With all due apologies to Pastor Niemoller..

'First there was the Hybrid, but I do not drive urbanally much, so I did not consider.

Then there was the LPG, but I do not trust Gordon Brown on fuel taxes, so I did not consider.

Then I thought of electric, but it wouldn't get me to the nearest fuel station, much less anywhere else. So I did not consider

And finally, just when I thought bio-diesel was the way to go, there was no sodding thing left to stick in the tank that will do. And the whole thing seemed way beyond consideration any more.'

The Big Green Fuel Lie - no guys, don't hold back, say how you really feel.

Indy - Letters

The more I read, the less I know.

I guess I'll just stick with my trusty Volvo while longer. Just to be safe rather than sorry.

If all else fails, there is always Shank's Pony. I don't get out much anyway:(

Indy - Leading article: A switch to biofuels will not save the planet

ADDENDUM on Grist to a nice comment:

No problem at all , biodiversivist! It's all good, free information exchange, with a few extra Adwords points all round as icing.

And as we're on a roll, or in this case dessert analogy, I can only agree with you and hope you are right.

Shame that the best processes just seem to take their own sweet time, and the quick fixes and those with vested interests is making and shouting about them tend to get in the way en route.

Ming, er... the... erhttp://www2.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

Just watched the Friday Newsnight

Not impressed.

'Is it just me, or is the structure of the site and posting system all a bit odd at the 'mo?

May explain the massive number of posts, I guess.

Just watched my PC download, in a very staccato manner (a function of other site issues perhaps?).

Re: Unwitting discrimination

I have never really understood what the definition(s) of racism is/are, and adding institutional on to it just seems to muddy already murky waters.

Still a lot of folk are making nice careers out the whole thing.

I can only wonder how one can really address something 'unwitting', as surely by definition it is not done on purpose and is almost impossible to 'correct' without highly legitimate accusations of undue influence. And by being a whole lot more sinister than the rather quaint 'positive discrimination', which seems to mean strong-arming a result to suit un-demo or meritocratic agendas that often seem held outside the public's voting wishes.

Ms. Abbott was singularly unconvincing and uncharacteristically tongue-tied and inept when trying to explain away some rather key questions on why one sector alone was performing so poorly. In fact a tack was quickly changed almost mid-sentence, and hence maybe the piece should have been re-labelled, 'institutional class-in-London-ism' instead?

The original title could have held true had the 'wealth of qualitative evidence which suggests that black pupils are disciplined more frequently, more harshly, and for less serious misbehaviour than other pupils" - and that such a differential approach is likely to be unwitting on the part of the teachers' made it on air, but I don't recall any being mentioned. Maybe the qualitative evidence referred to was Ms. Abbott's alone? In which case it made for an interesting insight into journalism today.

Re: Lib Dem poll

Ming, er, who the heck put him in charge? I'm off to a Lib Dem 'do' soon as part of a mission to figure who in my county gets my vote as our MP is standing down.

His performance in this would have been enough to make the odds of my support pretty dim, but the more recently unveiled discussions on pacts with Mr. Brown are, if true, enough to strike that flickering light.

Looking forward to Panorama tonight, though.'


ADDENDUM:

Fixed, is it?

I just tried to post what I wrote a few days ago (see below) and got this:

Comment Submission Error
Your comment submission failed for the following reasons:
In an effort to curb malicious comment posting by abusive users, I've enabled a feature that requires a weblog commenter to wait a short amount of time before being able to post again. Please try to post your comment again in a short while. Thanks for your patience.
Return to the original entry

Or maybe 'a feature that requires a weblog commenter to wait a short amount of time before being able to post again' is what is meant by 'fixing'?

Friends in the best places

The thing that keeps me going with Junkk.com, against a load of hurdles from those (in theory tasked, and often paid well, to help guys like us help the public) who see gatekeeping as more of a door-closing exercise, is the power of one who believes. I am starting to think we may be starting to establish ourselves, and have a chance, when we get something like this sent in by a Junkk user (thank you so much, Mr. Smart):

'Thought I would bring to your attention this article in the Guardian today. You might want to put them in touch with 'the experts' !'

I was moved to reply (below), and rue the possibility that a time may come that I may not have the time or ability to do so, in such a personalised way, in the future.

'Thank you so very much for writing and telling us about this.

If you are talking about us being in any way expert you are too kind, but we do believe we know some stuff, and the collective brainpower and goodwill on our site (who are the ones you meant, for sure!) is a valuable free resource to share for the benefit of one and all, plus the planet!

I will of course try and get in touch, but we will not be holding our breath.

For some odd reason we do not seem in high favour with the media community, which is a pity. I don't quite know why, though we suspect it may be that we are a little more 'Fiesta family' from the rest of the country than 'Prius Person' from within the congestion zone.

I think we will get a lot further, and with greater strength in our foundations, by the support of such Junkketeers as yourself, rather than a flare of media hype (as they often like to tear down as much as build up), but a bit of a mention can't hurt!'

Here's what I wrote, as suggested:

One of our readers has kindly passed us your invitation:

'If you have any ideas for reusing yoghurt bottles, or any other items that usually end up in the bin, we would like to hear them'

Well, you could try here

[I provided links into the site, but won't bother here - you know what it can do).

Or here...

Or here...

Or here...

Or here...

Or... I think you get the idea (well, ideas).

But thank you for some natty new stuff in return that we didn't know about and will be happy to share:)

If you need any more from our archives, we're only a free click away.

Now, watch thi.... er... that space.

Premptive recycling

It's not really funny, but in light of some retroactive tax moves our Gordo has tried, we'd best watch out for such 'initiatives' here, too...

Japan metal thieves steal kids' slides, toilet roof

Good jon no one was 'in use' at the time.

You gotta larf

Nothing to do with anything, but I just couldn't resist!

Berlin plans flat tax on prostitutes

Maybe it's just my mind, but I immediately assumed it was based on bra cup size, which hardly seemed fair.

But maybe it will be more on a sliding scale.

I've heard of worse tax ideas. See I did bring in the big 'e'.

Benny Hill would be proud