Ippoippo

That will be Her Majesty’s Government

So, on Monday 19th November, Gordon is telling us to be ‘Green’.

Mr Brown, who said the UK’s emission target of a 60% cut by 2050 could be increased to 80%, said he would also seek the end of one-use plastic bags.

He committed Britain to meeting EU targets on boosting renewable energy.

There would be “hard choices and tough decisions” but he said a new low carbon economy could bring thousands of jobs.

Yet, on the 22nd November, we learn this from our Transport Minister that plans are afoot for a third runway and sixth terminal at Heathrow.

Sheer lunacy. First because ’short-termist’ gain is be pushed for, rather than long term thinking. Sure, we ‘need’ (and I use the term ‘need’ carefully) extra capacity now… but in 25 years time, I seriously doubt the airline industry is going to be same! Climate Change or not, we ain’t going to have the fuel for mass transit by aeroplane. I don’t think the few very rich will require three runways and six terminals.

More bloody idiots

Meanwhile, further proof that the there must be a bunch of complete idiots working at Pirbright, with another possible Foot-and-Mouth leak from the Lab.

Some other reading

Stand by for ‘generalised systemic financial meltdown’
Europe Suspends Mortgage Bond Trading Between Banks … Everything is fine… yeah right!
Meanwhile, in France… the latest in transport technology

Wednesday’s Article
Thursday’s Article

Something in Thursday’s caught my attention…

In central Tokyo, 68-year-old Mr Yamada works in a car park. “It’s better to work,” he says. “As long as I have my health, I’ll continue to work – it’s more interesting.”

The cynical part of me thinks that Yamada-san actually doesn’t want to stop working because it will mean he’ll have to spend more time with that wife of his, who he hardly knows anymore having spent all of his working life working stupidly long hours and having practically zero family interaction.
Much less stressful, and easy to maintain the ‘wa’ if he’s out of the way doing some work, even if it’s menial stuff like waving a little stick to guide people into a car park.

A few interesting links today.

First up, Tokyo has overtaken Paris as the best place to eat… OFFICIALLY! (well, OFFICIALLY according to the Michelin guide).

Now, I can quite easily agree with that. I used to love some of the places I went out eating to in Japan… even the cheaper places.

However, things aren’t so great in Japan… when you are a foreigner.

Today, Japan starting it’s foreigner fingerprinting regime… something I’m not looking forward to enduring at the airport next week
Even without the related privacy issues, and impression being given out by the J-Govt that us foreigners are a bunch of criminals… it’s just going to be a pain in the arse with all the queuing. I guess Yuko will be waiting for me long after collecting our luggage.

Some more links on the story here, here, and here.

Some mixed feedback from Japanese here.

Finally, looks like a bunch of foreigners have started blogging about it too.

Also in Japan

The BBC has started an interesting series on Japan’s Population issues.
Article 1 (Monday)
Article 2 (Tuesday)

… has a leading story about Peak Oil.

This time its the respected Wall Street Journal.

A growing number of oil-industry chieftains are endorsing an idea long deemed fringe: The world is approaching a practical limit to the number of barrels of crude oil that can be pumped every day.

Some predict that, despite the world’s fast-growing thirst for oil, producers could hit that ceiling as soon as 2012. This rough limit — which two senior industry officials recently pegged at about 100 million barrels a day — is well short of global demand projections over the next few decades. Current production is about 85 million barrels a day.

The world certainly won’t run out of oil any time soon. And plenty of energy experts expect sky-high prices to hasten the development of alternative fuels and improve energy efficiency. But evidence is mounting that crude-oil production may plateau before those innovations arrive on a large scale. That could set the stage for a period marked by energy shortages, high prices and bare-knuckled competition for fuel.

There was also some interesting ‘leaks’ from OPEC as well.