Newsnight "Science"

I saw it last night and its doing the rounds of the blogosphere: The episode in last Note at the start,  night's NewsNight where man made global warming was supposedly proven in a reporters kitchen.

The experiement was two large bottles in front of spotlamps. One filled with air, one filled with air and extra CO2 provided by a DIY mixture of vinegar and baking soda. The "CO2 Enhanced" bottle showed a 4 degree increase in temperature, supposedly caused by the increased CO2 content.

This was touted on the programme as science, but hang on, this is kitchen worktop science and in no way correlates to the atmosphere.

For instance, did the mixture in the CO2-rich bottle exactly correlate to the concentration of CO2 the warmists say we'll get, or was it a higher concentration, to falsely enhance the result? Note at the start, the scientist added the CO2, screwed the cap on the bottle and....... nothing happened. Nada, zilch. There was no sudden increase in temperature. It was only after a suspicious break in the filming and cut back to the kitchen that suddenly there was a convenient 4 degree difference.

So, hardly the proven, repeatable, accurate science we need to believe in man made warming at all.

And to be honest, this is an indication of how NewsNight has changed recently. I've watched the dumbing down of "normal" news programmes and now NewsNight, which resisted the trend for a while seems to be following suit.

Anthrax and Heroin: The New Doomsday Weapon?

I remember reports earlier on in the year that the heroin growers in Afghanistan had moved to refining their produce. This was part of a report saying how there seemed to be an aparrent lack of heroin on the streets considering the amount that was being grown.

Now obviously its too early to produce a definate link, but what if the Taliban, Al-Qaeda or whoever wanted to hold back production to refine a new weapon, adding a deadly infectious agent with heroin? Its an ideal medium, as the product is sealed for transport, therefore as long as production is done safely producers, distributors and couriers shouldn't become infected unless they sample the produce. Only the end users become infected and they willingly inject it into their bodies.

Now I'm not saying this report is evidence of anything of the sort, but it does make you think, doesn't it?

Makes you also hope that the stockpiles of smallpox are secure.

The New BattleGround

In recent times I've started to form an idea of the next battle humankind will face. Its not global warming: busting that myth will eventually go mainstream. Its not poverty: poverty is a man-made phenomenon. Its not war: war is man-made as well.

No, the next battleground humankind will face is ideological.

Okay, let me explain. Currently there are several streams, running in parallel. All seperate, but with the same goal in mind: control of humanity. We have corporations, who want a one-world government that allows unfettered, universal trade across the whole globe, socialists who want a one-world government where everyone and evrything is as poor as the rest of the world, fascists who want a one-world government which controls every aspect of our lives and finally we have the religious extremists, who want a one-world government run by theologues that favour a particular religion.

These theological and ideological streams have never been closer and all work towards the same goal: a single world government.

However, there will be a battle between these factions for our hearts and minds. Some say its already begun with the corporatists striking a blow against the theologists in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I forsee the battle becoming more heated as the streams work together to forge their unified globe. As the globe becomes more unified, so I see the battles to control that unity becoming ever more fierce, until the winner emerges.

Of course the losers in all of this are us, the little people: the cannon fodder, the targets, the subjects, to be used exploited and extorted at will by whoever gains complete dominance. I'm sorry to say that this is the fate that awaits those generations that follow me.

The sad thing is that all those one-worlders are well-resourced, how do you compete against them, let alone defeat them? Now I've identified the battle, maybe I can have a go at figuring out an answer to that very question.

BA ain't gonna fly no plane

Ah, British Airways...... where has it gone so wrong for them?

Last year I blogged about the terminal 5 fiasco and how it was quite aparrent there was something very, very wrong with the management culture at BA. I put it down you young graduates being parachuted into management jobs, ostensibly to become yes men and women: people that had so little experience that they could only agree with whatever upper management decreed. I gave them 5 years at most before they became history.

It seems I was right on the money, because whatever is going on within British Airways (someone with inside information please tell me, because it must be a fascinating insight into flawed management culture), it now seems the workers are squaring up to managers and going on strike over Christmas and New Year.

This is despite BA staff being some of the best paid in their sector of employment, despite BA's business strategy crashing and burning, despite profits plummeting, despite there being the worst unemployment in decades, despite the recession.

Neither side it seems, want to compromise, see sense or back down. From where I'm standing, looking in, I see a very poorly run operation indeed. For it to come to this point, when in effect strike action will if not kill, will certainly cripple the company for decades, is madness. For BA employees to vote in favour of strike action under the present circumstances, either they're stupid, fallen out badly with management, been very badly informed, or hideously manipulated by the Unions.

They say turkeys don't vote for Christmas, but this might be the one exception.

Gordon Brown in Afghanistan

So Gordo has been getting touchy-feely in Afghanistan. I just wonder if the curse of Gordo will strike...

I notice that he was making a big play on the blast-resistant vehicles that have finally been delivered into theatre after long delays. Its a bit much seeing as they were supposed to be delivered months ago and up until last week, I saw news reports showing our soldiers on patrol in not-very-blast-resistant-at-all snatch LandRovers.

W i d e s c r e e N

As befits this Hi-Def, Widescreen world of entertainment, I've altered my blog layout to become the full-on widescreen experience in glorious 1000-pixel width. Ok, to be honest I was fed up of those huge black areas of nothing at the sides of the blog when viewing it.

If anyone experiences any problems viewing the blog in this new format, drop me a line and I'll sort it out.


Thanks.