Are Dictators Stupid?
It would appear that Robert Mugabe has fallen for a scam where a mystic claims he can get diesel out of rock. The story is here in The Times.
So he proves my title for a start.
This is one of my favourite books. The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy
Shmpoo Rage
My hair is what I call normal, especially since I went gluten-free, which cured my dandruff. But are their any normal shampoos left. In Waitrose today, I could get shampoo for everything like frizz, colour and dry, but not for normal!
So I@m going back to Fairy Liquid
It sounds like one for the new Discrimination Act!
Bad Dog Owners
Some work done by I think the Metropolitan Police showed that if they stopped a car with no Road Tax, insurance or MOT, then there was a fifty percent chance that the occupants of the car were committing or had committed another non-motoring offence.
I wonder if similar research has been done into the owners of hard-looking dogs, when they walk around the streets, giving a message, that we don’t want to see!
I suspect, it would show similar results to the cars.
A Sad Tale from India
I received a message this morning, which looked like spam, but it was informing me about a little girl, called Pooja, who has been rescued by the Police in Kerala from kidnappers.
It would appear to be genuine as it is mentioned on the Kerala Police web site and in other blogs.
Even if they don’t find Pooja’s parents, it just shows how the Internet might be able to help.
Justice – Virginia Style
We have all protested about the proposed stoning of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani in Iran, but why is it the European governments are absolutely silent and not protesting about the execution of Teresa Lewis in Virginia, especially as she is just a point on the IQ scale above the legal minimum for execution in the United States.
The least we should do is to suspend fast track extradition to the United States. By not protesting we are actually condoning the horrific sentence.
But then the United States doesn’t believe in justice but vengeance!
A Red Kite at Peterborough
As we drove up the A1 to Redcar, we noticed a red kite gliding above the motorway as we approached Peterborough.
It was a very good sight of a large bird in an unexpected place. As they are carrion feeders, perhaps it was looking for a tasty road-kill!
Let’s hope that in future, kites become a much commoner sight.
The Car of the Future?
Gordon Murray is one of the most innovative car designers of the past few decades, famous for racing and sports cars. So what do you get if he turns his mind to designing a car for everyone?
You get this!
It just goes to show what happens, when you throw convention out of the window, and think about what people really what. Whether they can be convinced they need it, is another matter! But give people good design and they usually like it!
But as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door!”
Science Fiction about Market Research
Seeing some of the comments in The CEO’s E-Mail Address, reminded me of one of my favourite books; Counterfeit World (Simulacron 3 in the US)by Daniel F. Galouye, This is a classic science fiction tale set in the world of market research and computers. It is out of print now and hasn’t been reprinted like another of his books, Dark Universe (Gollancz SF collectors’ editions)
According to Wikipedia, GAlouye is one of Rjchard Dawkins’ favourite writers.
.
An Alternative Recycling System
Various organisations, like the Council for the Fossilisation of Rural England, think that all glass bottles should have a deposit that is returned, when you take the bottle back.
This is very old thinking as these days we can do much better!
I recycle all my glass and put it in one of those large cylindrical containers in one of the neighbouring villages, as we don’t have one in the village where I live. These are then craned away on to a truck to go to the central recycling centre, The system works well, except when the containers gets filled and the truck doesn’t empty them for a few days. Incidentally, most recycled glass round here ends up being used as road-stone and hardcore. This may seem a waste, but I think it is actually, the most energy efficient way of reusing the glass and it avoids the need for digging hole to extract gravel.
I got to think, that this system could easily be modifed to create an incentive to recycle.
Let’s take glass bottles, although it could easily work with things like newspapers, old clothes and rags, aluminium cans or plastic bottles.
You would create a Recycling Fund, that was either filled up by a levy on all glass bottles sold or directly by central government.
The recycling container would be stamped with an empty weight and every time it was collected, it would be weighed to ascertain how much glass had been recycled. I suspect that the crane on the truck could do this very simply and easily.
Councils would then have a map of which areas recycled the most bottles say, and this would then earn that area an appropriate proportion of the Recycling Fund, which could be spent how the area wanted. Perhaps, they might want a children’s playground to be refurbished, some public toilets re-opened or just some flower baskets.
What has been created is a virtuous circle. The more you recycle, the more you get for local projects. Areas that didn’t recycle wouldn’t get any special projects, but those that did would get a substantial environmental improvement.
I suspect that such a scheme would be affordable and non-bureaucratic to run. It could also be run initially without a bottle charge, so that people saw trhe benefits before they paid.
Boiler Room Scams on BBC Radio Tonight
They are investigating boiler room scams on the Adrian Goldberg program tonight on BBC Radio 5 Live at 21:00!
The Anonymous Widower 