T-6 Days

 

The end of the world is nigh so apocalypse observers would have us believe. The Mayan calendar may have begun in 3114BC and continued accurately ever since, but it comes to an abrupt halt on 21 December 2012. Hence, the belief that the cosmos will cease to exist in a few days' time...It would have been my brother Phillip’s 53rd birthday on the 21st.

Soon enough; without the help of the Mayans, this will all end for each of us one way or another and then our entire current personal world will fold in upon itself to dissipate into the cosmological machine. The time of that event is unimportant because probably we are living multiple parallel lives that span simultaneously the whole of time. When one strand finishes another begins and joins with those already in play.  They touch, caress and repel with equal force through the spatial time layers triggering thoughts and reverie in us from the other strand events.

We have already lived so many lives flowing ceaselessly through time in multiple directions and will subsist in so many more that we have no need to fear anything from the future; for not all of them can be tainted by our current measures of regret and longing. That is my belief because in the final analysis; just one lifetime would be too easy. The world and the universe don’t appear to do fair and uncomplicated in this strand. But hope is a child born of hidden knowledge garnered in the cosmic cycle of rebirth.

 

 

Bread prices set to rise after bad weather hits UK wheat crop. The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said millers were expected to import 2m tonnes of mostly German wheat to make up for a 13% shortfall in the home-grown crop. It will be the biggest wheat import since 1980, and is expected to lead to a substantial increase in the price of bread next year.

The price of bread-quality wheat for delivery rose by £5.50 a tonne last week to £261.50 a tonne, according to the Home Grown Cereals Authority (HGCA), a trade body.The cost of basic feed wheat on the futures market rose to a record high of £227 a tonne, a 45% increase since January. Global wheat prices are also at near-record highs.

Glencore, the global commodities trader, which controls about 8% of the global wheat trade, is expected to be a big beneficiary of the price rise. This year the boss of its food trading business said the worst drought to hit the US since the 1930s would be ‘good for Glencore’.

Chris Mahoney, head of Glencore's agricultural division, told investors this summer. "High prices, lots of volatility, a lot of dislocation, tightness, a lot of arbitrage opportunities (exploiting price differences in different markets). In terms of the outlook for the balance of the year, the environment is a good one.”

Thanks for the reassurance Chris and perhaps it is good for Glencore investors but probably not so good for the rest of us – no wonder they call money by the old euphemism ‘dough’.

See full story in the Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/dec/04/bread-prices-uk-wheat-crop

 

David Cameron refused to undermine 300 years of Press freedom yesterday as he rejected the key recommendations of the Leveson Report to bolster a new press code with statutory underpinning (a voluntary code of practice for the press that is backed up if needed by the law.)

Without statutory underpinning

None of us will ever be winning
The politicians continue grinning
The press will carry on sinning
 

David Cameron’s mettle is being tested and unfortunately he’s buckled already. Levenson’s report despite my initial scepticism it would be a whitewash seems to be fair, balanced and walking in the right direction. If the recommendations are not implemented then all it proves is that the powerful vested interests who twitter on about the traditions and freedom of the press have something to fear from it. We need to move on from journalism laws of the 17^th century. It will harm nothing in the way of honest, investigative journalism and empower people savaged by the noxious fumes from current affairs that quickly wither in importance leaving behind destroyed reputations and lives for those affected. Currently libellous redress is only for the rich.  Time for change; so do the right thing, Prime Minister.

"As good for you today as it's always been."  - maybe but obviously not so good for the employees.

Premier Foods, the maker of the iconic Hovis bread, has announced it is to shut two bakeries and axe 900 jobs as part of plans to overhaul the struggling bread business.

From Wikipedia

The last major British television and cinema advertisement launched was in 2008 to promote its Hovis brand of bread. The 122-second piece name ‘Go On Lad’ was commissioned as part of a £15,000,000 brand relaunch designed to reverse Hovis' declining market share and profits. The commercial follows the journey of a young boy through 122 years of British history, from the establishment of the Hovis brand in 1886 to the current day. The campaign was handled by advertising agency Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy. Production of the commercial itself was contracted to London-based production company Rattling Stick, with post-production handled by The Mill. It was directed by Ringan Ledwidge.

The advertisement, and its associated campaign, proved a popular, critical, and financial success. Its launch was covered by several national newspapers within the United Kingdom, including The Independent, The Daily Mail, and The Daily Mirror, on television programming such as the Granada Reports and Loose Women, and by over 300 local and national radio stations. Sales of Hovis products jumped by over £12,000,000 in the weeks following the launch of Go On Lad, and over 1,000 unsolicited letters and e-mails were sent to Hovis praising the piece. The campaign received dozens of awards from the advertising and television industries, including Gold’s at the Creative Circle Awards, the Marketing Society Awards, and the British Television Advertising Awards. In 2009, the British public voted ‘Go On Lad’ the best television commercial of the decade.
 

 

One in eight mortgages now issued are for buy-to-let landlords (so with cash sales of property where no mortgage is needed probably 25% of all home sales are now to landlords.)

• Almost 40pc of high interest ‘payday’ loans are used to buy food
• Comet (country wide electric retailer) now in administration with the loss of 7000 jobs
• Marks and Spencer and Morrison’s (national retailers) posting gloomy results
• NHS complaints rising exponentially as all the private interventions and lack of funding begin to unravel it.

 

Wealth always flows up from the poor like rain returning to clouds

But now they have been eviscerated by the economy; where to next?
Go to the tax avoiders, corporations and financial robber barons; or...
Into the purses, wallets and vaults of the old, the poor and the frail
If Westminster can't regulate all this; well, then they can't do anything
But we all knew that already! So what happens subsequently in this game?
Where the pawns are always the first to lose and the tall queen takes all

Badger Cull U-Turn

Farmers were expected to start shooting badgers in west Somerset and west Gloucestershire this week to stop the spread of alleged bovine tuberculosis. But a statement to the House of Commons, said the cull will have to be delayed because farmers are not ready. The cull had been delayed by the Olympics and Paralympics because not enough police were available to manage protests until after the events had finished. The weather has also made it difficult for farmers to find the time to bait setts and carry out surveys. In addition, a survey last week showed that the number of badgers in the cull areas has increased, with 4,300 in west Somerset and 3,600 in west Gloucestershire. At least 70 per cent of badgers (or 5530 of them) must be removed from an area for there to be a reduction in TB in cattle.

Somebody has pointed out that in contrast the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium and France all have badgers but NO major issues with bovine TB. The real question now in reality is if the UK cattle have infected the badgers in the first place and not the other way around. TB originating due to bad husbandry and poor stock movement controls.

In another related issue that is almost now given approval by this stupid planned cull two men have been arrested in Lancashire following a series of police raids linked to badger baiting. The operation followed reports from the Helmshore area that a number of men had been digging badgers from setts and then throwing them to dogs. A dead badger with a shotgun wound to the head was later found at the site.

I guess they just couldn’t wait for the cull to begin – what a sad world we live in! Animals today people tomorrow.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/9627975/Badger-cull-delayed-as-minister-blames-weather-and-Olympics.html

Just a couple of articles I read yesterday. The butterfly art work and the badger cull each pose a moral question on the acceptability of our attitudes towards the species inhabiting the earth with us.  The badger cull is simply breathtaking in its scope and ideology. I hope it does not take place.

 9,000 butterflies died as part of an art work

 The artist Damien Hirst has come under fire after it emerged that more than 9,000 butterflies died as part of an art work in his latest exhibition. Even by Damien Hirst’s standards it was an unusual artwork – two windowless rooms swirling with live butterflies. Visitors to the exhibit at the Tate Modern in London observed the insects close-up as they flew, rested, and fed on bowls of fruit.

But whilst the work, In and Out of Love, was praised by many art critics when it featured in the gallery’s Hirst retrospective earlier this year, it has now landed the artist in a row with the RSPCA.

Figures obtained from the Tate reveal that more than 9,000 butterflies died during the 23 weeks that the exhibition was open.  Each week it was replenished with approximately 400 live butterflies to replace those that died – some of them trodden underfoot, others injured when they landed on visitors’ clothing and were brushed off.

 All life is a manifestation of infinite consciousness, and we cannot pretend to have evolved to a higher level of consciousness if we treat other sentient beings with such indifference. Butterflies may be low down in the order of sentience, but contempt for other life forms extrapolates into ever greater forms of abuse. Art should elevate the human consciousness – not debase it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/9606498/Damien-Hirst-condemned-for-killing-9000-butterflies-in-Tate-show.html

Badger cull 'mindless', say scientists

Government's chief scientist among those who dispute evidence used to justify killings, which may begin imminently. Britain's top animal disease scientists have launched a devastating attack on the government's "mindless" badger cull, accusing ministers of failing to tell the truth and demanding the immediate abandonment of the killings.

The intervention by dozens of the nation's most senior experts, in a letter in the Observer, comes as farmers prepare to begin the cull in Gloucestershire and Somerset, possibly as early as tomorrow. The governments own chief scientist has refused to back the killings.

More than 30 eminent animal disease experts describe the cull as a "costly distraction" that risks making the problem of tuberculosis in cattle worse and that will cost far more than it saves. The cull, could wipe out 100,000 badgers, a third of the national population. The cull policy is "mindless", according to Lord John Krebs, one of the UK's most eminent scientists and the architect of the landmark 10-year culling trials that ended in 2007. "The scientific case is as clear as it can be: this cull is not the answer to TB in cattle. The government is cherry-picking bits of data to support its case."

Another signatory, Lord Robert May, a former government chief scientist and president of the Royal Society, said: "It is very clear to me that the government's policy does not make sense."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2012/oct/14/letters-observer

I made this graph of the combined medals from the Olympic and Paralympic games -  I have to say the paralympics were done very well by everyone - simply inspirational.

Yep the stadiums with rows of empty seats at events because well; we couldn’t possibly give them to the ordinary citizens, an opening ceremony that even we British couldn’t fathom out. It was kind of working till we got to the weird NHS and typical British family and music bit. The Industrial revolution and the forging of the ring and the Queen and James Bond sketch was inspired, as was the torch...now that was a work of art. Someone called it a typically British opening ceremony and well; I think we’ll leave it there. Still you’ve got to admire the Indian student in red who sneaked in with the Indian team during the opening ceremony. Well it’s a bit worrying given the security arrangements that are supposed to be in place. Still no gold medal for Team GB in sight yet...but plenty of time to get one in the Coca-Cola (sorry London) Olympics. Bring on the fries and big Mac.

Well I won’t be watching the opening ceremony tonight. I am going to tape it though and skim through tomorrow. In some ways I cannot now wait for this to be all over. The BBC has gone absolutely mad dropping almost every other topic of news in favour of the Olympics and it is beginning to switch me off. It seems that the Olympics have already been here forever. So far just about every man and his dog in the country have carried the Olympic torch. Luckily they haven’t knocked on my door yet...so I think I shall escape. However if they come for me I shall have to go as I think they used some emergency parliamentary powers to now make it a hate crime to not love the Olympics...

I actually thought at the beginning of this that the games were going to be for all the country but silly me, no......it’s again all about London. Let spend billions in London and just sod the rest of the country. Now that’s a recurring theme.

Five ring to rule them all, five rings to find them

Five rings to bring them all and with the BBC bind them
In the land of London 2012 where the shadows lie

13 trillion pounds in offshore tax havens:

A new report by tax researchers estimates the amount of money deposited by a 'global super-rich elite' in offshore accounts is trillion of pounds - equivalent of the combined GDP of the US and Japan.

In an appendix, the report says that "(it) first became evident in the late 1980s that a vast amount of capital was pouring out of the developing world". The report suggests that for many developing countries the cumulative value of the capital that has flowed out of their economies since the 1970s would be more than enough to pay off their debts to the rest of the world.

In the report, James Henry, former chief economist at consultancy McKinsey and an expert on tax havens, shows that at least 13 trillion pounds - perhaps up to 20 trillion pounds - has leaked out of scores of countries into secretive jurisdictions such as Switzerland and the Cayman Islands with the help of private banks.

 They must have dug a bloody big hole