Just made for a Pol's Porkie!

‘Do as I say, not as I do’ is Barroso’s green message

Thing is, if you stick yourself on the pedestal of telling folk what to
do, you really need to figure that a) it's not such a bad idea to do it
yourself, and b) try to have been doing it at least a while or c) at
least before so telling, and d)really don't go to near anything that
might smack of 'imposing'.

Failure to do one or indeed all lends you to being labelled
a) hypocrite ( “This is an opportunity for European leaders to match
intentions with deeds, to turn words into actions.”... Bless), b) a total
plonker and c) totally undeserving of your authority, salary and
pension by , well everyone, really.

Including any colleagues whose last vestiges of credibility
and authority you have just evaporated in the eyes of a cynical
world media and utterly frustrated voting, cash-cow-no-longer,
public.

And frankly, whacking a fir in the firmament is not much better if we
are trying to offset the problem within the 10 year window indicated
by the IPCC. While it looks good to ones mates in the City, the things
don't grow that fast and not all schemes even work on a viable
EnviROI basis anyway.

Meanwhile, those figures are interesting. May I ask if they are for
urban use (as favoured by those in power who don't get out much),
an average cycle or for country/motorway travel?

I just ask because from my country home to anywhere with 2 hrs by
Fiat Panda seemed to me a better bet than Prius. It's hard to see how
a higher capacity petrol engine in the latter, lugging a big, unused
battery, would deliver better emissions performance.

And if so, may I presume this is just the first in further attempts to get
all of 'us' to conform to an ideal that works in the corridors of
'power', and really has little to making the world better for our kids.

ps: while toe-rag is not a bad moniker for the beast (I believe used,
with some irony in smoke-black form by a 'Have you cut your 20%?'
TV commercial not so long ago, I do concern myself that the noble
tribespersons may not fancy the spelling used here.

Yodel-ay-ee-oo!

Carbon trading

And in reply to this great call...?

All I can hear is a big, fat, empty echo.

The journey of a thousand steps...

Want to save the planet? It’s your little changes that mean the most

Agreed.

And to all the other reader who sees this and feels enough to get motivated to do something at home and peronal...ly re:warding, try re:use at junkk.com.

That way you can save the planet, and some time, and some money.

Kinda win-win. Which is nice. If rare.

Speaks for itself, unspeakably

Plane beats train on cost and speed as discount fares prove elusive

You know what we need... another 'initiative'. With a charge on it.

That'll help.

Divide and Fools

This is going to the BBC right now.

Following an interesting and touching piece on Alzheimer's (ironic, since I only heard it having had to drive to Gloucester to collect the card I left in the chip 'n pin doo-dad on Sunday. Oddly Sainsbury's have no policy on letting you, or your bank know. They just keep it a while and then bin it), the Jeremy Vine show descended into the worst example of the sorry state of ratings-driven media I have ever heard.

I think this will be cited as one of the nails in the coffins of our public broadcaster being accorded any credence as an objective news organisation, and certainly raises questions as to why it is allowed a fine-supported, non-opt-out monopoly to collect funds to create and broadcast such trash.

First up we get a 'piece' 'inspired' by some Yuppie Hooray with contacts in PR, who makes a kids' level version of Why the US Is Lovely, condensing several decades into a few tens of seconds of 'what if?' nonsense. Maybe it got 1/4M 'hits' on YouTube. So what? But it was enough to get him in to boost his ad banner rates by sticking him up against some bonkers ex-Guardianista US-phobic who could barely string a sentence together, let alone allowing any form of reasoned debate get in the way of her single-minded prejudices. Then it gets thrown open to 'us', the listening public, so after the break for music we get a bunch of raving pro and antis selected especially by researchers to vent their ill-informed spleens over a completely staged, specious premise. And so it spirals down...

That was bad enough. Then, in the era of discredited phones-ins, to follow we have an 0900 'vote' to see which vehicles should be banned, with another set of twofers from each extreme venting spleens and spewing half-considered, factually irresponsible bile at each other, and us, as Mr. Vine and his producers wet themselves over their soaring ratings.

What public service was served by any of this claptrap? And with this complaint how do I get past the low-level munchkins in the 'file and fob-off' department who will a) sit on this for a week, b) claim they have looked into it thoroughly, then c) find no issue to answer so d) they won't.

This is not a valid process of sincere self-improvement, from a public-service and public-funded entity that has done little lately beyond losing the plot.

I demand to be put in coherent contact with some form of decision maker who can explain these decisions from a position of responsibility and accountability.

The world's a bad enough place without our national broadcaster dividing us all in warring camps for cheap media points. It must be stopped before it is too late. Or... I want my money back.

9 April - It took a while (doesn't it always?) but they have come back as, of course, they have to. What do you think? A fair reply? one deserving of file & forget?

Thank you for your e-mail regarding 'Jeremy Vine' transmitted on the 6
March 2007.

Firstly, please accept our apologies for the delay in replying. We know
our correspondents appreciate a quick response and we are sorry you have
had to wait on this occasion.

I understand you have some concerns about the above programme.

I must explain that this was a week-long poll giving the British Public the
chance to select the vehicle they would most like to vote off our roads, if
they could.

It is hoped the programme team can raise the findings of this poll on the 9
March edition [I got this a month later] with those in Government who make/influence transport policy.

Ultimate aim to tackle some big, important questions about road traffic and
the positive measures that could be taken by those in power to alleviate
the anger that so many road users feel: i.e.: How can speed limits be
enforced? Should there be compulsory road tests for cyclists and
horse-riders? Who should pay for the upkeep of the roads and how should
that tax be collected? Does the driving test need to change or be repeated?

Nevertheless, I appreciate you may continue to have some concerns about the
two items you have specified as a whole. Please be assured that I have
registered your complaint and concerns on the daily log, this is an
internal document which will be made available to the 'Jeremy Vine'
production team as well as the senior management of the BBC.

May I take this opportunity to thank you again for taking time to contact
the BBC.

Regards

Katherine Tsang
BBC Information
__________________________________________

The BBC Trust wants to know what's important to you about your BBC. Want to
help it set the BBC's strategic priorities? To get involved just click on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust.

What ever floats their boat. Which it will, eventually

I just glanced this:

Scientists from 63 countries to investigate polar melting

And without reading it, I just pray it will not involve hordes of them going up to snowy bits in planes and copters to figure out why it's all melting.

Carb-con gestion?

They keep popping up, don't they?

'Carbon allowance' plan for drivers

Motorists could find themselves facing a ceiling on the amount of carbon they are allowed to emit...

This would be 'motorists' where, doing what exactly and when?

I look forward to how they spin this one. Can't be any worse than the road pricing effort.... can it?

Indy - Miliband: 'Time for a green industrial revolution'
Times - 'Make car drivers pay for their pollution'

Patents and le absurd?

We, the Patent Office

In a month's time I'm off to Geneva as part of the UK stand at an International Invention Expo.

I will have in my clutches a small prototype of a big idea that I hope will a) save planet and b) make dosh, not necessarily in that order.

For either to happen, and for there to be a happy ending on b), I have ventured into the mysterious world of Patent applications, assessments and agents and god knows what.

So far it has been like a stag night in 70's SoHo, looking for the naked ladies in strip clubs but going through endless velvet red curtains and being relived of cash at every turn with a promise that 'soon you will be there'. About halfway you know you have been conned, but are too far in to not keep on going.

So I know diddly squat about this process.

However, in the great 'protection of your idea' scheme of things, is such an open season on its intimate details wise, or even desirable?

BusinessWeek - Inside Nathan Myhrvold's Mysterious New Idea Machine
Times - Patents 2.0 comes to Britain

Dragon's Breath

Tel Blog - Some issues remain untouchable

I think I read elsewhere that China has decided enough's enough and the whole corruption thing must stop now. So that's OK then.

As I flit from blog to blog looking at trendy liberals knock spots off each other as to just how much Fairtrade latte you can fit in a Prius' trunk, I read this and have to wonder if the world really has a chance in hell.

BBC - Global impact of Asia's pollution

Open to what... exactly?

Is it just me, or could one wish that journos from one side of a paper actually ponder what those at another my be writing about, and attempt to cover all the issues?

BA fears ill wind may blow from 'open skies'

George of the Rumble

Another from Grist - Turn Up the Heat

Makes you proud to be a Brit, eh?

For every two Beckhams, we have a Monbiot. So at that rate... we're toast. Celebs. And anti-celeb celebs. Can live with 'em, can't... er... no that's about it. And I guess that applies to me too, as an anti-anti-celeb (as I can often 'wonder' in places such as this just how sincere some are themselves or, if sincere, effective on a planetary scale as opposed to on a nice little personal earner basis).

So thank you for this link.

It's so odd. By any measure I trawl the e-pages of the UK media a bit more than most (who needs to get a life?) and until this moment I had no inkling such a thing existed, even courtesy of our George's usual hunting grounds, which I read daily and have done for a few years.

Well worth a gander.

I wonder what other people think of it? I'll have to declare an interest, I had/have something similar in mind, called Pol's Porkies, which stands for POLitician's PORky Pies, which is Cockney slang for lies. But I soon extended it to anyone in the public eye who said one thing and did another. Even better if the former was high-profile and the other low rent.

http://junkk.blogspot.com/2007/01/gloucester-old-spot-now-departing.html

Now I have registered it, but have yet to build it. So it's a might miffing when GM crops (geddit?) up and it turns out he has beaten me to the punch.

Popping over the parapet, and with glasses tinted green with envy, I have had a scope and do feel moved to cock a critical eyebrow, as I am wont.

First and foremost, and with no book in the offing... yet... I am always a tad suspicious of anything that is associated with a sales effort. Somehow it seems to weaken the purity of the concept.

Next, and purely subjectively, though with a few decades as a designer under my belt, it all comes off as a bit placard waving graphically, typographically and in copy terms. I thought I'd arrived at a Marxist rallying point to march on Westminster - to protest the price of non-Fairtrade lattes en route through Islington.

This, and the style makes me almost sympathetic to Chris, Richard and our Tel, etc. 'George' is watching you! Which makes 'George' Big Brother, which makes him...?

I also note, and Grist readers will hopefully appreciate this, a distinct lack of humour here. Hard to empathise with very much, frankly.

Which in one way is a pity, because having read his home page mantra I can't disagree with it at all. But in another it is good, because I think, immodestly, I can do a lot better. Mainly by not doing much at all. I intend Polsporkies.info to be of the people, by the people for the people, in much the same way as Junkk.com is. Frustratingly, he has also similar version to my TushTissue (for highlighting 'papering over' jobbies, rather than 'dealing withs') and even NewsFlip, as in the bird, but also as 'flip' commentary, highlighting news that is so superficial as to muddy already murky waters.

But for these I intend to just create the system, probably tabular (said, done, date, attribution, date, etc) make it as user content manged as I can. Then retire immediately having lit the fuse. I very much see it as a factual grid with a only a little moderation to ensure factual accuracy, minimal law suits and perhaps scope to inject a bit of fun to keep things bubbling.

And when I collect my award from Nelson Mandela (it's in there on his site - if you are going to drop a name, his is well worth it), I will worry very much how I detour from my global book tour to do it with out looking down the barrel of my own gun through the hole in my foot. Glad to see he is not all talk though (the actions being...?)

Because there does seem to be a new breed of Green elite whose jobs require them to buzz about (legitimately, by some logic) telling other folk that they should not have jobs that require them to buzz about. This, on occasion, has seen the odd mention of the phrase 'double standard' and even the H word being levelled back. With some justification I may add. And which does weaken the foundations of certain pedestals. And as I have opined before, a fallen idol can do more damage crashing down, and undo a lot of good they may have achieved whilst evangelising.

Fortunately I don't tell folk how to behave. I just ask questions, share information and try to lead by as best an example as I can.

It's less stressful.

Uh-oh... incoming!!!

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

It's always the good ones that seem to fail

I tried to post this to a topical thread, that has already been raised here recently.

I think it warrants its own:

Dear Sirs,

I rather suspect that the reason for my first para is explained by the fact that no one could comment. Error message on upload attempt:

No such entry '014124'.

The rest stands:


I find it rather odd, and sad, that, as I arrive back after a very happy family weekend break to engage in my traditional 'surf and mirth' scope, a little late in the day, of the 'quality' major news media blogosphere, that I seem to be the only person to have found this; or at least felt moved to add a comment... so far. Out of 60M them's poor odds.

Especially if we are facing something potentially none too optimal (if the tipping point to Armageddon can be so described) in around a decade, at least by my understanding of the IPPC report.

Thing is, I find myself in an odd position. I care very much about all this, if only for my kids' sake. I am, by any measure, environmentally concerned, and arguably quite active. I may even be, by dint of taking a greater interest than many, fairly well informed. And, most importantly, I care passionately about DOING something, anything, to avoid unnecessary waste, and to find practical, inspirational ways to assist the consuming public to live more environmentally sound lifestyles by choice, and not nannying, guilt, scare or fine.

So I tend to find talking shops at best frustrating, if not actually downright obstructive, by consuming resources, and energies, that could be used more positively.

Sadly, having read and reread this a few times, I am unable to see how anything has been moved ahead much, save to offer a lifeline to the deniers by denying them the very things that they would deny those with a more precautionary bent (that's a lot of denying in one sentence, sorry, but I call 'em as I see 'em). I don't know if such as Al Gore and those others less celebrity-endowed are dead right or completely wrong, but if they're wrong they'll just look silly in a few decades. If they are right, those who are big-oiling into denial will, along with the rest of us, be looking a little red-faced, and not just from embarrassment. Though I do take the point that most will be long dead and buried, and hence not really in a position to care that their book sales have nosedived.

However, I can only see more ammunition here to enable the artillery barrages from extremes on both sides to continue ever more energetically, leaving those who thirst for information, guidance and action still sitting dazed and confused beneath the literary pyrotechnics that rage.

I may be tired from a period spent well if not wisely, but I stumbled on this in regard to the forthcoming show that has yet to be screened, but already generated such a ferocious counter-movement - 'Certainly, there many reasons to deride it. Its contents are largely untrue, for a start. That is Channel 4's problem.' Now I haven't seen it, but this is quite a thing. 'Largely untrue contents' are pretty much the smoking gun to put down this nag before it even leaves the starting blocks.

But...

I can't for the life of me seem to locate what these untrue contents are, at least from the piece written. What I do get are trash jobs on those involved, and unless I am very much mistaken, and harking to only a few blogs back, this seemed to be a tactic not considered quite cricket when applied to those who are in favour of Al Gore, IPCC , Uncle Tom Cobbly and all in the man-made corner. So which is to be. In gutter? Or stand above it? Deal in facts? Or fling some mud around and hope that what sticks may sway? It's hard to see how this is going to work both ways.

I am prepared to accept, and indeed pretty much hope to see proven, that this programme has opted for dishonest rhetoric, but so far I can only say they are not the only ones dealing in such a thing at the expense of reasoned debate.

Which is a pity, and serves the cause, IMHO, poorly. Especially when, on reaching the concluding several paras here (still none the wiser on Ch4's factual transgressions, mind) there seems to be much about the manipulations being applied by all sides, with very much more short-term, and selfish, agendas, that I can only nod in agreement with.

It would be a shame if this cannot be debated further, and freely.

I wish I had their awareness. One day...

Re-cycle of Life

You may also like to consider http://www.junkk.com.

It is mainly about ideas to make things out of junk, but amongst other things has a section that is similar to Freecycle (only with user-specified search radius from next door to the whole country, depending on how far you feel like going to collect. Plus a picture upload facility). As both are free, try all and see what works first.

I now know of some others who are also welcome on our site... ta!

Ever get that sinking feeling?

CO2 output from shipping twice as much as airlines

As I scattered my dried apricots on my muesli this morning, I attempted to feel noble in the hope that the ingredients need not have flown here.

Well, it seems not. So I guess that full English with a Gloucester Old Spot forming the main dish is looking pretty darn tasty... and eco... now.

Or.... is it? Dum, de dum, dum... daaaaah!

I am sailing, I am sailing, cross the sea....

10 minus 10 equals?

Home Office condemned for '10 years of mistakes'

How long has the present government been in power again?

Just wish there was an alternative I could have confidence in.