GB looks totally out of his comfort zone, of nerdy economic papers, as he joins mums at nursery school. Why does he do it?
Gordon Goes to Nursery School
July 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
→ Leave a CommentCategories: Children · Gordon Brown · Personality · Politics
Shopping Alone
July 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Most men don’t like shopping, particularly when they have to accompany their female partner on the weekly shopping trip. It’s duty rather than pleasure. Some males will go to extraordinary lengths to convince their partner that it’s less hassle to shop alone.
For example, this guy really worked hard at convincing his wife it just wasn’t worth taking him along:
→ Leave a CommentCategories: British · Humour · Men · Women
Tagged: shopping alone
Mummy! Where Are You?
June 28, 2009 · Leave a Comment
→ Leave a CommentCategories: Humour · Pictures
Tagged: alligators, hatching chick
Office Anarchy & Dress Codes
June 27, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Summer has arrived and office temperatures are UP in more ways than one. Layers are shed. More flesh is on view (the good the bad & the downright ugly) and the air can become filled with body odour. Let’s admit it some people just go to far and the work place can become downright unbecoming and even offensive. Don’t believe me? Then read about the Florida City Council which even had to mandate the use of deodorant & underwear!
If you don’t want your work place to descend into dress code anarchy and smell like a footballer’s changing room, a dress code policy which considers the following is a must:
1. The work environment. What sort of workplace do you have? Are you a restaurant? Are you a bar that sits on a beach? Are you a corporate office, a public service office which has customers coming in? Are you a warehouse/operations centre? What sort of work are you trying to get done at your workplace, and who sees the employees? What’s the presentation you want people to project? Also, keep practicality in mind. Are you an indoor work environment with temperature control? If [not], you may have to have some sort of flexibility, but with an eye towards propriety.
2. Define dress code terminology without going overboard. When using terms such as “business casual,” explain what is and what is not acceptable, but be sure to pay attention to gender issues.
3. Even in casual environments, some clothing is still a no-no. If we can see things that we don’t want to see, it’s not appropriate for any workplace. Excessively low-cut tops, cutoff shorts and exercise gear such as running shorts and Spandex should always remain at home.
It’s distracting and it looks unprofessional, even if you have a casual dress environment. Research has shown that if people come to work feeling more professional, they act more professional.
→ Leave a CommentCategories: Office · Personal
Tagged: business casual, dress code, office dress
Global Warmers in Retreat?
June 26, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Great article in today’s WSJ on the issue of man made global warming. Remember politicians asserted that “the science is settled”, after the publication of the IPCC (inter governmental panel on climate change). But never trust a politician who spies an opportunity to tax something new.
The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe now counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the U.N. — 13 times the number who authored the U.N.’s 2007 climate summary for policymakers. Joanne Simpson, the world’s first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, expressed relief upon her retirement last year that she was finally free to speak “frankly” of her nonbelief. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist who contributed to a U.N. climate report, dubs man-made warming “the worst scientific scandal in history.” Norway’s Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the “new religion.” A group of 54 noted physicists, led by Princeton’s Will Happer, is demanding the American Physical Society revise its position that the science is settled. (Both Nature and Science magazines have refused to run the physicists’ open letter.)
The collapse of the “consensus” has been driven by reality. The inconvenient truth is that the earth’s temperatures have flat-lined since 2001, despite growing concentrations of C02. Peer-reviewed research has debunked doomsday scenarios about the polar ice caps, hurricanes, malaria, extinctions, rising oceans.
Politicians also appear to have woken up to the unpopularity of increased taxation in the midst of a severe global recession!!
Read the WSJ article HERE.
→ Leave a CommentCategories: Climate Change · Global Cooling · Global Warming
Tagged: IPCC, Jim Onhofe
Brown’s Big Government & Getting Bigger
June 25, 2009 · 1 Comment
Gordon Brown’s Big Government is clinically captured by the Financial Times in their “State of Britain” analysis It contains disturbing data on the burgeoning size of the public sector.
For example did you know that:
Approximately 6 million citizens now work for the Government (3m for local government, 2.5m for central government & 0.5m for public corporations) Plus another 1 million on contract with government.
The NHS, with 1,560,000 employees, is said to be the 3rd largest employer in the world (after the People’s Liberation Army of China & Walmart). 1 in 19 people in the UK is employed by the NHS (1 in 17 in England). For every typical Primary School of 30 children, more than 2 children will have a parent who works for the NHS. For every £15 spent in the UK, £1 is spent on the NHS.
The M.o D. owns 21 concrete mixers.
Read more in the FT analysis HERE (click on the right slide arrow for each slide)
→ 1 CommentCategories: Economy · Financial · Gordon Brown · Government · Public Sector
Tagged: Big Government
Pouring Cold Water Over Global Warming
June 24, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Piers Corbyn astrophysicist of WeatherAction.com long range weather and climate forecasters revealed a major breakthrough in climate forecasting and predicted general world cooling for the next 100 years in direct opposition to The Met office and UN forecast announced on the same day.
“World cooling is hear to stay and the new round of climate alarmism just announced by UK Government ministers and the Met Office of more extreme weather and warming in coming decades driven by mankind has no merit and is defied by the facts and front-line science”, said Piers
“Ministers have been saying a lot about accountability recently so now let’s apply that to climate change policy and scrutinize what they are up to in the light of the facts and the application of sound science.
“Will Minister Benn – and his opposite numbers in other parties – place before Parliament the evidence on which they base their climate change policies? Or are we to be led into more climate alarm taxes and charges’ and a new war against nothing based on bogus compter models? “
“Climate alarmism is not based on sound science but on a political agenda which has become a new religion to justify any policy or scheme which politicians and self-serving green ideologues, deluded researchers, businesses, oil magnates and the nuclear industry want to adopt. All their long-range models have failed so far so why should anyone believe them? On the other hand our solar based long range weather and climate forecasts have proven power, so why don’t polticians listen?
The facts are:
1. Contrary to the projections of the UN and Governments the world has been cooling since 2002/3 while CO2 has been rising rapidly.
(see http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=2331 and WeatherAction end year report 2008 http://www.lowefo.com/pdf/News081229Word.pdf )
2. Global warming is over and it never was anything to do with mankind. There is no evidence that CO2 fluctuations in the last 200, 2,000 or 20,000 years have caused warming or climate change, in fact the evidence is the other way around.
( See Challenge to IME http://www.lowefo.com/pdf/MIE090213_Where_Evidence.pdf )
3. There is no evidence of more extreme weather events or increases in the rate of sea level rise or changes in glaciers corresponding to CO2 increases since the industrial revolution.
( See Effects of CO2 Nicholson & Soon http://www.heartland.org/custom/semod_policybot/pdf/22434.pdf )
4. All changes in the Arctic and Antarctic follow natural and highly variable patterns which are not new or special and have been recorded for over a thousand years and have been very well known to the British navy** for a long time and available in the Met Office library The Antarctic has been cooling for decades and the Arctic has started to cool in the last year or two. Break-up of ice is a natural process – like the falling down of old trees – and has been happening for millions of years before news media noticed it.
(**HMSO 1963 Weather In the Home Fleet waters Vol 1 Northern Seas part 1 table XV page 246 shows the very high variability of ice off Iceland (eg) since 1900 and the long periods of change of two decades or more. Figures 124 & 125 (page 256) show that historical records indicate there was no pack ice off Iceland for about 180 years from 1020AD to 1200AD yet there was plenty of pack ice through the rapid expansion of industry since 1900 (Fig 126 page 257). This 120 year late medieval warm period is many times longer than the supposedly alarming present experience of the Arctic.
5. All the UN & Govt forecasts of ongoing warming this century have failed and the UN has still refused to produce evidence of their claims despite reasonable requests by an international group of science experts.
( See Letter to UN Sec General 14 July 2008 http://www.tech-know.eu/uploads/Letter_UN_Sec_Gen_Ban_Ki-moon.pdf )
6. Extreme weather and climate change events can be predicted months or years ahead using solar activity whereas standard meteorology and CO2 dogma cannot do this.
(PowerPoint & Audio of Piers Corbyn’s & Other Presentations at International Climate Change Conference New York 8-10 March 2009 www.heartland.org/events/NewYork09/proceedings.html – section V track 1 see slide 28 for world Temperature forecast to 2030. Scroll for speeches by Prof Bob Carter, Prof Richard Lindzen, Lord Monckton and others)
A Layman’s Explanation of Why Global Warming Predictions by Climate Models are Wrong by Dr Roy Spencer – http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=3513
7. The Met office long range forecasts for summer 2007, summer 2008 and winter 2008/09 were the opposite of what occurred while solar-based (Solar Weather Technique) forecasts correctly foresaw the floods, more floods and heavy snow in each of those seasons.
( Met Office barbecue summer forecast seriously misleading: http://www.weatheraction.com/displayarticle.asp?a=31&c=1 )
“Met office season ahead forecasts have consistently failed as they are failing again this summer. For how long will the public have to wait before this circus is called to account. Will the BBC do its duty and expose failed science or will they continue their cover-up?” asked Piers
Piers Corbyn (Pic at Climate Realist – Heartlanf – confernce March 2009 http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=2984 )
→ Leave a CommentCategories: Climate Change · Global Cooling · Global Warming
Manipulating the Mortgage Headlines
June 23, 2009 · Leave a Comment
“Weakest Month for Mortgages in 8 Years!” screams one headline. “Mortgage Approvals Up 16%!” shouts another.
They can’t both be right can they? No they can’t. It’s another sign of vested interests manipulating the headlines to serve their own interest.
The bankers want to convince their new owner (the government) that they are doing a wonderful job in difficult circumstances. So they they say:
Mortgage approvals for house purchases hit a 13-month high in May, rising for the fifth time in six months as the housing market continued its recent upward trend.
The British Bankers’ Association (BBA) says 31,162 home loans were approved for homebuyers last month, up 7% from April and 15.8% on a year ago.
That’s also ahead of analysts’ forecasts for an increase to around 30,000 and trumps November’s 17,953, the lowest level since the series started in 1997.
Wow! we really are at the start of another housing boom. Err no we’re not!
City investment analysts, worried about whether the bank share prices will ever recover say:
Banks in the UK lent the least amount of money to mortgage borrowers for eight years in May.
Net mortgage lending from the BBA’s members totalled just £2.3 billion last month, down from April’s figure of £2.5 billion and well below the average over the past six months of £3.2 billion.
The answer to reconciling these two opposing views of the mortgage market is that mortgage approvals are up but, their average value is down
While the number of approvals rose for the six month in a row, the value of mortgages for house purchases is still severely depressed from last year’s level, with the average value of £133,600, 13.9% lower than May 2008. In addition, the number of mortgages approved for other purposes continues to slide, as people considering re-mortgaging or, taking equity out of their homes, decide to hold off.
→ Leave a CommentCategories: Banks · Financial · House Prices · News
Tagged: Approvals, Mortgages
Westminster Publishes Full Account of MPs Expenses
June 19, 2009 · Leave a Comment
See full details below:
No it’s not a bug in the WordPress post! Many parts of MPs expenses, published yeaterday, have been “blacked out”. This was only done to protect personal details they say. Shyster Shahid Malik’s expense claims are like the Black Sea. So much for transparency! Why did they even bother if this is the result?
→ Leave a CommentCategories: British · Gordon Brown · Government · MPs · Politics
Tagged: blacked out, Expenses
Your Weather Forecast for 2080……LOL
June 19, 2009 · Leave a Comment
The UK government’s weather forecasting centre (Met Office) has released climate change projections for 2020, 2050 and 2080. Yes that’s not a misprint….2080! The report puts significant emphasis on the scientific approach used by the Met Office and the science underlying their conclusions.
It’s not a normal “scientific” report, it’s a media driven, simplistic summary of their key findings. There is a total absence of peer review (ie. a critical review of the study by non Met Office scientists) and the study tries to persuade us that the Met Office can now predict average temperature and rainfall for 70 years ahead (Hmm maybe a month ahead would be a good place to start).
Why do I get the feeling that this is all about the government warming us up for a large dose of increased taxation? The report has the government’s hands all over it. They desperately need to increase taxes to start to draw down the huge fiscal deficit building up from the recession and the bank bailouts. In 2080 most of us won’t be around to say “The Met Office got their (2009) weather forecast wrong again”!
The government, the Met office and the mainstream media are positioning the reports conclusions as cataclysmic. If you accept the reports conclusions it seems to me that we will be enjoying Mediterranean style weather by 2080…..isn’t that what we all want?
→ Leave a CommentCategories: Climate Change · Global Warming · Spin
Tagged: Met Office, UKPC09, weather forecast
