In order to delay an increase in fuel duty the Conservative^∗ government is planning instead to cut social security benefits. Therefore the poorest in society — the unemployed, the low paid workers, the sick, etc. — will subsidize middle class car drivers and their families whilst falling further and further into dangerous poverty.

David Cameron and his kind will kick a man while he's down and then keep on kicking.

^∗ Actually, it's a coalition government, but doesn't really feel like one.

Will their coalition 'partners', the Liberal Democrats, be able to do anything about that? http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/nov/18/liberal-democrats-benefits-fuel-duty

In 21 days, 27-Dec-08 to 18-Jan-09:

Total Casualties:

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2009/jan/03/israelandthepalestinians

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Palestine Solidarity Campaign: http://www.palestinecampaign.org/
Stop the War Coalition: http://www.stopwar.org.uk/
War on Want: http://www.waronwant.org/
Jews for Justice for Palestinians: http://www.jfjfp.org/

I left my provincial small town this morning for a job interview in a city, a reasonably lengthy train journey away. The extremes of poverty and wealth that are seen side by side in a city are sickening, so it was nice to return.

I sat for a while in a square, a row of benches spanning the perimeter. In the centre was a busker with his guitar, singing songs, at one side sat a handful of 'tramps', (for want of a better word), one of whom approached the busker, threw a few coins into his collection and asked him to play 'Sarah'. He asked him not to start until he'd called his girlfriend over, who was selling copies of The Big Issue, (magazine sold on the street by homeless people), a little way further up. They stood there together listening to the song. That was a beautiful moment.

I saw a picture of a balloon suddenly and unexpectedly soaring and some people still holding onto the ropes connected to the balloon were suddenly jerked into the air and most of them didn't have the survival IQ to let go in time. Seconds later they are sixty, a hundred feet off the ground. Those who didn't let go fell off at five hundred or a thousand feet. A basic survival lesson is: Learn to let go.

Put it another way: Never hang on when your Guardian tells you to let go.

Right Now.

Suppose you were holding one of the ropes? Would you have let go in time, which is, of course, at the first upward yank? I'll tell you something interesting. You would have a much better chance to let go in time now that you have read this paragraph than if you hadn't read it. Writing, if it is anything, is a word of warning …

Let Go!

Every day, without fail, my ISP attempts to connect to my machine on the edonkey ports. I don't use the edonkey network. These violations began around the time that it was reported in the news that so many people had been arrested for using the file sharing networks. Annoying.

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), or perhaps more aptly, the Bush and Blair Corporation, (a term coined by George Galloway in relation to the BBC's biased news reporting and, I believe, its political agenda), goes from bad to worse. Apparently they're still a public service broadcaster, paid for mainly by us license fee payers, yet they promote commercial interests which are not in the public interest.

I can't load the BBC News Player, they tell me that it is "probably because you have JavaScript turned off", then tell me how to enable it on Windows or Mac. They offer a podcast of the news. In their news headlines that tick across the top of the screen I am informed, "LATEST: Microsoft releases patch for bug in Internet Explorer two weeks early", as if that really is news. If I want to watch a video from their site I'm offered a choice of windows media player or real player.

Who are these fools?

I don't know what's up with our neighbours, maybe they're just insane.

New neighbour next door, quite a nice garden there – next thing you know, chop chop chop chop chop: about 10% of the plants, trees, and bushes left. Ugly.

A house just across the way, quite a nice little garden – some shrubs, a bit of a lawn, a little pond. Chop, chop, chop, dig, dig, dig – what was a garden is now just a featureless covering of gravel.

Neighbours across the the road, a nice Eucalyptus tree which dances in the breeze – hack hack hack hack hack – the tree is gone!

A garden behind our house, a large tree, several squirrels, plenty of birds, the occasional hawk – hack, rip, tear, crash – no more tree.

There are some figures to be found somewhere which show this is a trend throughout urban areas in the UK – this area is a microcosm of the larger state of things.

One tree for every garden – it seems a good idea to me.

On the other hand, the neighbours on the other side have added plants and trees to their garden. Well, that's one out of five – shall we celebrate?

Today's image is brought to you by the industrial revolution and some pigeons.
click the image for a larger version

Although an instrument of war, the Sound Mirrors' harnessing of sound is an interesting phenomenon. …The mirror was shaped to form part of a sphere and a sound collector was mounted on a pivot at the focal point. The collector was usually a trumpet shaped cone connected to the ears of the listener with rubber tubes … He rotated the sound collector horizontally with a hand wheel and vertically by way of foot pedals…

Early warning sound mirrors
The Hythe sound mirror system

Related: Clock DVA Sound Mirror 12"

Lately I've been (re)discovering the appeal of 7" and 12" pieces of grooved, circular plastic – probably it is at least a little tinged with nostalgia. This (pictured) promo that I received recently, (Blueprint, Print Is Goin' Off/No Half Smokin', Rhymesayers BLPT-001), with its blue vinyl, brought back some memories of a handful of Dickies singles that I had as a kid, all of which were released on coloured vinyl, (as were several other A&M releases of the time). What a good feeling it seemed to give me watching it spinning on the turntable – kids can be so easily amused!

I sold my turntable a looooooooong time ago, but I'm considering getting another one soon – there are several good things coming out on vinyl-only releases, particularly instrumental versions of hiphop albums. Vinyl is Not Dead!

Currently listening to: Orchestre Régional de Kayes, "Sanjina" World Psychedelic Classics 3 (on CD!)