Things I have observed

People in Japan wear facemasks, which may or may not be related to smells made by Garreth. Sometimes, a mother may wear a mask, but her children do not, making them the miner's canary.

Everthing looks mad. In adverts, they are all overdosing on prozac, with absurdly large smiles. In reality, they are stoic. Chubby faces in childhood develop into long faces ibn adulthood. There are lots of old people, which is apparently a problem.

Car doors shut themselves.

I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so

A journey plagued by KLM's smug, overarching, evil autmota meant I visited 5 countries (airports) in 24 hours. After arriving in Tokyo 12 hours late, tired, confused, with a well drafted letter of complaint and a racist opinion of the Dutch, I had a great time. Eaten some Katsu curry. Drunk some beers. Pressed the button on the arm of the heated toilet, the one with the outline of a bum and a geyser. I watched the Social Network and The Kings Speech on flight- both average. I find it hard to believe the king had a hard life. I find it hard to make a virtue of the creation facebook.

But all in all, it's great. I'm treading that line of invincible Brit abroad and cultural sympathiser- I just paid the exact money for a purchase (beer) and said 'origato' (thanks) afterwards. That was a threshold moment. Ignore the times I was saying 'Arry Potter' instead of arigato.

bye. So far, no dawn of the dead destrcution of society.

The human condition

Choice is a profound thing. This curious sensation of not knowing the future, yet being propelled to invent it. In the night, many times, I have been to the toilet. Not so many times that it is a medical problem (polyuria, nocturia), but there have been many nights in my life (9,619), so many opportunities to go to the toilet. In my new flat, our bathroom has no windows. This means that there is a noisy extractor fan, activated in symphony with the lights. My electricity monitor has shown me that this uses its fair share of electricity, so I prefer not to use it. So I piss, into the dark, and sometimes the sound that rebounds at me is that sonic mixture of water on water and water on ceramic. Knowing that the best way to urinate is into nothing but the water, I must choose. Left or right? You would not believe the amount of times everything goes quiet, then the dampened sound of water on carpet, or water on magazine. Often followed by the sound of the lightswitch, the extractor fan, and a snigger. But it's worth it, for the feeling. When the returning noise is water on water, and I can leave, having saved using the lightswitch, feeling like a man.

That's the best thing I'm ever going to write, so there's probably not much point in continuing this blog. Oh well. If it does continue, you'll be the first to know. Bye.

Back seat driving

Dunno what to make of this, from stop the war.

1) IF BRITAIN WAS GAZA… 16,000 DEAD In the last four days, Israel has killed close to 400 Palestinians in Gaza, which has a population of one and a half million. A proportionately similar death toll in Britain, with a population of 60 million, would be 16,000 dead in four days.

When I got woken by my neighbour's techno today, that was equivalent to him waking 25 people in china

Do they know it's christmas time at all? Oh, it's boxing day. Bob, do they know it's boxing day? What about Wimbledon, Bob? Do they watch it?

It's Christmastime
There's no need to be afraid
At Christmastime, we let in light and we banish shade
And in our world of plenty we can spread a smile of joy
Throw your arms around the world at Christmastime

But say a prayer

Pray for the other ones
At Christmastime it's hard, but when you're having fun
There's a world outside your window
And it's a world of dread and fear
Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears
And the Christmas bells that ring there are the clanging
chimes of doom
Well tonight thank God it's them instead of you

And there won't be snow in Africa this Christmastime
The greatest gift they'll get this year is life
(Oooh) Where nothing ever grows
No rain nor rivers flow
Do they know it's Christmastime at all?

(Here's to you) raise a glass for everyone
(Here's to them) underneath that burning sun
Do they know it's Christmastime at all?

Feed the world
Feed the world

Feed the world

Let them know it's Christmastime again

Feed the world
Let them know it's Christmastime again

repeat then fade

With a little understanding, you can find the perfect blend

Neighbours has recently reached dizzy dramatic heights, with the fire, Marco's death, Steph's kidnap, and the subsequent behaviour of the crazed stalking arsonist. The way they dealt with the challenging emotional issues and strains placed on the characters provided one brilliant half hour on Monday. I was constantly on the verge of tears and deep introspection- not of a sarcastic kind, but of the kind intended by the brilliant writers.

A few issues have been thrown up this week though. The arsonist threatened the sacred open door policy of Ramsey Street. Despite a policeman imploring Steph and Toadie to "Lock all the doors and windows", they couldn't do it. With a lunatic on the loose, they left the back door open, in case a neighbour needed access to the smoothies. They also let a toddler and small child hang around the kitchen, unattended, in the middle of the night. Thankfully, the arsonist just tried to cuddle one of them, then ran away.

Unperturbed, Toadie continued to leave the back door unlocked, so the man who fooled a state-wide man-hunt, again, just wandered into the kitchen. With the room to himself, he picked his weapon wisely. A blunt pair of old scissors. Who wants a kitchen knife, when you could jab someone with a five inch long blunt object. Somehow, these managed to penetrate Steph's lung from only a small backlift, while his arm was gripped by Toadie's angry hand.

Oh, and Zeke saw Didge's fannaroonie.

BLOW TO GOVERNMENT COAL POLICY AS CLIMATE CAMPAIGNERS ARE ACQUITTED

10th September 2008

BLOW TO GOVERNMENT COAL POLICY AS CLIMATE CAMPAIGNERS ARE ACQUITTED

*Verdict marks a 'tipping point' for climate change movement***

Ministers suffered a blow to their energy plans today as six Greenpeace volunteers were acquitted of criminal damage by a Crown Court jury in a case that centred on the contribution made to climate change by burning coal.

The charges arose after the six attempted to shut down the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent last year by scaling the chimney and painting the Prime Minister's name down the side. The defendants pleaded 'not guilty' and relied in court on the defence of 'lawful excuse' – claiming they shut the power station in order to defend property of a greater value from the global impact of climate change.

Today's acquittal is a potent challenge to the Government's plans for new coal-fired power stations from jurors representing ordinary people in Britain who, after hearing the evidence, supported the right to take direct action in order to protect the climate.

Over five days of evidence Maidstone Crown Court heard testimony from the world's leading climate scientist, an Inuit leader from Greenland and David Cameron's environment adviser. The jury was told that Kingsnorth emits 20,000 tonnes of CO2 every day - the same amount as the 30 least polluting countries in the world combined – and that the Government has advanced
plans to build a new coal-fired power station next to the existing site on the Hoo Peninsula in Kent.

The 'not guilty' verdict means the jury believed that shutting down the coal plant was justified in the context of the damage to property caused around the world by CO2 emissions from Kingsnorth.

One of the Kingsnorth 6, Emily Hall, said after her acquittal:
"This is a huge blow for the Government's plans to build new coal-fired power stations. It's coal that should have been on trial, not us. After this verdict, the only people left in Britain who think new coal is a good idea are business secretary John Hutton and the energy minister Malcolm
Wicks.
It's time the Prime Minister stepped in, showed some leadership, and
embraced a clean energy future for Britain."

Another of the defendants, Ben Stewart, added:
"This verdict marks a tipping point for the climate change movement. If jurors from the heart of Middle England say it's legitimate for a direct action group to shut down a coal-fired power station because of the harm it does to our planet, then where does that leave government energy policy?
We have the clean technologies at hand to power our economy, it's time we
turned to them instead of coal."

The defence called as a witness Professor James Hansen, a NASA director who advises Al Gore and is known as the world's leading climate scientist. Hansen told the court that more than a million species would be made extinct because of climate change and calculated that Kingsnorth would proportionally be responsible for 400 of these. "We are in grave peril," he told the jury. He said he agreed with Al Gore's statement that more people should be chaining themselves to coal-powered stations. "Somebody needs to step forward and say there has to be a moratorium, draw a line in the sand and say no more coal-fired power stations."

Asked by Michael Wolkind QC, for the defence, if carbon dioxide damages property, Hansen replied, "Yes, it does." Asked if stopping emissions of any amount of it therefore protects property, he replied, "Yes it does, in proportion to the amount." He added that he thought there was an immediate need to protect property at risk from climate change.

Tory green adviser Zac Goldsmith also gave evidence for the defence. He told the court: "By building a coal-power plant in this country, it makes it very much harder in exerting pressure on countries like China and India. I think that's something that is felt in Government circles." He later told the jury: "Legalities aside, I suppose if a crime is intended to prevent much larger crimes, I think then a lot of people would consider that as justified and a good thing."

Some of the property the court was told was in immediate need of protection included parts of Kent at risk from rising sea levels, the Pacific island state of Tuvalu and areas of Greenland. The defendants also cited the Arctic ice sheet, China's Yellow River region, the Larsen B ice shelf in
Antarctica, coastal areas of Bangladesh and the city of New Orleans.

The acquittal is the first case where preventing property damage from climate change has been used as part of a 'lawful excuse' defence in court.
The defence has previously been successfully deployed by defendants accused of damaging a military jet bound for Indonesia to be used in the war against East Timor before independence.

The defendants had intended to paint 'GORDON BIN IT' down the side of the chimney but were served a High Court injunction by police helicopter, meaning they only got as far as painting the Prime Minister's first name.

Last month a new report by Poyry - Europe's leading energy consultants -concluded that Britain could meet its energy demands without new coal. If the UK hit its existing efficiency and renewables targets it would negate the case for a new coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth and at least seven other proposed sites. An earlier Poyry report, published in June, found at least 16 gigawatts of untapped potential from 'Combined Heat and Power' plants – super-efficient power stations that are popular in Scandinavia but little used in the UK.

ENDS

Greenpeace press office – 0207 865 8255

Video and stills of Greenpeace team scaling and painting Kingsnorth smokestack available on request Greenpeace 'case against coal' can be found at:

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/media/reports/the-case-against-coal-fired-power-generation