The influence of big business on democracy

Big business has an undue influence over government. What is “big business” depends upon the times. At one time big business was the large trading corporations, often benefiting from a state bestowed monopoly, like the East India Company. Other times it was large industrial manufacturing concerns and at other times mining concerns. The “big” in “big business” is [...]

The enemy of our enemy is not our friend

There have been many revolutions in human history. A revolution is an overthrow of an established government by another group that subsequently becomes the government. I think that there are two kinds of revolution. The first kind is a revolution led by ideas. The United States of America, the South American states, France and Russia [...]

The ice caps are melting more quickly than we thought

Sea levels are rising by 3mm a year. The rise in sea levels is partly due to ice melt, which the latest calculations indicate that of the 3mm sea level annual rise 1.3mm, just under half, is contributed by ice melt.  The latest research also indicates that the ice melt is happening more quickly than [...]

The Libyan Adventure

It started off as a reaction to a belief that Colonel Gaddafi was instructing the Libyan armed forces to kill civilians. The Western nations decided that a “no fly” zone should be created to prevent the Colonel (whom they had feted and bought the oil produced by the nation of which he is leader forty [...]

Iodine radiation in Japanese seas

Governments tell the people not to panic about the nuclear plants at Fukushima, and there seem to be good scientific reasons why we should not panic. Panic is usually counterproductive, but not panicking and being extremely worried are different states of mind.

Preventing Legionnaires’ Disease Risks in Large Scale Solar Water Heating Systems

The United Kingdom has very high standards of drinking water. In almost every case the water that you use from your cold tap will be cleaner and freer from bacteria than bottled water. However, even clean tap water contains bacteria most of which are harmless. The bacterium which has the most potential damage to health [...]

How Green Was the Budget?

On Wednesday the British Finance Minister, who is rather grandly called the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced the budget for the coming financial year. I have never understood why it is called a budget because a principle of every budget it that it should balance. The economies of the world’s developed nations rarely have balanced [...]

Copper reduces hospital infections

Hospitals used to be a place where you went to get better. In the past ten or so years some hospitals have been placed where you may get better of the disease or injury for which you were admitted but you may become ill by reason of having contracted MRSA, clostridium difficile, fungi aspergillus niger [...]

Oil prices and inflation

The price of world commodities is governed by a number of factors. The most obvious factor is the law of supply and demand. An average American manages to get through 25 barrels of oil a year. South Korea, which has a highly developed economy, consumes seventeen barrels of oil per person per year. China at [...]

Progressive Energy Tariffs

The British, say the British, have a talent for compromise. This talent for compromise is an over estimated quality; compromise can often be a mechanism for arriving at a solution which encompasses the worst of all possible worlds. When energy was de-nationalised in the United Kingdom it was done so in order to promote free [...]