite himself) always pulled us through.  You acted with just the right amount of authority.   Saturday tea-times were [...]

Introduction Yesterday’s News The use of intercept evidence in courts in England and Wales is not “legally viable”, …the Home Office has said.  This is reported on the BBC here, Using intercept evidence in court ‘not yet viable’ Security From the earliest days of the British (English) Secret Service, back in Elizabeth I’s time, all [...]

Guillotine and “The Reign of Terror” Funny how I missed this during the summer – I was in hospital, I think. This video is Henry Paulson, stumbling and squirming, as he struggles to evade quite simple questions for someone in his position.  (I talked about his deceit last year here and here, at the start [...]

Comparing The West and The East There is currently a world-wide flu epidemic and it’s interesting to compare the responses of various countries to it, with the historical pandemic of The Plague, i.e. the Black Death. Flu In the USA, it’s been called “Mexican Flu” sometimes quite pejoratively, especially at it’s outset and especially by [...]

Gary McKinnon, the UFO spotter cum computer hacker is still not tried for his ‘offence’.  But the ice he’s treading is getting thinner and thinner. Recently our nice CPS deemed that there wasn’t enough UK evidence to try him – but that the USA had plenty so we’ll send him there! His charge, which I [...]

Many moons ago I read the short story with the above title. Although not one of Pohl’s best works, it has nevertheless left an obviously lasting impression on me. Written in the mid-fifties, it’s a future tale of consumerism gone mad. In the tale, it’s illegal not to consume as much as possible.  The hero [...]

I hope everyone is fully aware by now about my opinions on anonymous commentary and spammers.  Er.. yes… they’re shit.  And what I do is fully explained in my site privacy policy, here. Anyway, my Russian friend left a little note, which I’ll leave, here, because in itself, it’s pretty innocuous.  However, visitors to my [...]

Introduction I’ve nabbed the content of this from Ted Penfold.  My wife, has told me that she heard this lecture of Dick’s and found it and him some of the most inspiring things in her life.  I came across this wonderful piece by chance, looking for some background information on Nikko, the second guy after [...]

Is August a bad month for flying.  Is it just me or have there been a lot of large airplane crashes and near-escapes in the past few weeks? Or are they symptoms being revealed statistically, of cost-cutting and slipping maintenance at a time of falling revenues, bankruptcies and stiff competition?  What do you think? Huge [...]

According to UK Gov., in a project instigated by Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister,  the greatest threat to our national security is not terrorists, rampant armed youths or family breakdowns; no, it’s the flu! Flu pandemic tops risk register was the news first thing this morning while lying in bed.  That really cheered me up! [...]

You have to be careful with statistics. (especially when you are trying to deceive!) The graph shown at the left appears on the BBC website alongside the panic and doom inducing headline; UK house price fall ‘at a record’.  It was repeated many times, even on national TV news on all stations. The thing is [...]

Today’s decision by UK.gov to slow down the massive uptake in biofuels has come as a welcome step in the right direction.  Initially, it was a way for the Tabitha’s and Josh’s in Chelsea and Islington to feel good about running their ridiculous cars – to appease their guilty consciences if you like.  Soon, the [...]

The recent fuel tanker driver’s strike which lasted all of four days and only affected 10% of the nation’s fuel supplies has prompted the title of this posting. Having recently returned from doing some work at the new warehouse in the Midlands, as per the Hertz contract, I had to leave the hire car completely [...]

a.k.a. How did the Labour Party come to this? The present Home Secretary, the former teacher called Jacqui Smith, is desperately trying, at all costs, to implement laws that would allow events such as the law that is title of this post, to easily occur at some future date. Let’s state my case; I’m (still) [...]