nourishing obscurity

For someone on one of the main routes or in London, travel is a daily occurrence and I recall that it was dead easy to take the train from King’s Cross to Manchester almost in the blink of an eye – there were many trains to choose from and all was hunky-dory. I don’t know [...]

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Filed under: Leisure, travel & sport

There are a few reasons to be concerned about the order of succession to the United States Presidency and I’m not speaking of appallingness of Obama and his crew.  The concerns are rather in the nature of the jobs themselves.  Just to recap: In 1947, the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 was signed into law [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics

Gordo asks us all to take a second look at Labour.  OK, his word is my command – here’s a quick look: #  The real national debt is £1,340 billion [Centre for Policy Studies],  103.5 per cent of GDP, including public sector pension liabilities and Private Finance Initiative contracts; #  Turned a percentage of Muslims [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics, Society & human issues

Danielle Nierenberg, currently travelling Africa on a grant to educate native populations about the efficacy of vegetables over crop grains, very kindly took the time to come in and comment on my post on Food and Water. Below is the whole of her comment and below that again is my little bit of research on [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics, Society & human issues

Public sector workers congregating for a planning meeting These suicides at French Telecom were puzzling but the explanation has come out with the latest suicide, the 6th since January and the 34th since January, 2008. A survey of employees said: Les conclusions de l’enquête avaient alors fait état d’un «ressenti général très dégradé», et d’une [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics

Freedom to farm An article on the situation in Mexico on street vendors said: (The DDF), has recently finished one of the most politically sensitive operations of the sexenio of Salinas de Gortari: the relocation of approximately 10,000 ambulatory vendors (street vendors) from the streets of the Historical Center into almost 40 market buildings. The [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics

This was done once before but this time round, what would be your epitaph if: 1.  It was exactly ten words; 2.  You were being honest and not eulogizing? Mine would be: Some good ideas, much too late, ran out of time … Yours?

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Filed under: Diversions

Stop press! On February 2, 1650, René Descartes died, not of pneumonia but by poison from a treacherous priest. C’est du moins la théorie exposée par l’universitaire allemand Theodor Ebert dans son ouvrage, Der rätselhafte Tod des René Descartes. En 1648, il informe ses supérieurs au Vatican que la reine Christine de Suède, protestante, est [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics, Society & human issues

While the EU tightens its grip, for example with the loss of Greek sovereignty [dedicated post coming up], the regionalization of the former England proceeds apace [scroll down to the south-west section on this page and look at the exchange of views on this] and if you’re still doggedly trying to maintain that this is [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics

Always build your underground garage after the building is up: Here’s how: H/T IPJ

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Filed under: Diversions

You’ve probably already seen it.  H/T IPJ

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Filed under: Diversions

Deep Throat, in the 1976 Watergate film All the President’s Men, told Bob Woodward [Robert Redford] in that late night, dark garage about where Woodward was going wrong with the investigation: Follow the money. Don’t be waylaid by abstract philosophies and childish talk of who called whom scumbag – this just distracts your attention away [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics

This is the better version: … but the girls in this are nicer.

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Filed under: Politics & economics

Jim Sinclair* said: Because of paper gold, market games can be played. What cannot be done is for paper gold to produce bullion.  The bullies can attack the paper gold market in unison but they cannot create supply in real bullion with the ease of highly leveraged paper.  The pros expect the under-financed public to [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics

Via Angus: The average rate of interest on a credit card has climbed to 18.8 per cent, the highest since 1998, with some card holders being forced to pay as much as 46 per cent. Almost seven million card holders saw their interest rates increase over the last year, despite the fact that the Bank [...]

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Filed under: Politics & economics