£1000 fine for using the wrong bin? Something very wrong here.

There is something very wrong with a country that can fine an ordinary person up to £1000 ($1400) for using the wrong bin, or for putting too much waste into one, while it cannot even fine violent criminals an appropriate amount. Is it just another cynical attempt to tax by stealth? The thing is that many councils do not recycle recyclable waste properly anyway!

Britain has a higher violent crime rate than the US and any country in Europe, according to the Conservative Party. Its no wonder when you look at the fact that most violent criminals are fined less than £1000 and even then given ridiculous lengths of time to pay. One man recently was fined £750 for a violent mugging (plus a suspended sentence) and was ordered to pay at the rate of £1.50 a week. Thats over 9 years to pay!

Our schools admit that one in ten children cannot read or write properly when they leave school. Our university graduates cannot spell or add up without a calculator. Our only 'Boom Industries' are Crime and Punishment. Britain is fast becoming a refuge for the lazy, the criminal, and the incompetent. Something needs to be done about it.

It is time I think for the legal system of this country to be quietly dismantled, the rubbish stripped out, and a new system concocted which stands a chance of working in this Modern Age.

Princess Diana Death Mystery Deepens

If we are honest with ourselves most British people believe that Diana was murdered by persons unknown, perhaps even by MI6 for some reason.

Now a new book by an Australian investigator who has been working on the case for years has opened a new chapter in the story.

Mr Morgan, 53, from Brisbane, Australia has written a book called The Diana Inquest: the Untold Story, which alleges a cover-up by the authorities in France.

Only recently leading QC Michael Mansfield claimed that Diana and Dodi were killed as a result of a botched plot aimed at putting an end to their love affair. Mr Mansfield stated that the saboteurs wanted to scare the lovers into parting but their plans backfired tragically.

Mr Morgan says tests on blood samples revealed traces of prescription drugs that Mr Henri Paul (Dianas driver) was not taking, while finding no evidence of other medication he was known to be on. In addition one blood sample was labelled XM which in the morgue was the normal way of saying unknown male.
“Questions were raised, even at the London inquest, that there were two bodies in the room and that blood samples could have been taken from another body.”The levels were more consistent, he claims, with what you would expect from the body of someone who committed suicide by feeding a hosepipe from a car exhaust into their vehicle.

Mr Morgan states that if the level of carbon monoxide in the blood sample was accurate, Henri Paul would have been staggering and not as CCTV taken at the Ritz hotel shows, walking normally.

Amazingly the French experts responsible for the tests, Dominique Lecomte and Gilbert Pepin, were not called as witnesses at the 2008 inquest in London and their testimony would have been essential since the question was raised as to whether there were two bodies in the room at the time of the post-mortem examination. There is a possibility that the samples were taken from the wrong corpse.


That there was a cover up of some sort seems now beyond doubt. If there was a cover up then the highest profile murder of the century has gone unpunished, and doubtless will continue to do so. The British establishment as ever remains silent.

Jesus in a Jar of Marmite?

Claire and Gareth Allen of Ystrad Rhondda (Wales) noticed the image on the underside of the Marmite lid as they were putting the yeast spread on toast.

Gareth said:

"When I first looked at it I wasn't sure, but when I moved it away from me it started coming out. I thought yeah, she's right - that's the image of Jesus.

Personally I think it looks more like the head of a Celtic warrior especially since it is in Wales - so perhaps its the spirit of Owain Glyndwr that is with them!

The human mind is built to see patterns and will make a pattern at any conceivable opportunity. The miraculous face of Jesus has been seen before in many places including on toast (presumably without the aid of Marmite but it did require cheese)  and even on a dogs bottom! Perhaps the last is not a miracle at all....hmmm.

Chile Earthquake Causes Shorter Days - Crustal Slip?

Yep. Our day is now shorter. In addition the axis of rotation has changed. Richard Gross, a scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and colleagues calculated that Saturday's quake in Chile shortened the day by 1.26 microseconds. Fortunately it will be a while before we see 23 hour days since it would require around 2.8 billion magnitude 8.8 earthquakes to do it! In addition the axis of the earths rotation has shifted to one side by a few inches.

The main worry however is (or should be) the increasing rate of vulcanism. this is exactly the sort of activity which could precede a crustal slip event. Quakes like the Chile earthquake are what we can expect along all the fault lines as the earths crust is forced to rotate by weight imbalance around its core.

This theory which explains historical phenomena like the magnetic poles shifting and warm climate creatures like mammoths being deep frozen so fast that the food in their gut does not have time to decompose was a favorite one of Einsteins. He was right about relativity so why not about this?

What is known from fossilised magnetic crystals is that the earths crust has in the past moved almost 180 degrees in one go. Other smaller slips of seven or ten degrees are commonplace. Fag Packet type calculations show that civilisation would be hard put to survive even one of the smaller slips, depending on how fast it happened and more importantly how much force occurred when it stopped! Buildings especially tall ones are not designed to stand large sideways G forces. A whole ocean full of water is not going to stop moving when the crust beneath it does - Tsunamis have nothing on what could occur then.

This is the way friction based phenomena such as a crustal slippage work. Do an experiment yourself. Get a magazine and place a box of matches or something similar on it. Slowly tilt the magazine until the matchbox begins to move. Notice how it starts with a jerk and then accelerates smoothly before dropping off the end of the magazine. Now do the same thing again but before the matchbox slides off the magazine tip the magazine back towards the horizontal. The matchbox jerks to a halt almost immediately.

Now imagine this. The ground beneath your feet instantly begins to move to your left at a speed of five or six miles per hour. Many buildings collapse, there is immense damage etc. Lets say you are 'lucky' and you survive this.

Over the next eight hours or so the wind is always coming from the same direction and getting stronger and stronger (in fact you are accelerating to 150MPH relative to the atmosphere!)until they blow so hard you cannot stand up. The air temperature is getting hotter and hotter until you can hardly stand it, the ground beneath your feet is hot, close to 70 degrees perhaps above boiling in places where the earths crust is thin.

WHAM! Now the ground beneath your feet stops and you find yourself and everything else that is not securely fixed to the earth is moving at 150MPH relative to the surface. Let us assume you are 'lucky' again and hit a 40 meter long stack of mattresses somebody has carelessly left stacked against the side of a low incredibly strong building that is still standing.

Now here comes the ocean moving at 150MPH - a wall of water several miles high washes up to 50 miles inland. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur on a global scale loading the upper atmosphere with dust. What crops are left fail and the earth mercifully begins to cool from its intolerable temperature. Hurricanes however are a weekly occurrance and it is windy and rainy all the time. The climate and weather system will take around five years to return to near normal. You are now 1100 miles North or South relative to the poles from where you started - it was only a small 10 degree slip!

Crustal Slippage is a bitch. Its why we need to keep a careful eye on these unexpected quakes like the Chile earthquake!

Russia Olympics Management Team to be sent to Salt Mines

Well not quite... but Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called for the Russian Olympic officials to resign. Shipment to the salt mines is such a pre-glasnost idea that it probably will not happen.

His actual words however were quite sinister - "they should take the brave decision and submit their resignations," Medvedev said, adding ominously: "If they cannot do it, we will help them!"

Russia Olympic hopes were somewhat tattered as the country came 11th in the winter games, its worst ever performance, with only three golds.

This might well be traced to the Soviet Union break-up which drastically cut the catchment area from which the Russian Olympic team could be built. The fear is that in the next winter Olympics which Russia are due to host (at Sochi on the Black Sea) the home country will put in a similar lack-lustre performance and be disgraced on their home ground.

One can almost hear the Russian Bears knocking back the Vodka and grumbling that this sort of thing would never have been allowed to happen in the good old days! Mind you in those days losing athletes did tend to vanish without trace, so perhaps the motivation was a little higher?

Error 8001050f Playstation Fix - Sony Catches Toyota Recall Disease

If you own a Sony PlayStation 3 then the chances are that you have recently received the PS3 error message “8001050f” (a hexadecimal error code), if not then unless you have the new PS3 slim the chances are you will see it soon. Sony have recently confirmed that they are experiencing connectivity issues on sony network with the classic PS3. Sony state they have acknowledge the problem and that they are working on a fix. By some strange twist of fate they believe the newer 250GB and Slim models are not affected.

The 8001050f error stops players from using Sony's own gaming network, reports are varied from users as to whether internet use or other machine functionality ois blocked. One user from Seattle claims his PS3 is now only good as a musical doorstop whilst another from New Jersey says it on;ly affects his ability to play multiplayer games online.

Shades of Toyotas Yaris, Corrolla, et al recalls. What is happening to Japanese industry? Once manufacturing the most reliable products in the world the Japanese giant corporations seem to be failing to deliver one by one.

The most brilliant products in the world are slowly becoming tarnished, is this the result of industrial espionage and sabotage or simply the result of the increasing unpopularity of seppuku as a business tool?

What Sony's fix for the ailing PS3 is going to be is still, after over ten days, uncertain. Hopefully it will not be simply to offer error "8001050f" sufferers the chance to buy a PS3 slim with 10% off! One thing is sure and that is with a product only costing the consumer a few hundred dollars recall (whilst still a last resort) is an extremely unlikely option. Though Sony does seem to be asking users to return some PS3 consoles. The home cure for the error "8001050f" problem that actually is reported to work is to reformat the hard drive and lose all the progress you have made in the increasingly hard to battle through games you own.

One bad sign is that the image above proves that Sony had an official Twitter account - this seems to have been suspended or removed. Usually when a Japanese company has unpopular news they go hide for a few days first to show their shame - its a cultural thing. So whilst not wishing to be a bad news bear...

Pub Quizzes in the UK

Here in the UK we have this venerable tradition of the Pub Quiz, an evening where people compete to answer questions often for a cash prize. Well on March 25th the Family Holiday Association(UK charity) are attempting to create the Worlds Biggest Pub Quiz!

I have to tell you about one of my experiences...

It was an isolated Pub on the Isle of Wight (a small island off the South Coast of the UK) and we chose it because it seemed quite popular and therefore probably served good beer or food.

When my wife, eldest child, and myself walked in a thick silence suddenly descended as all eyes swiveled to inspect us. I swallowed hard. This treatment would be about right for an isolated pub in North Wales where the locals all spoke a different language, but for a friendly English Country Pub it was all wrong.

When I walked up to the bar to order, I realised why. The Barman pointed to the sign that said 'Quiz Night - Entry Fee £5 per team. Prize £200' and asked me if we were going to compete. Apparently the event was held monthly and the pubs champions were also the Island champions. I declined.

Unfortunately my wife was of a different frame of mind, since I can remember all sorts of dodgy facts, she knew a lot about politics, and my eldest had that obsessive knowledge of sports that many pre-teen males of a certain age do. She marched up to the bar, handed over a fiver and returned clutching a piece of headed paper and a pencil.

Soon the quiz began - every two minutes or so the Bell behind the bar was rung and a new question was shouted out. An hour later we had answered twenty five questions as disparate as "What is Cilla Blacks real name?" and "What is the chemical formula for Sulfuric Acid?" and the forms were given to neighbouring tables for initial checking. The barman read out the answers for people to mark the papers.

"Put your hands up if the paper you just marked has the score I shout out!" Yelled the Barman.

"Twenty Five?" Nobody put their hands up.

"Twenty Four?" Two hands shot up. A draw.

"Looks like its the Champions Versus Overners, " declared the barman. A mixed chorus of whistles, boos and cheers subsided slowly.

We were the Overners - an Island word for Tourists and anybody really who is not born there. So it was to be a sudden death tiebreaker question.

The champions, six large full-bearded guys who looked like they either sang folk music or danced in a local Morris troupe, glared at me.

"What is the exact height of Salisbury Cathedral Steeple? The nearest answer wins, Champions first."

The champions muttered together while my wife tried to suppress a fit of the giggles. The largest of the Beardies got up and fixed me with a beady eyed glare. He thrust out his chin, pointing his beard straight at me agressively.

"Well we reckon," he said in a thick Island accent, "its got to be nigh on four hundred feet. Thats my answer."

The barman looked at me. I swallowed. Dare I give them the exact answer or should I deliberately fluff the question. What my wife knew, and they did not, was that I had played a cruel trick on the Religious Education teacher at high school and he had retaliated by making me learn off by heart the heights of the spires of all the major Cathedrals in England. Oh damn it, two hundred quid is two hundred quid.

"Exactly four hundred and four feet to the top of the stonework," I said quietly. "The top of the weathercock adds another twelve feet - it used to be fourteen feet but the tower was struck by lightning in 1741 shortening the spike by two feet."

There was a silence broken only by my wifes undiplomatic snikkering.

"Well right you are then... Heres your two hundred quid!" Said the barman, handing me the envelope and retreating hastily behind the bar.

I think the only thing that saved us from a lynching that night was that I put fifty pounds behind the bar to buy drinks for the Champions!