Deep Purple

Jacqueline du Pre – Elgar and Haydn Cello Concertos

Royal Marines Band

Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Helen Shapiro

Cai Jing

Norah Jones

Huey Louis and the News

Stacey Kent

Eclectic or what?  :-D

Well, sometimes they just do…

Captions anyone?

The meeja are still at it, trying to parley the Fukushima crisis into a disaster and, in the process, handing the bedwetters and neo-luddites large wodges of convenient headlines with which to frighten the masses into the abandonment of the only clean, safe and reliable power generation source which will stop the lights going out as the current generation of power plants comes to the end of its working life. The latest scare tactic is the trumpeting of the fact that the Fukushima crisis has been up-graded to level 7, the highest level on the international scale used to measure these events. ‘It’s another Chernobyl,’ they whinny hysterically, running around in ever decreasing circles and waving their hands frantically in the air. Well, it’s not, nor can it be. It is a serious situation, and I’m not trying to downplay it, but it is contained and the omens, at the moment, are all good for it’s continuing containment. The hype and spin around Fukushima downplays the devastation caused by the actual disaster, a 1,000 year earthquake followed by a 1,000 year tsunami.

She is a talkative beast at the best of times – she always answers when addressed, and she has learned that I can’t hear the top of her vocal range, so, these days, I don’t get the silent miaows that she used to try on when she was younger.

Recently, though, she has started squeaking and mewing when she is asleep. I have never seen this in a cat before, though we are, I’m sure, all familiar with dogs chasing rabbits, or maybe being chased by rabbits, depending on the whimpering, in their sleep. Anyone else seen this?

Isn’t it annoying when those two clash? This thought was brought about by a discussion in my final Romanian lesson – my contract here ends at the end of this month. I was discussing an article in a local tabloid with my teacher. The article itself was about social security in Romania and who should be entitled to it. The article listed the Government criteria which define who should be classed as ‘poor,’ and who should not. Amongst other things, if you own three cows, or pigs, 80 ducks, female turkeys, hens, geese or eating pigeons, or a video recorder, (a what?) a laptop, (but not a desktop,) a video entry-phone a hand-loom, or a coffee grinder, you should not be entitled to social security. The sentence that prompted the discussion read, ‘There are indeed some people who don’t even have a cat outside their door, then there are others who live in villages with windowless houses with little towers.’

And I have a cold. So I’m sitting at my notebook catching up with some friends by email. Quantum, (my owner,) sneaks under my feet an I don’t notice. I finish an email, reach forward to take a drink of tea, shift my foot and tread on my owner’s tail. Owner squeals and bats my ankle with a pawful of claws. I yelp and jump and hot tea splashes into my, erm, lap. I jump again, a little more energetically, my owner is still round my feet, I lose my balance, fall backwards, pour the rest of the tea over my chest, yell some more and fall to the floor. My owner has it away on her toes, I rush to the shower and spray chest and, erm, lap with cold water. After cooling down I hang my wet clothes to dry, take a comforting shower, step out of the shower stall – stand on my owner, again, slip on the tiles and finish up on my, erm, fundament on the bathroom floor.

And I still have a cold.

Assange is not a whistleblower and I wish people would stop dignifying what he has done with that sobriquet. A whistleblower is someone who works for, or with an organisation, discovers some wrongdoing, or apparent wrongdoing, and makes it known in a way appropriate to the alleged wrongdoing, and the consequences of its exposure. Most developed countries now have specific laws to protect such people and all reputable companies and organisations have Legal/HR/Security policies which both encourage and protect whistleblowers in the interests of good corporate governance – and the avoidance of severe legal penalties.

… of your point of view.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationpicturegalleries/8194297/The-clean-up-operation-in-Parliament-Square-and-Oxford-Street-after-student-protests.html

“Cancun climate change summit: scientists call for rationing in developed world”

In one paper Professor Kevin Anderson, Director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, said the only way to reduce global emissions enough, while allowing the poor nations to continue to grow, is to halt economic growth in the rich world over the next twenty years.

…

This could mean a limit on electricity so people are forced to turn the heating down, turn off the lights and replace old electrical goods like huge fridges with more efficient models. Food that has travelled from abroad may be limited and goods that require a lot of energy to manufacture.

So, now you know.

I was going to add this as a comment on my last blog, but it’s too long. Especially for Ms. Holier-than-thou.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1232011/Cash-strapped-Test-Valley-Council-spends-100-000-garbage-bin-inspectors.html#ixzz161RIspOw

Councils use anti-terror powers to check for dog collars
Councils have used anti-terrorism laws to try to catch people donating goods outside charity shops and to make sure dogs are wearing collars.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7753375/Councils-use-anti-terror-powers-to-check-for-dog-collars.html

How local councils use anti-terror laws to spy on ordinary people

heraldscotland staff

http://www.heraldscotland.com/how-local-councils-use-anti-terror-laws-to-spy-on-ordinary-people-1.828851

>In 1976–80 there was a net inflow of 37,200 foreign citizens
per annum; by 1996–2000 this had increased to anet inflow of 110,200 per annum.
Immigration increased particularly rapidly during the 1990s, and it is responsible
for about half of the population growth during that decade. Recently, reforms to
UK immigration policy have sought to make immigration easier for certain groups
and there is active consideration of future policy initiatives.<

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=6&sqi=2&ved=0CDsQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Feconrsss.anu.edu.au%2FStaff%2Fhatton%2Fpdf%2FHatTaniRev.pdf&rct=j&q=immigrant%20population%20uk%201980&ei=i4HqTJieJIOVswaYs6WPCQ&usg=AFQjCNGOHwMtB6szwSr94XbOrFKsb9q2gg&cad=rjt

>Net immigration into London from abroad tends to displace some existing
residents, who move out into other parts of the Greater South East –
though the short-run effect is nearer to ‘one for two’ than ‘one for one.’
This substantially reduces the impact of immigration on London population
growth, while probably intensifying that on the population mix.An effect of the concentration of migrants in the worst paid segment of
the labour market has been a significant downward pressure on wages at
the bottom end of the market. This seems to have encouraged job
growth in these occupations, but earnings among workers in this sector
have suffered, falling behind growth in the cost of living. At the same time
the gap between earnings levels for this group in London and those in the
rest of the UK has been substantially eroded.The majority of migrants use relatively fewer public services than
indigenous households – and are therefore less costly to the public purse.
There are, however, additional pressures from the diverse needs of
migrants, and the claims of those in the weakest situation. The costs of
housing, translation services, health provision, schools and social security
benefits have increased as a result of the additional needs of some new
migrants to London.As a new Guardian/ICM survey reveals startling gaps in the cultural knowledge of young British adults, we take a serious look at changing British society and the culture it produces.Young 18- to 24-year-old adults are measurably “dumber” than older age groups, evidence in a special ICM survey for the Guardian indicates.The angry old men of the dumbing down debate have been deskilled and disempowered by the feminisation of culture. < Worth reading to see how the dumbing down is effected.

And a nice, and balanced, comment here: http://fusilier.wordpress.com/2007/04/02/dumbing-down-standards-uk-style/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/dumb/