The UK in 10 Years Time?

I did blog a while back that the UK will be like Russia was just after the fall of the Iron Curtain: a lawless state run by the "mafia".

This article gives you an indication of what goes on inside Russia at the moment. Reporters are killed, people are held hostage, countries are invaded. All on the whim of a government that seems complicit in some of the criminals acts. Whether its a sign of a government that has had to get tough on big businesses that avoid paying their dues or cracking down on criminal activity but has gone too far or a government that has been taken over by those original criminal elements, I don't know.

But I do know that making our Police force responsible for claiming extra taxes in the form of new offenses dreamed up on a whim enforced by fixed penalty notices and using the courts to enforce the same, combined with a Parliament that thinks criminal fidling of expenses is acceptable, topped by a government that is spending billions more then it earns, is a recipe for exactly the same sort of things to happen here as in Russia.

It may take a while. It might never happen. But it is a risk and us the public need to be vigilant and ready to oppose it, for the sake of our children and grandchildren.

Men Throughout the Land Rejoice....

"Alcohol protects men's hearts".

We're constantly bombarded with conflicting health advice. Eat this, don't eat this, this is good for you, then its bad for you... blah blah.

Whats patently obvious is that there are far too many of these studies going on, globally eating vast quantities of money, for no real gain.

Yet Another CO2 Scare

Okay, the day after the blogosphere opens the pandoras box and exposes the myth that is Man Made Global Warming, we get yet another CO2-related scare in the news. I assume in an effort to say increased CO2 doesn't just cause global warming.

Well, increased CO2 levels causing lower Ph levels is something I and many aquarists know about. And this scare is another load of bollocks. In an aquarium's closed environment, yes increased CO2 does cause a significant Ph drop, but there's enough buffering material in the oceans to absorb huge amounts of CO2 without having to worry about acidification for centuries. Plenty of time for organisms to adapt.

So just fuck off and find some other mug to palm your dodgy science off on you fuckwits.

Update: I really am annoyed about this study. Two sets of fish were put into a tank one had been reared in "normal" water and the other in water with a reduced Ph. The tank was fed by two streams of water, one from a tank full of predators, the other from a tank without predators. No mention of Ph or chemical content of the different streams, so no real correlation as the fish could be exhibiting a preference for each stream of water based on any number of different factors.

But the science must be made to fit: the fish brought up in reduced Ph water couldn't smell their predators and so acidification of oceans is bad. FFS. Where is the proof, the real, irrefutable proof that this is actually what is happening and not something else? Bet there isn't any.