Need

You need to restart your computer.
(You fool).

Well, since we all know that Macs never crash it must be some need that the user has. The user probably thinks he needs to carry on working on his computer, but in fact he needs to restart his computer. Apple says so.

The television stations in the UK constantly repeat programmes about cars and car chases in order to cheer us all up from worrying about climate change caused in part by cars and car chases. One of them is a budget job that recycles old police video tapes of bad drivers and fleeing criminals. Employ a former newsreader to shout over the top and you have a programme. A recent one contained the following declaration.

“THE DRIVER NEEDS TO BE CAUGHT”.

Surely the driver needs to get away? The police need to catch him. No? Hmmm.

Perhaps it is too easy to ascribe needs to others when really it is our own desires and competencies that are the issue. Anyway, Cathy Gilliat needs to make another record. That’s what we reckon.

NASA gets out the big marker pen

NASA answers the question about climate change: Global change: How do we know?

Of course, many internet forums are still packed with Right Thinking Patriotic Consumers who will fight what they see as being an iniquitous UN plot to raise taxes… and no wiggly orange line will worry them, whatever it shows. But most of the rest of us should not feel too righteous either, as we shuffle about in the same old ways, awaiting reassurance and directions from above.

Tapir Day? Just missed it!

We just missed another global event: Tapir Day! Tapirs are very pleasant creatures to be around - very calming. Some wildlife parks and zoos keep them; sadly the way things are going, they will only exist in captivity.

Videos and photos don’t tend to do them justice but this one is not too bad.

“Earth Day”? It was?

Oh. Well. Apparently there is this thing called ‘Earth Day’ but it was yesterday. Oh. According to the relevant Web site, “1,000,000,000 people worldwide” were planning to take part in Events. So we hope you enjoyed one of these Events if you happened to chance across one or are better informed than we are (despite our continual drip feeding on RSS bulletins…).

Argh! And now there are only 10 minutes (GMT) left to participate in F*ck the Earth Day - which is apparently today (GMT) so let’s just watch this 2 minute (local time) video while there is still time…

“modified soya produces 10 per cent less food than its conventional equivalent”

From The Independent: Exposed: the great GM crops myth:

Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops, an authoritative new study shows, undermining repeated claims that a switch to the controversial technology is needed to solve the growing world food crisis.

read more… and certainly read this:

Last week the biggest study of its kind ever conducted – the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development – concluded that GM was not the answer to world hunger.

Professor Bob Watson, the director of the study and chief scientist at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when asked if GM could solve world hunger, said: “The simple answer is no.”

Will they now stop this insanity? No. Because it never was to do with feeding the hungry. It’s about control. Control over the very nature of the world we live in, absolute control over us all.

Lights on, no-one home

So throughout the land the Christmas lights have been turned on to help encourage shoppers to get into an extravagant spirit. Many thanks to our leaders for paying lip service to the dangers of climate change and the need to conserve energy but turning a blind eye to all those lights that aid Christmas commerce. How many years was it again before climate change is irreversible? Ho hum… ho ho ho… 

“Support Dimas decision on maize - keep Europe GMO free”

Support the decision of the EU’s Environment Commissioner to reject authorisation for the growing of two varieties of GM maize. Greenpeace has supplied the letter, so you all have to do is click and add your name and email address.

Saving the music industry and the planet with shiny objects

“50 years from now what will they say about us here?Did we care for the water and the fragile atmosphere?”So sings Prince in the title song of his new album, free yes FREE with a certain British “newspaper”. Do all their readers like Prince? Is Prince caring “for the water and the fragile atmosphere”? Or responsible for the production of 2.9 million plastic disks, many of which will inevitably end up in landfills?But perhaps they are new special magic biodegradable CDs - that aspect doesn’t seem to have been touched on much, amongst the debate about whether Prince has single-handedly destroyed or saved the Music Industry. As if that was the most important problem facing us all.

“Our eagerness to deal with climate change”

The Observer got some flak today by way of feedback from some of its readers for its article ‘After the Deluge, Let’s have Action‘. One action it suggests should be undertaken is the provision of “bigger drains”. Somehow the Flash advertisement for the newspaper’s travel shop, promoting air travel, seems more worthy of attention.Environmental issues tend to be hidden away as much as possible, year after year, decade after decade, until they become unavoidable - by which point, putting your used copies of The Observer and empty packets of Shreddies in a separate collection box from your other waste might be a little late in the day, and not really a convincing example of taking the bull by the horns in “our eagerness to deal with climate change”.