Instead of admitting that the chances of a colossal economic cataclysm are alarmingly high, many comentators rubbish the recent financial situation of Ireland, Greece, Spain, Italy, etc.

The probable collapse of the debt burden and the sterling in 2010 calls for a reality check, pronto. The UK is a little country clinging to, but ignored by, the US. Berating the EU bureaucracy is cynical and pointless. The corruption of the UK political class and the burden of its gigantic public service (7 million public servants) should suffice to start sorting out its own house before criticizing others.

- BAE admits guilt over corrupt arms £43bn deal in a corruption investigation that found evidence of bribes, kickbacks, false accounting and making misleading statements

- Police is charging four MP’s and half of Members of Parliament have been asked to repay a total of more than £1m to the Commons authorities because some of their previous claims were deemed improper. Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister, returned more that £13,000 over improper claims

• deficit of £175 billion worth 12.4% of gross domestic product, the worst in the G20
• £6.8 billion deficit of BT’s pension fund
• £9.3 billion budget for the Olympics in London 2012

Dominic Ridley, in “Bloody Bequest”,
The Guardian—Weekend,
21 April 2001

ETA is a terrorist group based in France and Spain. It is traditionally described in Europe as a ’separatist’ group, a epithet that Spaniards protest when given the opportunity abroad. The foreign agenda of the Spanish government includes the shifting of the perception of the group from a political experiment turned sour to a terrorist group period.

Mr. Salviano claimed yesterday in Santander, Spain, that ETA is funded by the trade of cocaine. It sources the drug from the terrorists of the  Colombian FARC. It also trades weapons with the Italian mafia.

How is ETA perceived in English? A simple experiment consists in combining the keywords related to the term ‘ETA’ and noting the results each of the queries show:

• ETA terrorist separatist mafia: 14,000 results
  
• ETA terrorist separatist: 61,900
• ETA terrorist mafia: 37,900
• ETA separatist mafia: 10,400
• terrorist separatist: 483,000
• terrorist mafia: 1,080,000
• separatist mafia: 66,200
• ETA terrorist: 362,000
• ETA separatist: 151,000
• ETA mafia: 870,000
• ETA: 69,200,000
• Terrorist: 34,500,000
• Mafia: 46,400,000
• Separatist: 2,180,000

I am too lazy to calculate the c-index of these terms but it seems to me the that the co-occurrence of the terms “ETA” and “mafia” is, surprisingly for a such a recent meme, the highest of them three.

Causes are undetermined but I would like to think that this incident is caused sheer incompetence and technical ignorance rather than a dull explanation like they do not pay their hosting bill or something like that.

Who could have written that? Some Fred Redwood. And who for? The estate agents who paid good money for that article. Another estate agent paid for another article with the unfortunate title of “Nordic countries are hot property”.

What is wrong with those people? Is it this  third summer in a row with an impossibly miserable weather preceding a winter of gloom in house prices, scandals of corrupt politicians, swine flu and criminal bankers leaving us all in despair?

The weathermen who predicted a season of barbecueing are, literally, running for cover. I am struggling to find some positive proofs to raise my spirits but I only some . Admittedly, some are taken directly from The Times.

£44m paid to Cap Gemini by the Department for Children, Schools and Families according to Bishop Hill.

£2.7 billion for a few arguably inappropriate defence projects: the future carriers, Eurofighter Tranche 3b, A400M and Nimrod MRA4

£2.9 billion subsidised by the tax payers for the decommissioning of Dounreay, a nuclear power plan in Scotland planned to end in 2336. This figure does not include the cleansing of its dispersed radioactive waste, which cannot be done.

£1.46 trillion owed by Britons in 2009, according to the Bank of England of which £1.23 is mortgages, £231 billion is unsecured consumer credit including £55 billion in credit cards.

5-30 minutes of sun exposure on our face and arms two or three times a week, depending on how far away from the equator we live, are enough to get all the vitamin D we need. Which means that anyone living in the UK is vitamin D-starved.

6 months of average billing cycle of residential providers of gas and electricy like npower.

8 years since in 2001 Cross London Rail Links was formed to define the routes of Crossrail, as well as developing and promoting these two new railway routes.

1. 16% of the population in London in 2001 declare to have no religion. The highest rates in England and Wales were Norwich (28%), Brighton and Hove, and Cambridge (both 27%); these are all university towns.Source: Vision of Britain
2. an electronic transfer between bank accounts in the UK takes three (3) days to reach the destination account?
3. 57% of the 360,000 drivers fined for speeding in London in 20007 either refused to pay or ignored the fines (source: London Safety Camera Partnership)
4. A ten kilometers journey in black cab after 8 pm costs an average of £20 in London, which compares to Paris £9 (source: Transport for London)
5. The liabilities of British Airways’ pension fund are around £35 billion – The company market capitalisation is £21 billion (source: British Airways)
6. £90 billion of Northern Rock’s debt to add to public books since the crisis exploded in 2007, around 6.7 per cent of gross domestic product (source: (Office for National Statistics)
7. 16.3 m2 is average room size of all dwellings in Britain, the lowest in Europe (source Comparative Study of the Control and Promotion of Quality in Housing in Europe, ODPM)

Now, it does seem that this blog takes too seriosly itself: cost, global, animal, costs (again), human. Oh yes, there is Humour, as big as Art but only on top of morality. And some reason for concern: Religion is bigger than Rights.

My prefered: the lower case of emotion and power, terms for which size doesn’t matter.

The post refers to a paper of 2004 by the Royal Academy of Engineering. Surprisingly, the only costs of the generation and distribution of electricity mentioned in the report are:

• Capital expenditure, i.e. the initial level of investment required to engineer, procure and construct the plant itself.
• Fixed costs of operation and maintenance, e.g. staff salaries, insurance, rates and other
costs, which remain constant irrespective of the actual quantum of electricity generated;
• Variable costs of operation and maintenance, e.g. lubricating oil and chemicals, which
are consumed in proportion to the actual quantum of electricity generated; and
• The cost of fuel (if applicable) consumed in generating electricity.

I did not find in the original paper any calculation of the cost of management of the nuclear waste for generations, which incidentally is and will be paid for by the taxpayers. In fact, it does not include the managament of the waste of any power generation in its four categories, nor the risk of the dependency of a few fuel providers worldwide for any of the types of power generation.