Firstly Chirac tried to diss Blair by saying he should renegotiate the UK rebate.
This rebate is somehow attached to farm output/farmed goods imported - not 100% sure how.
Anyway,with loads more countries becomng part of the EU, our rebate was about to increase by 2/3 from £3B, to £5,000,000,000 an not insubstantial lump, so other countries were keen on us doing the *decent thing*. To be honest the staus quo was going to be ludicrous, poor countries join the EU, one rich country [UK] gets richer because of it- mind its just like the EU!
They even tried reasoning with us, by allowing us to keep infinitum our last year's rebate amount into the future. Blair was having none of it.
Next he manages to get other countries on our side agreeing that the agricultural dumping/overpaying/fraudulent system we have should be overthrown .
I don't know what's going on behind the scenes, but it's just amazing that France may have to accept that it should pay it's fair share of the bureaucracy of the EU. [ its the main reason for the CAP [common agricultul policy] .
And we'd have to give up our rebate [ but we wouldnt need it then, so fine- the EU budget would drop by over 60%]
Africa and other really poor nations could start ,hopefully, to enrich themselves with agricultural exports.
The EU could perhaps turn towards stamping out the endemic corruption in its running.
I know I've just slung this in, but I may get round to it in a later posting....
Friday, June 24, 2005
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
memorable goldfish
I've always been sceptical of the 'goldfish has a 20 second memory' claim which apparently ws proved by experiment.
Having recently moved house and 'inherited' a pond which we stocked with a few goldfish to see the quality of the water, I have the following observations.
As there were only 5 of them and it was just to check the water quality, we didnt feed them.
They thrived ,ok there were quite a few tadpoles and the pond is reasonable size 12m3 ish , but that doesn't smack of amnesiac hunters to me
So someone else bought some more. The first few times we put food on the surface, zilch , they stayed in hiding or zipped about. Then they started to know that when they see someone and stuff goesonto the surface that means GRUB UP.
So I feel that the experiment that was done years ago , must have been done with a psychotic goldfish [ if it was a goldfish that had been kept in a small bowl, I'm not that surprised either ]
Having recently moved house and 'inherited' a pond which we stocked with a few goldfish to see the quality of the water, I have the following observations.
As there were only 5 of them and it was just to check the water quality, we didnt feed them.
They thrived ,ok there were quite a few tadpoles and the pond is reasonable size 12m3 ish , but that doesn't smack of amnesiac hunters to me
So someone else bought some more. The first few times we put food on the surface, zilch , they stayed in hiding or zipped about. Then they started to know that when they see someone and stuff goesonto the surface that means GRUB UP.
So I feel that the experiment that was done years ago , must have been done with a psychotic goldfish [ if it was a goldfish that had been kept in a small bowl, I'm not that surprised either ]
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Ending African poverty?
Wow, what an ambition !
OK let's tune into primarily EU stuff [although the US may be an even worse offender]
Firstly poverty cannot be stopped by aid. It can help a little, but does have the disadvantage of creating a patient..... Oxfam found that out years ago , and now [most ?] its aid is in creating infrastructure for wealh to flow from .
A poor country has to be able to stand on it's own feet and create wealth, from there more will flow.
if we look at what a very poor country has- well, mineral wealth ? Maybe...
Labour - yes
Farmland - yes
It's extremely simplistic, but a VERY poor country needs to be able to use its natural resources , its labour+ land to sell its produce to the world.
Then we have the EU + the US stopping it doing so and instead we spend loads giving aid on one hand and on the other paying for us to stop buying cheap produce [ indirectly I know, but making EU produce cheaper than Africa can make it is the same thing- and flogging off that produce to world markets as well is a doubly whammy to those countries]
It is a no -brainer, it really is.
Pity that France could be considered the same isn't it ?
OK let's tune into primarily EU stuff [although the US may be an even worse offender]
Firstly poverty cannot be stopped by aid. It can help a little, but does have the disadvantage of creating a patient..... Oxfam found that out years ago , and now [most ?] its aid is in creating infrastructure for wealh to flow from .
A poor country has to be able to stand on it's own feet and create wealth, from there more will flow.
if we look at what a very poor country has- well, mineral wealth ? Maybe...
Labour - yes
Farmland - yes
It's extremely simplistic, but a VERY poor country needs to be able to use its natural resources , its labour+ land to sell its produce to the world.
Then we have the EU + the US stopping it doing so and instead we spend loads giving aid on one hand and on the other paying for us to stop buying cheap produce [ indirectly I know, but making EU produce cheaper than Africa can make it is the same thing- and flogging off that produce to world markets as well is a doubly whammy to those countries]
It is a no -brainer, it really is.
Pity that France could be considered the same isn't it ?
Friday, June 03, 2005
Electric Pylons and Illness
The above article shows that there could well be a relationship between power cables and childhood leukaemia, but that its not totally statistically significant. It does say. however that they're sure there is a link.
For diseases , I'm unsure what the word 'significant' actually means, certainly 95.6% but but could be up to 99%. Stats doesnt give a yes or no, just the chances of it being one or the other, 95% being the normal one for saying , YES .
However, this is not the first study on this subject and have read several over the years.
The problem when you are dealing with relatively rare incidents is getting the amount to be observed, which the above study sounded like it didn't.
In stats the more the merrier as the uncertainty drops.
So why not someone combine this and previous studies to get a definite but significant maybe ?
For diseases , I'm unsure what the word 'significant' actually means, certainly 95.6% but but could be up to 99%. Stats doesnt give a yes or no, just the chances of it being one or the other, 95% being the normal one for saying , YES .
However, this is not the first study on this subject and have read several over the years.
The problem when you are dealing with relatively rare incidents is getting the amount to be observed, which the above study sounded like it didn't.
In stats the more the merrier as the uncertainty drops.
So why not someone combine this and previous studies to get a definite but significant maybe ?
Thursday, June 02, 2005
The New Euro Constitution - A suggestion ?
the old new constitution is dead , Long live the next ! or some such words
What we need is to send a colony to Mars and let them work out a method of government for future generations.
they should be allowed to do it at their own pace to create a 'good decent' society of equals.
They should publish this and create a method of changing it as future events unfold .
As it is to rule future society, it should be simple and all encompassing
Failing that happening, look to the past. I hate to say it but the USA is a bit like Mars would be today when their Constitution was written.
It might sound a tad daft, but why re-invent the wheel ?
Check with the US Govt by all means as to maybe 1 item that should be changed a little , then run with it - keeping the amendments if they must, starting from scratch possibly.
The original document was glorious in its simplicity and fairness.
It would not take as long to write either. The problem may be that its too egalitarian for some countries ?
I reckon we'll be waiting a LONG time for it to happen , but would be nice to be wrong about that.
What we need is to send a colony to Mars and let them work out a method of government for future generations.
they should be allowed to do it at their own pace to create a 'good decent' society of equals.
They should publish this and create a method of changing it as future events unfold .
As it is to rule future society, it should be simple and all encompassing
Failing that happening, look to the past. I hate to say it but the USA is a bit like Mars would be today when their Constitution was written.
It might sound a tad daft, but why re-invent the wheel ?
Check with the US Govt by all means as to maybe 1 item that should be changed a little , then run with it - keeping the amendments if they must, starting from scratch possibly.
The original document was glorious in its simplicity and fairness.
It would not take as long to write either. The problem may be that its too egalitarian for some countries ?
I reckon we'll be waiting a LONG time for it to happen , but would be nice to be wrong about that.
Wednesday, June 01, 2005
Taxing Mcdonalds taxes the imagination
Click the title for the news item , above
Yes its NOT April 1, but Scotland has apparently called for taxing junk food !
The reason : to cut down on mortality, fair enough.
But some MP to actually come out and say it should be taxed beggars the imagination.
I suppose it could *just* be possible if you taxed fat, maybe, but salmon is quite fatty - that margerine spread looks really expensive- Cheese sales would fall to the basement or below probably .
Another way would be to define junk food as any processed goodies. Your frozen chicken breast then becomes more expensive than venison ?
It is totally risible that people that are supposed to represent us can actually say things like that- who knows if they verbally messed up with something important.
Oh they did that about Iraq, I forgot.
Yes its NOT April 1, but Scotland has apparently called for taxing junk food !
The reason : to cut down on mortality, fair enough.
But some MP to actually come out and say it should be taxed beggars the imagination.
I suppose it could *just* be possible if you taxed fat, maybe, but salmon is quite fatty - that margerine spread looks really expensive- Cheese sales would fall to the basement or below probably .
Another way would be to define junk food as any processed goodies. Your frozen chicken breast then becomes more expensive than venison ?
It is totally risible that people that are supposed to represent us can actually say things like that- who knows if they verbally messed up with something important.
Oh they did that about Iraq, I forgot.
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