Fastest Digger in the World!

There is the old joke about Paddy, the Irish road worker whose dream was to become rich enough to own a JCB GT.
Well, this is now a reality. The British digger and excavator company JCB has just built a car powered by several turbocharged diesel engines of the sort that usually power their heavy plant. They've named it Dieselmax. Their aim is to beat the world record for a diesel-powered car, currently 235mph.
In tests on the runway at an RAF base the car has broken the 200 mph barrier before running out of room on the 1.6-mile stretch.
So now it's off to Bonneville in the Utah Salt Flats for an attempt on that world record.
The shape of the car is reminiscent of Donald Campbell's jet-powered Bluebird. But the sound of the engines is somewhat different. The machine screams power and speed to look at it. Let's hope the driver can take it past that magic 235 on the measured mile at Bonneville.
Perhaps Paddy's dream can become reality . . .

Massacre

This must stand along with the other horrific massacres in the world. A town in Lebanon called Qana was this morning bombed by the Israelis. Reports from various news agencies put the civilian death toll at more than 50 and at least 60 per cent of those were children.
Even the pro-Israeli White House has described it as a "tragedy" - strong words from a Jew-supporting state led by a religious fanatic like George W.
Condi Rice has cancelled her visit to Beirut. Is she scared she might be next to feel the weight of American-supplied bombs from American-supplied Israeli aircraft?
The Jews do not want peace talks - until they have severely weakened Hezbollah. Then they will be able to enter talks which will be meaningless because they will have already wreaked all the destruction they want.
Hezbollah probably started this present round of conflict. I don't know why. They are now suffering the backlash. But so are innocent civilians. That is Israel's plan. Make the innocents blame Hezbollah for their suffering.
But I think this has already backfired on the Jews. Newscasts again and again show previously "innocent" civilians taking up the cause of Hezbollah and shouting "Death to the Jews" and other anti-Semitic slogans.
Violence breeds hate. Witness the average Iraqi's reaction to Western states (in particular USA and UK). At the end of the day - which seems a long way off - we will all have to talk to each other and learn to live with one another.
Hopefully that day is not too far away - but don't hold your breath.

This MAY be Against International Law . . .

An Israeli fighter-bomber drops bombs on a Lebanese target. Israel claims it is bombing selected targets in Lebanon in order to hit Hezbollah strongholds. All very credible, you may think, since Hezbollah is firing rockets on Israeli cities. They should be stopped. Civilians are being hurt. Life in Northern Israel is being disrupted. Hezbollah has captured two Israeli soldiers so the Jewish state must go in with guns blazing to repatriate them.
The trouble is that this particular aircraft bombed a convoy of clearly-marked Red Cross ambulances carrying wounded civilians away from the devastation.
Some were killed.
More were injured.
A cowardly act which would be more believable if it had been done by Hitler's Nazis or Stalin's regime.
And what is the UN's reaction to this act? They stated that this MAY contravene international law.
Of course it does. Only despots would sink as low as bombing a humanitarian convoy of ambulances. Will the pilot of the aircraft be disciplined? More than likely he will get a medal from the xenophobic hate-mongers who claim to be the representatives of the Jewish people.
I do not condone what Hezbollah is doing. They fire rockets which cannot be pinpoint accurate so there must be many innocent deaths meted out by them.
Secretary of State Rice has gone to the Middle East for talks with the Israelis. She stopped off on the way in Beirut to talk to the Lebanese government. Is she carrying threats to both sides? Or is she there to boost the Israeli side? Why am I not comforted by the fact that the mighty USA has sent a high-profile government representative? Could it be that the US supplied, and probably even paid for, the bombs that were used against the convoy? Now the US, having facilitated the bombing of Lebanon, is now giving £16 million in medical aid to help alleviate the suffering of Lebanese civilians. How many billions is it giving to the Israelis so that they can continue to wreak destruction on Lebanese and Palestinian innocents?
The only people who can put an end to this conflict are the protagonists themselves. Race hate is the real evil in this region. Terrorism was the instigator of the modern state of Israel so they must expect a return in kind from their enemies. As such, the Jews must understand why their own terrorist tactics are now being used against them.
Hebrew and Arabic are two different languages. But each must learn to understand the other without the force of bombs and rockets.

Unrestricted or what?

Beware of Internet Service Providers who claim to give "unlimited" access to the internet at all times. I have a computer connected via "broadband" to the net using a well-known provider. They advertise "unlimited" access. Read the small print. They say in very small type that access is unlimited but if you are a heavy user during the peak hours of 6 pm to 11 pm they reserve the right to shift you to bandwidth shared by other heavy users thus giving you access equivalent to dial-up or less.
Now - I have two sons. When they are back at home from university they want reasonable access to the internet. This includes downloading material which is relevant to their studies - very often large files. To facilitate this I have provided them with a network connection to my ISP. So - I get Fair Usage Policy warnings 1, 2 and 3. Which means the provider downgrades my measly 2mb connection to next to nothing during peak hours. They even had the gall to infer an invitation to me to change my ISP by telling me how to get my MAC number from their relevant department.
They advertise that they give an 8mb service to new customers but long-standing customers like me must wait for the increased speed.
I still pay the full amount for my connection but I am not getting the "unlimited" access I paid for.
The moral of this story is simple: Firstly do read the small print before you sign up for a contract. The word "unlimited" is apparently "limited" so you can get a "limited unlimited" connection.

The Escalator goes up to . . . Nowhere

Hezbollah in Lebanon has captured two Israeli soldiers. Probably they thought that they could exchange them for many prisoners held in Israeli jails. But Israel has retaliated with brutal force, killing hundreds of Lebanese, most of whom are innocent civilians. Hezbollah retaliated with rocket attacks on Northern Israeli cities, killing and injuring tens of innocent Israelis.
And so it goes on . . .
The more rockets Hezbollah fires into Israel the more the Israelis retaliate with artillery and air strikes further and further into Lebanon. It is an unequal fight. Hezbollah has hundreds of Iranian built rockets. Israel has tons and tons of ordnance, both airborne and artillery, with which to smash Lebanese cities.
George Bush has come down on the side of the Israelis. Who could expect anything else when his government is propped up by the strong Jewish lobby (for lobby read money) in his country? And, as such, lackey Tony Blair has to follow the same line (have you noticed that we never see the colour of Blair's tongue - I suspect it is brown and I can't for the life of me think why).
But - Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells has just visited Beirut and declared that the Israeli offensive is indiscriminate and too many innocents are being swept into the conflict. Doubtless Tony will give him a good telling off when he gets back but there are at last signs that Britain is not just an American lackey.
Does nobody remember that the modern State of Israel was brought about by a United Nations cave-in to terrorism? Does that not give credence to the current campaign by Hezbollah?
I don't know. I don't want anyone to die for the sake of who owns what bit of land. But then, I am neither Arab nor Jew so what the hell do I know about it?
Only what I read and what I see of the suffering on both sides of the conflict.
God, Allah - whatever you want to call it - hear the plea of a puzzled person and help all these people to come to their senses, whatever their beliefs.

Terrorist against Terrorist

So Israel is bombing the Lebanon. Hundreds, if no thousands, of innocent civilians are dying.
Hezbollah is sending rockets into Haifa and other Northern Israeli cities. Tens of innocent civilians are dying. One set of terrorists has rockets. The other has aircraft, tanks, artillery and the backing of the mighty USA.
Israel should remember that its modern incarnation came about through terrorism - and therefore must be prepared to suffer a similar fate when it comes to defending their position.
George Bush and his lackey Blair have not condemned Israeli over-reaction.
The United Nations seems powerless against the might of the American diffidence. Perhaps there are too many Jews in influential positions in the States.
Nevertheless innocent people on both sides of the conflict are dying unnecessarily.
Why?
Don't ask me . . .

Life-saver or Damnation?

Listening to BBC Radio 4 today I heard a programme about life science research in China. The programme started with the sounds of a gurgling baby with the happy coo-ing of aunt and grandma. The presenter stated that this was a special baby because she was among the first to be born where the umbilical cord was to be kept in deep freeze so that in future, should she need it, stem cells could be taken from it to help repair damaged organs and tissue.
A Chinese professor was wheeled in to tell of all the research he and his team were doing in this field. He talked of the possible benefits of such science, especially the possibility of helping people with injured spinal cords to regain some kind of normality in their life. Usually such injuries are a sentence to immobility and suffering. The professor in question, along with many other Chinese experts, had studied in Europe and the USA and were practising in those countries when the Chinese government woke up to the fact that their best brains were being lured away by money and good facilities in foreign lands. They set about building the institutions and facilities to entice their nationals back to work in China.
Good for them - after all there are many of their population who can benefit from their expertise. But one can't help but think, as was inferred in the programme, that the Chinese want to be seen to excel in the area. That they want to be looked on as a super-power in the field of science.
The professor talked about the morality of using human foetuses in the research and in treatments. His outlook was quite logical. Is it sensible to throw away valuable material which could save lives? The International Agreements which prevail state that no material should be used from foetuses older than 24 weeks, and the professor stated that all Chinese research was governed by a rule of a 16-week maximum. Chinese beliefs and philosophy - right back to Confucius - doesn't think of personality until the baby is born. That's what they believe, so to limit their research to the 16-week rule is considerably more than their cultural beliefs allow.
But of course many in the world think that a being is created at the instant of conception. President Bush seems to be among them because he has just overruled a Bill passed by Congress allowing stem cell research. I can't help thinking if this is more for political expediency than solidly-held beliefs on the part of our George. He could be thinking that the protest from the considerable Pro-Life lobby in America would be very damaging during his last term of office and he would go down in history as the "baby-murdering President".
Further into the radio programme the presenter interviewed an American MS sufferer who had gone to China for stem-cell treatment. He claimed considerable alleviation of symptoms.
I don't have any pat answers. I can see the pros and cons of both sides to an extent. But I wish someone had put my umbilical cord into deep freeze so that I might benefit if I needed it. I hope Bush can look sufferers and dying people in the eye and say that ethically it would be wrong to treat them.
Likewise I hope the Chinese professor can convince mothers who have lost their babies that good will come from their pain. And I hope that there is strict regulation of such research to prevent abuse.

At last - a Purpose in Life . . .

Recent internet re-unions with old friends have led me to a new purpose in life. Let me explain. Very recently I was able to regain contact with Pete, a bass-player from a band I was in 35 years ago. That's a long time. In the few communications we have had already we have updated our family histories to each other and reminisced about old bands and old friends.
Then out of the blue Pete sent me a humorous list of explanations of various musical genres. This set me thinking and I sent him back a short list of descriptions of musical instruments and explanations of musical terminology.
On further reflection I thought - why should I keep all this knowledge to myself? Why not share it with the world via a blogsite? So today I have set up a new blogsite www.musicforbeginners.blogspot.com.
This does not pretend to be a complete encyclopaedia of music but the "comment" button is always there to be pressed by any reader who feels he or she can constructively contribute. All contributions will be considered by me and if I think they warrant inclusion I will enter them in the appropriate place.
As you will see when you go to the site the list is by no means complete but your contributions will be gratefully received.

Putin 1, Bush 0

It was interesting to see news of Putin and Bush meeting at the G8 summit in St Petersburg. Mr Putin introduced Mr Bush to his very first car - what looked like a 1972 Trabant or similar. The Russian leader was able to field and answer questions in English at their joint appearance before the assembled press. He was also able to share Bush's mild joke about the fact that the car was older than the person who asked the question.
I just wonder what would happen if the summit had taken place in the US? Would they conduct the press conference in Russian? Would Bush be able to understand and answer questions in that language and join in the banter? I suspect the answers to those questions would be a resounding NO.
Insular - almost parochial - America will soldier on in the way that the old British Empire did. "If the natives don't understand you then repeat your question/command/request/order in English VERY LOUDLY until they do understand."
Mr Putin has once again got the edge on Bumbling Bush. His lack of intellect is all to obvious. But then, that sums up the whole American political system. Make sure you have the people with the brains behind you once you have won office by wheeling, dealing and publicity stunts. Only the rich can win office in America. It takes a lot of money to buy people's minds. . .

Is it worth it?

So, on Thursday I get all het up about the situation in Gaza. I tell the world to talk instead of use force. I get profound about the need to communicate with words not bombs.
All very good.
I see that someone has left a comment about my blog. I open the blog, expecting some deep, thought-provoking comment which will either support or refute my views.
What do I get by way of support for my cause? Who comes on my side and says "I'm with you - let's change the world!"
Nobody.
Instead Jose, from somewhere in Mexico, says "Hi, greetings from Mexico". That's all. No profound comment. No world-shattering remedy for the Israeli-Palestinian situation. Just some lonely prat who probably has not even read the blog and is just looking for someone to talk to.
Get out and get a life Jose. Start by looking at the world around you instead of just a the screen in front of you. That way you may even get to understand that you, among all of us, are a real human being under all that cyber-pseudo-world you inhabit.
Prats like Jose make me wonder if it is worthwhile commenting at all on the world around me. And then I feel moved to start a charity to help poor helpless souls who don't know of any world outside their computer screens!

Talks not Tanks

Listening to a BBC report it seems that not all Jews agree with the Israeli government's policy. The Israeli government is at the moment concerned by the abduction of one Corporal. He is being held by a Palestinian group who are demanding the freeing of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for his freedom. Israel has responded by sending tanks and other ordnance into the Gaza Strip in areas where they think he may be held. They have taken out a power station and other strategic points like bridges so that "it will restrict the Palestinians' ability to move the hostage around".
An influential group of British Jews has condemned this action. They say it is illegal and immoral to inflict such damage as it affects non-combatant civilians, not necessarily the hostage takers. They also infer that the damage to the civilian infrastructure is part of the Israeli government's strategy - which would be against all the rules of the Geneva Conventions.
I am still to be convinced that a country that gained its territory by terrorism has any right to claim to be legitimate. Many Israeli "statesmen" were bombers and insurgents during the 1940s. To the Jews they were freedom fighters. To the rest of the world they were terrorists.
Hamas, the legitimate democratic government of the Palestinian people, has denied any involvement in the present hostage situation. But doubtless they hope that the hostage takers will gain some advantage.
Now, if even Jews are stating that force is not the way to solve the Israeli-Palestinian problem, surely the need for negotiation and agreement is the only way for all to live.
Bugger principles. Sod the religious bigotry of both sides. Just bloody-well talk and learn to live with one another. Be an example to other areas where similar feuds are taking place.
Killing, maiming and incarcerating people is not the way to peace. Only talk and understanding and compromise will bring a peaceful co-existence.
And co-existence is the only sensible solution.
Nuff said ...

Money Talks

Thursday should be a remarkable start for the two largest developing economic powers in the world. In the cold wastes of the high Himalayas stands a border gate guarded by soldiers on both sides and fortified with ramparts and barbed wire. The only person to cross this border since 1962 is the weekly visit of a postman who has to be escorted to the barbed wire by a soldier on one side, climb through the barbed wire fence and then be escorted by a soldier from the other side to a hut. There the postbag is almost ceremonially weighed and signed for by a postman on the receiving side.
This is the border between China and India on the old Silk Road. It was closed by the Chinese in 1962 after fierce military action between the two sides. Since then nothing much has happened except the semi-ritual crossing of the post. The Chinese postman told the BBC how he journeys up to the border on horseback in the summer but in the winter the snow is too deep for the horse so he has to climb alone with the precious postbag.
This sounds very quaint.
Then you realise what the re-opening of the border is all about. They are re-building the old Silk Road. Crews on both sides of the border are making good the route in a bid to enable trucks and other vehicles to cross the border. As I stated at the beginning of this post the two countries - China and India - are the fastest-growing economies in the world. Individually they hold an increasing amount of economic clout. Think about what could happen if they start to agree on how they trade, first with each other then jointly with the rest of the world. The present economic status will be turned on its head. The US, the EU and the Japanese could find themselves with the economic status of third world countries while China and India, with many South-East Asian countries hanging on their tails, dominate.
So that's progress. We invented the system of the strong rule and the weak go to the wall. Now we will reap the results of the system, as taken on by the "anti-capitalist" Chinese and the entrepreneurial Indians.
It looks like pay-back time.
Nuff said ...