Pyramid Comment

This journal takes an alternative view on current affairs and other subjects. The approach is likely to be contentious and is arguably speculative. The content of any article is also a reminder of the status of those affairs at that date. All comments have been disabled. Any and all unsolicited or unauthorised links are absolutely disavowed.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Speed Limits

Speed Cameras Become Counter-Productive
Speed Limit Increases

The attitude that no speed camera means no speed restriction has surpassed the lethal. Clearly, a conventional sign means nothing to many.

  • If there is no sign to indicate speed then this means 30mph. If there is a limit of 40mph or 50mph then such speed will be explicitly displayed. A declassified stretch of road will be either 60mph if single carriageway or 70mph if a dual carriageway or motorway. No sign defaults to 30mph. The MAXIMUM speed on British roads is 70mph. Simple.

But...


...be aware that dual carriageways can be reduced to 50mph for no apparent reason.  Passing the end of the carriageway MUST be at or less than the indicated speed. The police are totally inflexible regarding ANY circumstance.
   The reckless speed merchant who (that, surely - DA) travels a constant and sustained speed above the limit should be different to someone obviously slowing from a legal limit (clear and unobstructed 50mph dual carriageway) just after the sign (40mph). Apparently NOT. The excess speed was 7mph (ie 47mph) a few seconds after the sign. Clearly the speed was too much in the still (ie not moving - DAphotographic capture. A 'speeder' at that moment. Although clearly signposted, the mobile unit was not noticeable. There are no yellow speed cameras.
   The positioning of this 'hidden' mobile unit constitutes deliberately 'catching' the 'speeder'. It seems unfair, but right and proper. Quite acceptable behaviour. It is the intransigence that is the most objectionable. Ignoring completely any explanation. Just to state that the 'speeding' Notice of Intended  Prosecution (NIP) is valid would make this more acceptable.
   The (only - DA) conclusion is that revenue is simply collected and any reasonable explanation is just officially ignored.
   Even though potentially hazardous, it is essential to ensure speed is reduced (maybe quickly and without warning) before the oncoming speed sign.

Confidence and future support for the police have been compromised (severely eroded - DA). Cameras are clearly placed to make money and NOT improve road safety. Stretches of road that should have cameras do not have them. Opinion has been reversed. This is in any article argued here that may be related to SPEED.
And it is highly cynical to claim that a fine can be avoided by attending (at your own expense - DA) a Speed Awareness Course (SAC). There is a charge made that it just under the fine amount - excluding any other expenses incurred. An insurer could ask if there have been any convictions within recent years. The acceptance of any NIP is a direct admission of guilt with ANY circumstance just ignored. UNLESS this is heard in court. You will lose and so be sentenced (fine + points + court/solicitor/barrister costs - DA). A true 'rock and hard place' (a Catch 22 - DA).

Some drivers are possibly deluded by believing that since the car can go faster they are allowed to drive faster. Or probably just don't care. No camera and the chances of being caught are very, very low. The attitude of the gambler playing the odds. It has nothing to do with personal responsibility or self-control, but simply what can be got away with.

  • A car capable of high speed (not the driver - DA) is never sold with the brain that ought to go with it. But like many things in life, people often live outside the limits of their ability (and finances - DA). Try swimming in water at depth by holding a single breath. A trained free-diver will know their limit or death will quickly follow. An untrained diver would drown. Experience can be critical.

If there is no camera then it seems to be a case of:

'my time is more important that yours and
speed restrictions don't apply to me.
I will do as I please and sod everybody else'

Local knowledge also enables sudden (dangerous - DA) slowing or last minute identification of a bright-yellow camera (if not highly visible this can bizarrely be interpreted as entrapment - DA). Pathetic. And the law allows it. Even more pathetic. The rights of the 'speeder' appear to exceed those of the safe driver (staying legal seems perversely to be regarded as the attitude of a 'loser' - DA).

Those who drive fast may believe they can do as they please (they are the 'good drivers'), but such 'good drivers' have NO AWARENESS OR CONCERN for the hazards around them. The attitude of the moron. They also believe that they can stop quickly enough. Complete delusion. Also it makes no allowance for the fact that not everyone can react as quickly. Someone driving within their own limitations and at the limit of speed or slower.

  • A large and heavy car driven at speed will take longer to stop even if reaction speed is fast (it can never be fast enoughDA).

Of those who ride powerful motorcycles, many (probably the majority by far - DA) seem to imagine themselves excluded from laws that apply to everyone else. As an estimate of all RTA (road traffic accident), bikers amount to just 1% of road users, but account for 25% of those killed. A speed limit declares the maximum speed permissible and not necessarily the safe speed that depends on the conditions at the time. An experienced driver does not even need to consider the argument. Experience is unconscious. The inexperienced driver has no such knowledge. Or conscience.

Usury And Islamic Student Loans


Note added: 09.12.2011

Everything has gone very, very quiet concerning this potentially huge problem. The odour of some sort of hidden 'silent deal' is pungent. The application of interest is in itself acceptable in order to create a profit, but with a fixed amount of interest declared 'up front'. The difference in the 'western world' attitude is that the applied interest is a mercurial (volatile, erratic, unstable, flighty, fickle) target. Completely unfixed with excessive charging growing at an unreasonably high rate.

The silence in the UK is...

deafening

The student loan fiasco has possibly encountered a major snag. The grip on a generation of non-Islamic English students is not enough, but in terms of racial harmony this government has reached a potential impasse. To go head-to-head with the Islamic community (Muslims) as a whole in contravention of the fundamental principles of Sharia: the code of conduct or religious law of Islam.

Abuses in lending
Amortisation: The Monster
Conflict with Islamic law
Loan
Muslim challenge
Usury

The mechanism of usury can be illustrated by considering Credit Card Debt. A 'loan' is created, but the repayment increases over time. The Sharia concept is fair (a declared and unchanging profit at the beginning of the loan term), whereas the debt-based system involves a changing amount and rate of interest as the loan term progresses and is unfair, immoral and usury. As interest is regularly added, the loan amount increases. Amortisation adds more interest by charging interest on already applied interest.

The criticism of usury in Islam was well established during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad and reinforced by several of verses in the Qur'an dating back to around 600 AD. The original word used for usury in this text was Riba, which literally means “excess or addition”. This was accepted to refer directly to interest on loans so that, according to Islamic economists Choudhury and Malik (1992), by the time of Caliph Umar, the prohibition of interest was a well-established working principle integrated into the Islamic economic system. This interpretation of usury has not been universally accepted or applied in the Islamic world. A school of Islamic thought which emerged in the 19th Century, led by Sir Sayyed Ahmed Khan (1817 - 1898), argues for an interpretative differentiation between usury (consumptional lending) and interest (lending for commercial investment).

Islamic banking has the same purpose as conventional banking: to make money for the banking institution by lending out capital, but Islam forbids simply lending out money at interest (riba). Islamic rules on transactions (Fiqh al-Muamalat) have been created to avoid this problem. The basic technique is 'sharing of profit and loss', via terms such as profit sharing (Mudharabah), safekeeping (Wadiah), joint venture (Musharakah), the cost plus profit that is clearly understood and is required to be an "honest declaration of cost" (Murabahah), and leasing (Ijarah).

  • Adding extra interest to this profit (and amortisation) is where it all breaks down. An 'honest profit' does not involve pure greed by profiteering that by definition is unethical
  • It appears that the method might involve the Islamic bank paying the university 'up front', the student then repaying money to the bank and NOT the UK government
  • UK (non-Muslim) students would be forced to enter the (more lucrative profiteering) usury system
    • If such a student took out a personal loan with a lender then it would be necessary to pay back (explicitly) from day-1. Could the Islamic banking procedure defer payment in the same way as the 'nothing to pay up front' system apparently works? (No idea - DA)
    • If a low-paid job were taken that returns less than the threshold £21,000 a year then nothing is required to be paid back. If the career were to be a low-paid lifelong occupation then nothing would be paid back. Ever. The 30-year maximum. It would restrain the progression of the lower paid by encouraging staying under the threshold. This would discourage looking for a well-paid job. They are not generally available. The sword of Damocles. Those in a position of influence can always open doors for 'favourites'Contacts are already established and the average 'joe' does not stand a chance when confronted with nepotism.

This whole ill thought out mess
gets messier by the day and
involves double standards
that simply penalises the 'poor'
UK-resident non-Muslim

  • It could be that it has all been very well thought through and in principle the 'poor' graduate who cannot afford it, is in receipt of an expensive loan and paying for those who can. The wealthy don't pay and only the 'poor' do by way of interest on the debt. The definition of 'poor' is someone who needs a loan.

In an Islamic mortgage, the bank would buy from the seller, and re-sell it to the buyer at a profit instead of loaning the buyer money in order to purchase the item, while allowing the buyer to pay the bank in installments. The bank's profit cannot be made explicit and therefore there are no additional penalties for late payment. If the loan period is extended for any reason the initially declared profit will not change.


  • In order to protect itself against default, the bank asks for strict collateral. The goods or land is registered to the name of the buyer from the start of the transaction. This arrangement is called Murabahah. Another approach is Eljara wa Elqtina, which is similar to real estate leasing. Islamic banks handle loans for vehicles in a similar way (selling the vehicle at a higher-than-market price to the debtor and then retaining ownership of the vehicle until the loan is paid).

Islamic banking is restricted to accepted standards in transactions, which exclude those involving alcohol, pork, gambling, etc. The aim of this is to engage in only ethical investing and moral purchasing:

both generally alien to British
non-Islamic 'business practices'

These are basically profit, profit, profit and little (nothing - DA) else. 'Growth' of something means the demise of something else.

Live or die

Winners And Losers

Monday, August 15, 2011

Societal Engineering

It publicly begins: Tessa Jowell pontificates about rewarding looters by changing society to avoid disenfranchising youth from the future. This is typical of the old labour guard. And it suggests evidence of engineering a class change. It suggests that the riots were organised with the specific aim to effect subsequent change.

  • Does the doleful-look on Jowell's face attempt to evoke sympathy for a cause? That practiced look of concern?
The current government Label is no different than the previous one or potentially the next one. They all desire the same thing: control.

Ideological change is a disease.

The cure? The control of the people. It's a true sickness. Nothing more worthwhile than simply having 'control'. And all their money and that effects even more control. It's a vicious cycle and ensnares
everything. That's the idea unless immunity is given by belonging to a different (wealth) class. It's surprisingly simply in principle. In practice, it's even easier if enough soldiers exist and there's no great rush to a conclusion that is itself evolving. The slow change will terminate with a more complete (and permanent) solution.

Create the Problem

Provide the Solution

The population continues to swell and in so doing increases the consumer base that will spend money in most cases acquired from the labours of those consumers. It's self-sustainable, perpetual and grows to support and finance the Parasite's Tree. The fruit that sustains it's growth. It's effectively Marxism turned on its revolving head, remembering labour is just another Label.

And attempts to make the people giddy. Backwards, forwards , upwards and downwards or clockwise? Maybe anti-clockwise?

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Riots In The UK (2011)

Whatever the reasons for these riots (probably opportunistic 'criminality' - DA) the rhetoric still describes what people want to hear and not real action. They also constitute a diversion and misdirection from the dreadful times unleashed upon the general public. Student loans and cuts, cuts, cuts. General lawlessness and protection of the financial bonanza (for government) as a result of the 2012 Olympic farce and the taxpayer underwrites the entire cost, of course.

Deputy prime minister Clegg pontificates about consequences and 'when you're found...' and 'the knock on the door...' ('in the middle of the night?' Overtones of Nazi Germany in the Second World War and the Gestapo - DA) and... the usual pandering to the public conscience. The action may come in some form, perhaps new law to enable the police to come down heavily on 'suspected' perpetrators of violence, theft and destruction. In a pseudo police state.

Allegations of police being present, but not intervening if true suggest the 'create the situation and provide the solution' scenario. Allow the riots to happen to then gain public support for the introduction of new laws to counter insurrection: an act or instance of rising in revolt, rebellion, or resistance against civil authority or an established government.

Buildings set alight with no concern as to whether premises were occupied (just assumed to be empty - DA). The very poor and disproved connection with Mark Duggan that was supposed to spark of the beginning with the Tottenham Fires is evidence of a non-connection. The (if proved) murder of three Asian men from Birmingham is further evidence that the death of the one is justification for the murder of others.

Comments have been made about suspected rioters and (by definition) arsonists even if covered up by masks and hoods in the attempt to prevent identification will be followed up by searches at an individual's address for clothing matching CCTV evidence will not move forward unless laws are changed and a police-state is created. The 'proof' of clothing is not 'proof' of the wearer. Very simple failure for any 'successful' prosecution.

It's important to recognise the fact that trying to fix something after it has broken tends to simply result in symptoms being attended to and not the cause. Shoring up a failed system that for the minority (wealthy) is working well. Problems generally deteriorate. Any genuine desire to correct the underlying cause(s) is not necessarily so obvious and may appear to be ignored. However, permanent solutions to genuine problems do take longer. The entire issue is mixed up with opportunistic 'criminality' and genuine failure to acknowledge a future. The rich are comfortable and do not care for anything other than protecting their wealth. The perceived sub-class of 'criminal' confuses those who have little and yet are not criminals with those who just want something for nothing. Steal and destroy. This is the real problem element in society and is probably a minority within the average 'class'. The violent creature that takes all is different to the human parasite who takes many not even realising what they truly are... parasites. Take all. Pay their taxes and justify being... a parasite.

  • The human that so lusts after animal 'food' without even thinking that an animal must be slaughtered so that the human can live is typical. The 'foody' programs on TV can be quite nauseating when the presenters so enjoy cooking the products of death. The very people who are the target viewers do not feel the pain as they simply buy the 'meat' and do not have to be involved with the actual killing. Many are pet lovers yet the hypocrisy and double standards are appalling.
Destruction as caused by the arsonist in the riots can never be justified. But even here there is duplicity: the looter and the arsonist. Two very different agendas within one apparent group. The looter does not require intelligence, but the arsonist/marauder needs some sort of intelligence (not of the brain power kind - DA), but information to select the target.The tree hidden in the forest can disguise and easily misdirect attention from the true perpetrator. Essentially, the identity of the individual actually responsible may remain unknown. The gang leader will sometimes be in the background while the lieutenants go about the bidding of their bosses.

Educationally, those who did not bother at school are now paying the price of their failure to learn. They have nothing and cannot lose or get anything. No education. No work. No money and so the things that many have (cars, houses, TVs, computers, employment and regular income... the list goes on and on) are out of reach where the future may lie. Yet they know they have no future. People make mistakes and one-day wake up to the mistakes made in life and hugely regret these now accepted mistakes. It is an assumption that most people can read. Many cannot because of poor education.

It's not always those from a deprived background. What catalyses a healthy background to degenerate into the pit of obscurity? Advantage does not come with intelligence.

Who failed these people: parents, education system? Government? Peer group pressure to fail? The (transient) top dog can be the one who can learn the least. Or nothing at all and disrupt everything so no-one else can learn either. The mindset of the true loser. They move on to possibly becoming the looter of the future as they have nothing to show for their earlier (moronic) life-style. But, mistakes can be recognised by that individual. Maybe it's too late, but with the right connections life chances can still be turned around. For some it is far too late and those bereft of any kind of intelligence and unhinged for whatever reason, future is very black.

Everybody with some sort of chance in life eventually wakes up. The descent into drugs and that sort of sordid and hopeless life-style can be arrested. The upswing to 'waking up' can be something good. Condemnation can so easily be made by the unthinking comfortable individual who 'has it all'. Most have to work at their own future, even though some have a platinum-plated background.

When police cannot (or will not - DA) act when contacted by phone about known future personal attacks on people (including serious threats to young children) and property by known (to the police) violent people, then the future action by police is the rhetorically-inspired 'what people want to hear', but no action. A complaints procedure is theoretically enabled. Repeated emergency calls result in the failure for a (fast) response (if at all - DA). The right noises. Just the noises. Any suggestion of 'if you won't then I will' end with the warning of the possible prosecution of the caller if they take action themselves.

Because the police will not

When someone is seriously harmed or worse, then maybe someone will turn up. Maybe. Eventually. What people need is the demonstration of action. Having magistrates courts sitting all night is NOT evidence of action. Evidence should result in incarceration (but there are insufficient prisons - DA).

Cutting back on 'front-line' police levels by 500 officers from the Kent area alone of 2500 is a 20% downgrading of numbers. This highly 'front-page' newsworthy coverage distributes the information that the criminals want and need to hear.

2000 police officers for the whole of Kent

And then problems elsewhere (London riots etc) cause drafting in front-line (?) officers.

  • Police drafted into London from (presumably) counties near Kent ( 2500 - 2000) will boost staffing levels from 6,000 officers in London to 16,000 officers.

The chances of getting caught and prosecuted are virtually nil when numbers are so depleted from an entire county.

Everybody 'knows' this much

Unless, of course, you are 'connected'. Got the ear of someone 'influential'. Wealth and intelligence (the virtually non-existent) ALWAYS GO TOGETHER!!! All poor people (majority) are stupid and all rich people (minority) are super-intelligent. If you haven't made lots of money, then you're stupid. 'Making money' is the marker by which intelligence is assessed.

Everybody 'knows' this much


from Financial Trick - The Illusion Of A Crisis

  • The timing is to perfection. This will almost certainly be a prelude to the introduction of considerable new laws to protect London with the up-and-coming Olympic farce. Governments have choices, but the only option to choose is financial reward and growth. But growth of a population is not the growth needed or wanted. The growing population represents a growing consumer market. The equation has become unstable and has failed. The plan has gone terribly wrong. Or has it?

  • The elitist society will grow and thrive in times of unprecedented modern-day violence. But who orchestrates it? The overblown consumer population or government wanting to introduce Draconian law resulting in a very British The Patriot Act or the consequences of a The Reichstag Fire? This will continue to oppress the people by turning the screws even tighter. The Olympics are a farce since the £bns invested on behalf of the British taxpayer for the perceived enjoyment the masses for a couple of weeks in times of austerity and cuts, cuts, cuts... What it means is less out and more in. More what? Money. Money. Money. There cannot be continued growth without a growing population of consumers to pay for it. But the more people and more automation that does not require people for manufacturing consumables then - well here we are.
Set amongst all the mayhem are two items that stand out. The generosity of the mugged Malaysian victim and the outstanding and very dignified attitude of the father (Abdul Quddoos) of one of the killed Asian men. is a message of learning to all lesser (lowest - DA) human life-forms.

The section of youth that has made progress in life and looks forward to a university education/fun-time cannot escape either. The lock-in to debt should ensure the fun-time element is greatly restricted or it's going to be a long, long time living scraping by even assuming a good job results from the time spent at university. No guarantees except the knowledge of the debt . The wealthy won't have the debt so they can move ahead in life without restrictions. Good jobs do not always come from a personal application for work, but names put forward by influential 'friends'. It's an elitist future.

The entrance to tertiary education is usually by hard work. University is no different. It's not a holiday. And it's (now and forevermore) very expensive (up to £9000 a year). This will probably increase in a few years' time whatever the Label.


It's a complex mix of
both related and
non-related issues

No easy answer
No easy question

Tuesday, August 09, 2011

British Airways - Growth

The profitability of BA is back in the black. The parasite feeds. How was it done? Growth. That's the way business works. The only way that a business can grow and buy the new stock of aircraft to flourish, notwithstanding the alleged 'global fuel crisis' (create a shortage and raise prices is standard procedure for a parasite - DA) is to sting the passenger. The lifeblood of the business. The consumer is paying for the growth of the business that they use. In business this is fair.

The consumer pays well over their
need as 'value' includes future
profitability and growth

Monday, August 08, 2011

Parasite's Tree

The nebulous concept of a New World Order continues to acquire substance.

The best place to hide a tree is in a forest. This describes a single element. If that tree were to have a single extensive and hidden root system and each sapling connected to that root system grew and matured in isolation within the forest, the forest would be infested with trees from the single source. And not noticed. Should those trees from a single root devastate all other living things then the only survivor would be the parasite.

The phoenix rises.

A simple and effectively bloodless way to create the global single new entity by destroying the old, and in the process acquiring all property, businesses, wealth and anything considered 'valuable'. Shares plummet and some of those businesses 'go to the wall'. This would be to perpetrate a massive sting and still nobody would notice that they have actually been 'stung'. The original forest would waste away to be replaced by the new growth.

Redistribution
Winners And Losers

It's a work in progress. And make no mistake, that progress is quite advanced. Societies in the global sense that are not connected by culture or location are systematically being destroyed. The tool? Debt. People are controlled by their finances.

The parasite is blindly stupid and has no vision. Unless, of course, that vision constitutes part of the 'sting'. Ultimately, the parasite will maintain a smaller host, but one that is sufficiently large to serve the parasite without draining too much in the way of resources. Currently, the out-of-control growth of the global population will be drastically curtailed. The population will be culled. And quite soon. A pandemic on a scale never seen before will wipe out vast sections of global societies. The parasite will have inoculated itself against infection and will thrive feeding from the host, but if it acquires an intelligence of its own, it can totally enslave the residual host. The parasite by definition cannot fend for itself and needs support from the host.

The entity of a New World Order will control absolutely. It must eventually turn on itself, though if the root system is a hive society, it will be single-minded. But where does it go and how can it develop into a larger and more successful parasite? The New World Order becomes a 'better' and more advanced New Host and the original host is the new parasite to just be completely destroyed. After all, the host must protect itself from parasites. The Earth will have been saved and the parasite totally transmogrified ( = reinvented) into the host and the work in progress become the work

...completed.


Sunday, August 07, 2011

Financial Trick - The Illusion Of A Crisis

An illusion is always manufactured.

The financial system has been described here as a total failure. Current global debt 'crisis' provides the growing evidence that supports this contention. The concept of Virtual Money explains how a growing debt can be financed by borrowing more money from... where?

Nowhere

There isn't any actual money

The redistribution principle also explains events. The USA is regarded (by whom? - DA) as the most advanced economic system in the world, yet the US Public Debt is currently:

$14.34 trillion 

and to prevent defaulting on repayments the Budget Control Act of 2011 was (quickly) 'introduced' to enable increased 'borrowing' and offset the US debt ceiling crisis.

  • National Debt as of Jan. 15, 2009 (Mr. Bush left office):

$10.6 trillion 


  • Debt when Mr. Bush took office (2001):

$5.7 trillion
    National Debt Increase: 

    $4.9 trillion

    (Source: U.S. Treasury Dept.)

    How many Americans are aware of this? - DA

    The US simply 'borrows' more virtual money to perform the trick of pushing the debt forwards and kicking it into the never-arriving future. The big debt of today is avoided, but the debt is bigger tomorrow as a direct result. The debt never gets paid since more finance is borrowed to technically get out of debt by obtaining more credit. It's what consumers do by paying off one credit card by borrowing on another. This is frowned upon by government, yet they hypocritically do it themselves. The taxpayer isn't asked if they agree to the increased size of the yoke that government spending has created. They are expected to pay for it through increased taxes to settle a non-existent (virtual) debt.

    All governments are just different parts of the same beast, but just dressed up to only 'appear' different.


    They are NOT

    The questions that are never asked:
    1. Who is the Lender?
    2. Who gets all the interest on the debt?
    3. Why does (bad) debt get bought up?
    Well, clearly there is no loan, but the taxpayer is charged for the virtual interest on the virtual (non-existent) loan. If money can be 'created' then this is how it's done. Finance isn't actually created, just the debt. The financial crisis can be regarded as a trick to introduce (and hide - DA) the apparent 'creation' of money.

    Quantitative Easing


    Debt-creation is inflationary and causes increased (invisible and totally virtual) interest on the debt.

    The taxpayer never pays anything towards a debt mountain, of course, since there isn't one. The money is collected though through the imposition of taxes and cuts, cuts, cuts... it's all about control and fear. And the introduction of the 'necessary' cuts. And the chains. The device has been used before: the act of alleged external 'terrorism' to introduce measures that would otherwise be complete non-starters.

    Any desirable state changes can be introduced on the back of 'terrorism'. But who is the terrorist? There is always someone to point a finger at, but in reality how can anything be verified? As usual, because government says so, it'll be believed (not here - DA).

    Tottenham Fires

    The timing is to perfection. This will almost certainly be a prelude to the introduction of considerable new laws to protect London with the up-and-coming Olympic farce. Governments have choices, but the only option to choose is financial reward and growth. But growth of a population is not the growth needed or wanted. The growing population represents a growing consumer market. The equation has become unstable and has failed. The plan has gone terribly wrong. Or has it?

    The elitist society will grow and thrive in times of unprecedented modern-day violence. But who orchestrates it? The overblown consumer population or government wanting to introduce Draconian law resulting in a very British The Patriot Act or the consequences of a The Reichstag Fire? This will continue to oppress the people by turning the screws even tighter. The Olympics are a farce since the £bns invested on behalf of the British taxpayer for the perceived enjoyment of the masses for a couple of weeks in times of austerity and cuts, cuts, cuts, . What it means is less out and more in. More what? Money. Money. Money. There cannot be continued growth without a growing population of consumers to pay for it. But the more people and more automation that does not require people for manufacturing consumables then - well here we are.

    It happens with house prices. Up and up and... to a limit. Then they plateau, otherwise more would be living on the streets as property prices would be so high few who did not already have a property could afford to buy one. Many are still hostage to the debt cycle.

    With the austerity cuts (manufactured or not - DA) consumers have more perceived needs than actual needs for a comfortable life-style and many are imposing a 'cut' back of their own as a result. The consumer market is dwindling so the population growth must be advanced.

    Planet Earth swamped by
    the growing parasite

    Gluttony will destroy the planet. It's inevitable. Mix this up with individual competitiveness (selfishness) and the recipe just accelerates the end point towards destruction. Everyone dies: the paradoxical fact of life. It may well be just a bit sooner. Planet Earth will survive. That's also inevitable. Any trace of an earlier existence of 'human-type' life would be buried. Vegetation and trees would rapidly change the climate resulting in violent storms. Subduction would eventually remove surface traces of earlier life to be taken down into the cauldron of the mantle.

    The choice was made a long time ago way back in history. And it's money. Screw the people in every way. Allow and actively encourage the consuming population to grow and grow and ...
      True value doesn't change, but perceptions of value do. That Old Master painting bought and then sold for always more than originally purchased makes for a good investment. Someone will always buy it up as an investment. Capital gains tax could apply, but even if it does a high return would still be expected. The wealthy 'footballers' buy up mansions not to live in, but simply as a sound investment. Property (usually) appreciates in the longer term.

        Saturday, August 06, 2011

        Fukushima Daiishi

        Madness Of Nuclear Power
        Nuclear Contamination

        The Fukushima Daiishi disaster in Japan (11th March 2011) exemplifies the consequences of nuclear power and when things go wrong, they go terribly wrong. It has nothing to do with how resistant a plant may be to damage. It is the beast that is contained within. It is dreadful. The reactor should never have been sited where it was on a tectonic plate intersection, but regardless of the conspiracy of factors that caused the 'accident' (waiting to happen - DA) it was a monumental disaster the consequences of which will continue for literally 100's of millennia. The tsunami that preceded it was insignificant by comparison.

        Note added: 01.05.2012

        The public lecture of Dr. Helen Caldicott (video) and Global Research.ca (transcript) well-describes the situation. There is no exaggeration in what she describes.

        The reactors partially withstood the earthquake, but the external electricity supply was cut off, and the electricity supplies the cooling water, a million gallons a minute, to each of those six reactors. Without the cooling water, the water [level] falls, and the rods are so hot they melt, like at Three Mile Island, and at Chernobyl.

        U.S.NRC - United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission

        When the emergency diesel generators, which are as large as a house, got destroyed by the tsunami, there was no way to keep the water circulating in the reactors. Also, on the roof of the reactors, not within the containment vessel, are cooling pools. Every year they remove about thirty tons of the most radioactive rods that you can possibly imagine. Each one is twelve feet long and half an inch thick. It gives out so much radiation, that if you stand next to it for a couple of minutes, you'll die. Not drop dead. Remember Litvinenko, the Russian, who got poisoned by polonium? You'll die like that, with your hair falling out, and bleeding with massive infection, like AIDS patients die.

        And [the spent fuel rods] are thermally hot, so they have to be put in a big pool, and continually cooled. The pool has really no roof. There have been three hydrogen explosions, blowing off the roof of the building, not the containment vessel of the core, but the roof. And exposing the cooling pool. Two of the cooling pools are dry. They have no water in them. Meaning that the nuclear fuel rods are covered with a material called zirconium. When zirconium is exposed to air, it burns, it ignites. Two of the cooling pools at this moment are burning. In the cooling pools are many times, like 10 to 20 times more radiation than in each reactor core. In each reactor core is as much long-lived radiation as would be produced by a thousand Hiroshima-sized bombs. We are dealing with diabolical energy.

        E=mc^2 is the energy that blows up nuclear bombs. Einstein said nuclear power is a 'hell of a way to boil water'. Because that is all nuclear power is used for, to boil water through the massive heat, turn it into steam, and turn a turbine which generates electricity. Now when you fission uranium, 200 new elements are formed, all of which are much more poisonous to the body than the original uranium. Although uranium is pretty poisonous. America used it in Fallujah, and in Baghdad. And in Fallujah, 80 per cent of the babies being born are grossly deformed. They're being born without brains, single eyes, no arms... The doctors have told the women to stop having babies. The incidence of childhood cancer has gone up about twelve times. This is genocide - it's a nuclear war being conducted in Iraq. The uranium that they're using lasts more than 4.5 billion years. So we're contaminating the cradle of civilization. "The coalition of the willing!"

        In the nuclear power plants, however, there is a huge amount of radiation: two hundred elements. Some last seconds, some last millions of years. Radioactive iodine lasts six weeks, causes thyroid cancer.  That's why people are saying, "Better take potassium iodide," because that blocks the thyroid uptake of radioactive iodine, which later can cause thyroid cancer.

        In Chernobyl, over 20,000 people have developed thyroid cancer. They have their thyroids out, and they will die unless they take thyroid replacement every day, like a diabetic has to take insulin. Strontium-90 will get out, it lasts for 600 years.  It goes to the bone, where it causes bone cancer or leukemia. Cesium lasts for 600 years - it's all over Europe. 40 per cent of Europe is still radioactive. Turkish food is extremely radioactive. Do not buy Turkish dried apricots, or Turkish hazelnuts.The Turks were so cross with the Russians, they sent all their radioactive tea over to Russia after Chernobyl. Forty per cent of Europe is still radioactive. Farms in Britain, their lambs are so full of cesium they can't sell them. Don’t eat European food.

        But that's nothing compared to what's happening now. One of the most deadly [nuclear byproducts] is plutonium, named after Pluto, god of the underworld. One millionth of a gram, if you inhale it, would give you cancer. Hypothetically, one pound of plutonium if evenly distributed could give everyone on earth cancer.  Each reactor has 250 kilograms of plutonium in it. You only need 2.5 kilograms to make an atomic bomb, because plutonium is what they make bombs with.

        It's the probable reason that plutonium is used and not thorium for energy.

        So any country that has a reactor, works with your uranium. You [Canada] are the biggest exporter of uranium in the world. Canada sells two things: it sells wheat for life, and uranium for death. Plutonium is going to get out and spread all over the northern hemisphere. It's already heading towards North America now. Radioactive iodine, plus strontium, plus cesium, plus tritium, and I could go on and* on and on. When it rains, downs come fallout, and it concentrates in food. If it gets into the sea, the algae concentrate it, hundreds of times. And the crustaceans concentrate it, hundreds of times. And then the little fish, then the big fish, then us.

        Because we stand on the apex of the food chain. You can't taste these radioactive food elements, you can't see them, you can't smell them. They're silent. When you get them inside your body, you don't suddenly drop dead of cancer, it takes five to sixty years to get your cancer, and when you feel a lump in your breast, it doesn't say, "I was made by some strontium-90 in a piece of fish you ate twenty years ago."

        All radiation is damaging.  It's cumulative - each dose you get adds to your risk of getting cancer. The americium is more dangerous than plutonium - I could go on and on. Depends if it rains if you're going to get it or not. If it rains and the radiation comes down, don't grow food, and don't eat the food, and I mean don't eat it for 600 years. Radioactive waste from nuclear power is going to be buried, I hear, next to Lake Ontario.  It's going to leak, last for millions of years, it's going to get into the water, and into the food chains.  Radioactive waste will induce epidemics of cancer, leukemia, and genetic disease for the rest of time. This is the greatest public health hazard the world has ever witnessed, apart from the threat every day of nuclear war.


        Einstein said "the splitting of the atom changed everything, save man's mode of thinking" - very profound - "and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe."  We are arrogant, we have a lot of hubris, and I think the reptilian mid-brain of some men's (and women's - DA) brains is pathological. We are in a situation where we have harnessed the energy of the sun. It is totally out of control. And there's simply nothing we can do about it.