why are there no baby pigeons and why dont cars drive in inner lane

Think the baby pigeon theme has been covered elsewhere, so I'll ignore that.
I live in London [near enough], and drivers always seem to drive in the outer [fast?] lane, so you get to thinking as to why- a few thoughts on London driving.
Vehicles on inner lane: these are horse and carts and very slow moving lorries. Please note if driver of slow lorry owns a car- this no longer applies.usually considered 'wouldnt be seen dead in this lane'

Middle lane drivers. This includes slow moving lorries [see above], and any vehicle going at less than speed limit. Mainly occupied by frustrated drivers who would like to overtake others.... usually considered 'lane for wimps'

Outer lane drivers. This is for vehicles who need to turn right in next 20 miles. Or for vehicles who need to turn left sometime. Or for vehicles whos drivers own a washine machine,or who are scared if other drivers overtake them [negated by above you think- but if they go at same speed as a (preferably) lorry in middle lane, then.... ]. I reckon its down to education on the whole. We have been taught that passing exams is good, so passing cars is excellent.

same sex unions

I really cant stop wondering why there is so much controversy here. Most developed countries have a constitution where it states roughly that members cannot be discriminated against due to their... sexuality.
Thus governments, churches etc have no leg to stand on in this respect and must allow it. QED IMO

Constitution of Europe strong enough for a constitution?

The wording of the draft constition of the EU is finalised.
President Blair has okayed it, so that's fine - there should be no WMD in it's text then.
Britain is in the same boat as Switzerland IMO, neither of these countries 'fit in'. Switzerland is too democratic and UK is too capitalist [although Pres Blair is trying hard to stop that].
We are gonna become a whole lot more socialist through the back door now if Tony gets his way- and thus a whole lot less rich [didn't say poorer please note- that's just in the short term].
I think that the EU is gonna implode on this one- watch out folks in a couple years time.

Tilting at Windmills

These things are in the news again today [UK} .
IMO these things are a wonderful sight, Northern Ireland for instance has tourist signposts up so people can go to view them.
The noise is a severe problem, when you see them, you think of the Rideof the Valkyries [in slow motion] or some such like, but all you hear when you get very near them is a slow stroking noise [my description- apologies for the grammar ] --- sensual almost.
We need MORE of these, and the 'antis' want to use correct arguments.... 'They are beautiful, and they dont make enough noise' would be good starting points.....

hypocritical vegetarians

Those vegetarians who eat fish get my goat [ :) ]. Fish are killed by probably the most inhumane of methods........ they are firstly tied up for hours (?) then taken out of their environment and allowed to suffocate often in inclement weather .
Just because we don't see this in action, have never stroked a live cod at the bottom of the sea, and they've never complained/bleated/moaned made any noise at all, we as a species reckon it's fine .
Refer you to the title......
PS : I like to eat fish , animals, and most other nutritional stuff.

Alcohol and taxes

Just *wasted* an entire day in going to France, filling up the car with booze and fags ,quick repast, and return.
Ok saved a few bob, but everyone's doing it- cant Brown bite the bullet rather than NEVER putting up alcohol taxes- twud make it sooooo much easier for us all [and Customs + Excise]
NO Taxation on [non] sobriety is the buzzword !

European Elections

Strange , but one cant help feeling a little proud of democracy. For years the European Project has been rattling along , bringing the 'old countries' closer together, with or without the consent of its populace. Now we have up to 15% of the MEPs elected on a Eurosceptic stance. Just goes to show about fooling all of the people all of the time ........
Hey, I realise the EU was formed to stop a future european war, which it has done admirably, but maybe its time to rethink ?

Its Polling Day- democracy in action ?

Have you ever noticed that when a brit MP talks to the media, the word 'democracy' is mentioned about every 20th word?
This is due to insecurity complex, 'yes, I know that you b......ds can put me out of my dead cushy number, and wish I know how to stop it' and also possibly to NOT say 'representative democracy', which is different.
the nearest we come to a democratic country is Switzerland and to a lesser extent California [did say nearest...]
With the web now almost ubiquitous, could and should a major country try democracy..... WOW that would be interesting as Confucious said.

Global Warming and US opts out.

Just been having a think about the above. It's a bt obvious how the US Govt is going to get into the swing of things green-wise.
Someone's going to sue the US Government for their house flooding.
It would be nice if it was a class action group by say 100,000+ asians , but I expect it will be by a middle aged couple in Florida.
Let's hope it's sooner rather than later......

the world is dying of asthma?

Gawd this is a serious one and fairly technical- time to turn off perhaps.....
Everyone must be aware of the rising incidence of asthma in first world countries, and been told its due to our lifetsyles becoming 'too clean' . If you've got it, it reduces your lifespan to around 51 years old, so its serious enough. Everyone I know has a family member [not just a mate] who has bad asthma. You get to thinking.......
About 20-25 years ago, Uk and most first world countries were given auto cat cars, ie cars which cleaned their exhaust emissions. This was to remove a lot of greenhouse gasses NOx etc and which did its job very well indeed, and actually earnt UK PLC a load of dosh [and good luck to it !]
Then in about 1985 [ish], there was a check on roadside particulates to find out about PGM levels in the dust by the roadside.
PGM= Platinum group metals [the type found in car catalysts], ie had car catalysts been 'burnt' and evaporated/fouled/something. the results were frightening...... The levels in the initial report was someting like 100-1000 x the limit allowable ! Wow
This was the preliminary report. Before telling the world, they were asked to double check the findings [ by the way I dont know if it was UK HMG that had commssioned the study or a UK car cat manufacturer].The results on the check were that the results were correct, but that they had been reported incorrectly.
Background: Platinum is used in jewellery and is pretty and expensive and safe.
There is a form of platinum called 'soluble platinum' that is frankly horrible. It causes asthma in atomic amounts [if you are sensitised to it- ie 1 molecule/atom = asthma attack].
As far as I know there is no evidence that exhaust fumes + car cat= soluble platinum .
However Pt [platinum] is a very good catalyst [it can convert chemicals to other chemicals given the right circumstances]- which is why it's used in car exhausts. NOx= N2+O2, + co- co2 etc.
I wonder if small particles of Pt can act in the same way as soluble platinum? A small particle of Pt could react with NOx say , become soluble [very possible- its sort of how its made anyway] or just the small site area/volume could help it.
Anyway the bottom line is ..... are car catalysts responsible for quite a few deaths/rising to a HUGE amount of deaths in the future.
Readers please note : the supposition that small particles of atomic Pt causing soluble Pt or giving rise to the metal having similar properties to sol Pt is mine alone and as far as I know has no other research. the rest is true,

Aids in Muslim Countries

Just been speaking to an Egyptian [female ]doctor. She says that because she's a muslim, when she marries she has to be a virgin[vaginal]. So for sex she has/uses oral and anal options.
This may explain why heterosexual transmission of Aids is prevalent in some African countries - I'm not into Aafrican social stuff, so other non muslim countries may well have the same 'traditions'

Euro or do you Know

Just seen in Yahoo Odd News http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040603/80/ev6i7.html that Berlin is going to have it's own alternative currency- the "Berliner". So much for the Euro integrating Europe that Some German cities are playing with their own mickey mouse type currencies.
Plus ca change......

Brown and the price of Oil

Wow, Blair and co have managed to get OPEC to get the price of oil down.
That means hes gonna be able to increase the tax on it, so it stays at the price it would have been if.....
And if it doesnt go down by much, then VAT and oil taxes means hes even more quids in, which means that he can afford to keep spending my money not very efficiently...
Oh there's a naked bike ride in various cities on 12/June to protest about oil dependency [?- yup sounds stoopid], a great chance to ge stared at I suppose...

Wed 2 June

Winning the war on Terror
No definition of a terrorist has been published [that I know about], so how can you 'legally' carry this out? What needs addressing is first principles, ie why are there guys out there willing to die to do these terrible acts?
The answer is US/Israel, in my humble opinion. The US is the strongest nation on earth , but to create friendship, it has to be seen to be even handed if not magnaminous in its dealings with other countries. I used to be for the US until W Bush took over and said effectively 'what's good for the US is good for me- so f..k off everyone else'. I was blinkered till he came on stream so I presume it was the same but at a lower key.
Then there's Israel. The UN told it to give back the land it took, but the US said 'fair enough'. Wouldn't you have a grievance if someone nicked your land?
I personally think that Israel is why there's been no published definition of a terrorist [its kinda hard not to get it defined as one]
Please W- sort out Israel , I implore you