Grevinnan och Betjänten (or "Dinner For One")

When you live in Sweden you pretty soon have to get used to the Swedes love of tradition. This is sometimes taken to extremes especially where the festive TV schedule is concerned. You HAVE to watch Kalle Anka on Christmas Eve or its just not Christmas, for example.

Then on New Years Day Swedish TV, for some reason, always shows Ivanhoe....Why ?? It's a crap film! Of all the films you could show why this one and why every year ?????!!! I don't get it. Can’t they show John Boorman’s Excalibur instead one year if people want to see knight on horseback?

Most bizarre of all to me though is Grevinnan och Betjänten (or "Dinner for One" as the original English stage version is called). When I arrived in Sweden, people kept mentioning this English sketch, which has been shown every year since about 1963. They could quote the whole thing word for word with the same kind of comedic enthusiasm usually reserved for Monty Python sketches.

Nobody could understand why I’d never heard of it. When I eventually got to see James and Miss Sophie and told people that I'd never seen it before in my life they couldn’t believe me, convinced as they were it must be shown in England as

a) It's English and
b) It shown just about everywhere else in Europe.

The thing is though that Dinner for One was originally recorded solely for German TV. The English TV channels were not interested in an 18minute sketch as it didn't fit into the 30minute slots typical of English TV. So while the rest of Europe gets to see it every year The British remain blissfully ignorant of its existence (which for some might be a good reason to move to England, at least for New Year).

I can see the charm in the sketch, but for me the thing I like the most is that it so perfectly sums up Swedish TV at Christmas time (and to certain extent Swedish Culture as a whole) in that immortal phrase "The same procedure as every year".

All this hardly adds to the agument given by Sweden's SVT channel that it offers a wide breadth of viewing alternatives which justifies the TV liscence...

Benazir Bhutto Murdered

Once again those opposed to peace and democracy have done their evil work, murdering Benazir Bhutto.

She has only recently returned to Pakistan in the hope of becoming Prime Minister for a third time. On the day of her arrival there was an assassination attemp which left many dead but Ms Bhutto was spared. Today she was not so lucky. She had been campaigning for free and fair elections in Pakistan, an end to military rule and an end to extremism.

Benazir Bhutto was an inspirational woman whose strength and courage never failed her. Even knowing the threaghts to her life, she still went out to campaign for a better Pakistan. The world is a more uncertain place without her.

Electronic Christmas Cards Just Can't Replace the Real Thing

In Sweden this year fewer Christmas cards were sent via post than last year, in which even fewer were sent that the year before. This downward trend is blamed on the ease of sending electronic cards via the internet.

Which is a shame.

In our house we always send loads of Christmas Cards (at least 20 to England and about the same again in Sweden and Europe). For all the fancy graphics and animations you can get with e-cards you can't stick them up on the fridge, or line them up on a shelf or, as we do, hang them from the curtain rail. For us they are another part of the Christmas decorations and make us think about the family and friends who sent them.

You just don't get this emotional connection with electronic cards.

So think twice before deciding not to send Christmas cards via the post. The cost of the stamps and paper is well worth it when you consider the happiness that getting them brings to those close to you.

Merry Christmas...

Coffee, The Last Affordable Vice (But Not For Long)

Isn't it bad enough that every possible vice in Sweden is either illegal or taxed to hell, without prices going up on the only plessure left....drinking coffee.

Sweden's pub culture is nothing like what you find in Britain, but instead Sweden has the coffee shop culture where people come to meet and chat.

But now there is the risk of higher prices even for coffee as world demand pushes up the prices of coffee beans.

Soon there will be nothing left which is affordable, unhealthy and gives pleasure in an otherwise humdrum life of work, kids and more work.

Tony Blair Becomes a Catholic

After much speculation, Tony Blair has left the Anglican Church and become a Catholic. I was never that happy with having a overtly religious leader when I lived in Britain. At the time of the Gulf War we had the Muslim world declaring the they were doing God's Will and with God's help they would prevail and then we had Bush saying quoting the Bible and calling on God to bless the American troops in their 'Crusade'.

The fact that Blair was an active christian did not sit well with me as I don't like the idea of politicians taking guidance from religious teaching to decide policy. Blair admits he prayed to God about whether to send troops to Iraq. He didn't say what the answer was though. Maybe he parayed along the lines of, 'God if you DON'T want me to invade Iraq give me a sign'. If in fact his payers were answered then you have to wonder what God is playing at as he also told the Muslim's to resist until death since matyrdom is the quickest way into paradise.

We don't need religion to tell us what is right and wrong and I don't like the way religion is so easily used to give legitamacy to people basically being shitty to each other.

Fatscreen TVs Consume More Energy

Yesterday I blogged about the rise in demand for flatscreen TVs. This morning I came across an article which states that LCD TVs consume 75% more power than regular TVs and Plasma TVs consume up to 300% more!

With all these TVs being sold, the increase in energy demand to pay for them should be considered too.

Plasma or LCD TV, That is the Question!

Sometimes you can have too much choice! With sales of flatscreen TVs rising by 55% in Sweden every electronics shop is full of them. But which to choose ???

First you have to decide on LCD or Plasma. Plasma give better picture quality but can suffer from picture burn in. LCD is immune to burn in, but can have a really crappy picture if the signal is bad. I just can't decide.....Some flat TV pictures I have seen are not even as good as my existing analogue TV, which is 15 years old.

In the shops they have hundreds of different TVs but I can never find any good reviews to say which is a good purchace.

The review published in Dn really scared me off Plasma, due to the burn in problem, but a salesman in a shop told me you would need to have the same picture on the screen for hours for this to happen. Who is right? .....aggghhhhh!!!

While I can't decide I'll keep watching my analogue TV and watch the cost of the flatscreen TVs fall. But now my kids are a little older I want to be able to watch DVDs in the evening on a proper screen and, like Gollum lusting after the One Ring, I can't stop thinking about the owning my own 40inch+ flatscreen 'precious'.

Mickey Mouse to Appear in an Italian Court

What a great story! Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck (Kalle Anka), Tweetie Bird and other Disney characters have been called to appear in an Italian court as witnesses in copyright dispute.

It seams unlikely that they will attend (after all Italy does not have an extradition treaty with Disneyworld).

I'd love to here Donald Duck give evidence in court....Tweetie though would esily break down under cross examination and sing like a canary.

Earlier this year two Hindu Gods were called to apper in an Indian court as witnesses in a property dispute, so this is not as strange as it might seam.

The Most Overpaid Stars In Hollywood

Forbes in the US has published a list of the most overpaid actors in Hollywood, with Russel Crowe topping the list since the film studios only earn 5dollars for each dollar Crowe gets paid. The most bankable stars are Tom Cruise and Will Smith who earn 11 and 10 dollars for the film compaines for each dollar they get paid.

Still, you have to consider that Will Smith is hardly a great character actor and by starring in big budget, mass appeal action films he is bound to pull in big bucks. After the film though you never identify him with the character he plays, he's just Will Smith.

Russel Crowe is a proper actor though, who does films bacause he feels they are artistic roles to play which tell a story worth telling, even if they don't have mass appeal. This might make him sound a bit pretentious, and that may be so, but he does have an Oscar and is a great actor.

In lists like this someone always has to come bottom, but few names on the list belong to serious character actors, wo do more than just blockbuster action films and comedies.

Renovating an Old House: A Brilliant or Stupid Idea?

My wife and I have been looking to buy a new house for some time. We want to leave out 1.5 storey house and move into a single storey house. We have been on I don't know how many viewings and bid on three houses only to back out when the bidding rose above the point where we felt we were getting a good deal.

Eventually we found our dream house and said, 'This is the one we want and were going to make damn sure we get it whatever the cost'.

But then the bidding started and rose up about 30% above the asking price, so we eventually pulled out of that one too, which was a crushing blow. What we loved most about the house though was the layout. It was perfect with plenty of space, bedrooms away from the rest of the living area, semi-open planned, but with a gap between the kitchen and living room, so that you could cook without interfering with or being interfered by the TV.

Then we found another house with the exact same layout and going for a fraction of the asking price of the other. The catch is that it was un-renovated since it was built in 1977. This means that the bathrooms are in green porcelain and the kitchen cooker is built by ASEA and looks like the first cooker my parents had back in the 70s. This time we won the bidding and became the owners of a lump of coal destined to become a diamond.

So here’s the thing, can we fix up an old house and turn it into our dream home. From a cost point of view it seams like a good idea as after the house is fixed up we will only be paying for the true cost of a new house rather than bidding on a newly renovated house where the final price depends on how many people are interested during the bidding. Although I write about this now, we bought the house back in September, when prices were still high.

Have we made a good business move or condemned ourselves to the trouble and stress of fixing up a house whilst managing our jobs and two small kids? On the plus side much of the work we can pay somebody else to do, but there is still a lot of decorating for us to take care of.

My gut feeling is that we are doing the right thing, but only time will tell. We get the key in the beginning of the New Year so Christmas this year will be the calm before the storm!!!! We then have a couple of months before leaving this house to get the bulk of the restoration work done.

Nobel Party or Springsteen? Not such a tricky choice for some

It's always tricky when you have two parties to go to and you have to choose which one to pick. Today was one of those days for Mona Sahlin (leader of the Swedish Social Democrats), who had to choose between the Nobel Prize party or the Bruce Springsteen concert in Stockholm.

So faced with being the dutiful politician or a simple rock chick, she went for rock chick...good for her. She is even getting a back stage pass...

To be honest, I'm not a big Bruce Springsteen fan, but my wife worships him and still keeps going on about seing him in Göteborg when she was a teen and that was over 20 years ago. I watched every single episode of Sopranos and never once realised Steven Van Zandt was the guitarist in the E street band. Even so I have to respect an artist who has had such lasting appeal as Springsteen and they don't call him The Boss for nothing.

Gävlebocken: Burn Baby Burn !

Christmas is coming and in the Swedish town of Gävle it is time for the Gävlebocken to come out again. For those who don't know, the Gävlebocken is a giant goat, made of straw, who stands proudly in the town square of Gävle during advent.

The problem is that after a few drinks it is inevitable that some people will think, "Mmmmm, giant straw goat, I bet that would burn well"

So now we not only have the tradition of putting up the Gävleboken, but also the tradition of burning it down as soon as possible. This has become such a tradition that one US tourist didn't even realise it was actually illegal and was imprisoned for arson after torching it one year.

But now every year there is all this anticipation as people wait to if the goat will get torched before Christmas. It's like a Swedish Groundhog Day.

The authorities have been playing dirty though by using flame resistant coating and sprays to make the goat inflammable. But, there is a catch here...The international media interest is not there because of a giant Christmas Goat, but rather because of the fact it keeps getting burnt down. That is always the angle that the BBC and CNN take when they make their reports.

So the city council should be wary about making Gävlebocken too indestructible. In order to keep the town on the international map, the goat has to get burned down once in a while...

World Tours, Cancelled Tours and Tours Which Should be Banned

As if the Spice Girl tour was not bad enough, now we’ll have the Jackson Five reunion thrust upon us. When the Jackson’s first performed they were five, fresh faced, black skinned boys in their teens (or younger in little Michael's case). Now they are no longer boys, or fresh faced and one of them isn't even black anymore. I can only guess this has come about because something has to be done to keep the Neverland Ranch in animal feed and Michael can't face touring on his own with his image in such tatters.

Amy Winehouse on the other hand has suddenly cancelled her tour in order to continue her very public nervous breakdown. Even Brittney Spears has not managed to loose it in such a spectacular fashion. First she was booed on stage during an earlier gig and now, with just 2 hours until she was supposed to sing, she has cancelled the tour. Musical Stars falling apart is nothing new, but Amy seams to be dragging her fans along for the ride too, which I doubt many really signed up for. Still this is just the sort of troubled genius stuff that pop legends are made of. Pete Docherty practically built a career out of falling apart but is still bouncing back, so we have to hope Amy Winhouse can do the same.

Luckily, in all of this madness, we still have Saint Kylie to show the young upstarts and worn out has beans how a true performer is supposed to behave, and next year she's even coming to Sweden to do a show in Stockholm.

I'll Tell You What I (dont) Want!!

The Spice Girls comeback single, "Headlines (Friendship never ends)", has only sold a paultry 5278 copies in its first week.

The thing is that doing a comeback tour was probably a good idea as lots of people in their later 20s and early 30s have nostalgic memories of the Spice Girls (manly because after so long you forget how bad they could be and only remember Gerri's cleavage!). Seeing them prance around on stage doing tall the old hits is all very fun and retro.

But to do a single, oh no. Then they have to compete with the modern artists and I'm afraid the Spice Girls are just SO 1990s...

Santa Is a Big Fat Fake!

It's that time of year for children around the world to write their wish lists to Santa in the hope that on Christmas morning they will get what there hearts desire (materialistic little sods).

But when you look at things is the idolising and hero worship that kids give Santa really justified, or his he selling them an idea which is quite a long way from the truth?

First there are the Christmas lists, which Santa reads and decides who has been naughty and nice. But is that really fair, I mean who is he to judge kids like that and what about a fair trial, innocent until proven guilty or the right of appeal?

Then there are the presents. It's not like he makes them himself is it? No, instead he exploits low cost immigrant labourers, who work in sweatshop conditions for next to no pay. And if they complain he can always fire them and out-sourse the whole operation to China instead.

Then you have Santa complaining about how hard he works to deliver all the presents to the childern of the world on Christmas Night. But hang on, it's not like he has to bother with the Jews, Muslims, Sikhs, or in fact any other non-Christian Religion. That narrows things down quite a lot. Then of course in the Nordic countries Christmas Night is on the 24th so he can bag them in one night before even worrying about Britain and North America.

Then you have the time zones which means that if Santa starts in New Zealand and works his way westward, he can stretch Christmas Night on the 25th. by an extra twelve hours. And then he get to take easy until the 6th. of January before having to do Spain!!!

After all that he then takes the rest of the year off, to do God knows what. Probably living it up in some Carrabean tax haven.

So he is a fake, but like many public figures, a master of spin and has cynicaly manipulated his media image over the years and abused his monoplistic position. I think its time that the truth about Santa comes out....

British Ale: The Best Beer in the World

It has been reported that the sale of British Ale has dropped 22% since 1979, with sales now at their lowest level since the 1930s.

One problem has been the ease at which Brits can buy cheap beer in France and then take it home through the channel tunnel. Another is that most of the small breweries have been bought up by pub chains, who are more interested in selling large numbers of pints than delivering a quality product. This has made it harder to find really good beer. Also, Ale now has to compete with trendy drinks targeted at young people.

This is a national tragedy as British Ale is the best beer in the world...I know that many German's and Czechs might disagree with this, but frankly this is my blog and they can kiss my hairy butt.

British Ale comes in so many different types with such a diversity of flavour and texture, it's more like wine than the rubbish you get in other countries. In Sweden its very hard to find decent beer (although Swedish Ale, particularly that coming from the Jämtland Brewery is pretty damn good stuff and there are pubs like Accurat and Oliver Twist in Stockholm selling British Ale).

The best way to sample British Ale, if you can't find a pub is to go to a beer festival. On any given weekend there is bound to be a few going on somewhere in the country. This picture is from the Bath Beer festival which was held in September. They had about 50 ales to sample, and a pint cost around 2.20pounds which is about 30Kr.

Is Serbia Ready For Kosovan Independence?

EU leaders have called on Kosovo Albanians not to jump to any unilateral declaration of independence, since any future Kosovon state would need the support of other EU countries. However, in all of this not so much has been said about what Serbia would do if Kosovo declares independence.

Serbs believe Kosovo is the heart of the Serbian nation and that it must forever remain a part of Serbia. Writing on an earlier blog post of mine one Serb wrote:

"Serbs have become a minority in Kosovo over the past 60 years due to misgovernment and the opening of borders by a totalitarian communist regime which we dared not rise against because we saw what Stalin did to his own people in the USSR"

"And don't even start with Kosovans. There is no such thing. There are Serbs and there are Albanians. And there never have been and never will be any Kosovans. "

"And I see absolutely no reason why Albanians should be allowed to have Kosovo to themselves when 60 years ago there were no more than 100,000 of them there, and when they have their own country right across the border. What we did to them is no more than what you would do to anyone who would try to take away a part of your own country because one day they woke up and decided to do so."

Now these could be the isolated comments of one angry nationalistic Serb, or it could be one Serb voicing the opinions of a nation who will not sit back and let a part of their country be taken away from them. While Kosovo is protected by the UN, there is not much Serbia can do, but how long with that last, a decade? 50 years, a century?

Nationalistic identities and beliefs do not die out so easily as has been shown time and time again in Ireland, Palestine etc..

If this is the case a Kosovo Albanian state might not be so secure in the long run.

Queen of England and the King of Cool

The Queen of England is celebrating her diamond jubilee after 60 years of marriage to Prince Phillip. This is quite an achievment when you consider that three of her four children are divorced. It's even more amazing when you think that Prince Phillip is a xenophobic gun freek.

Still, I guess Charles married the wrong person in the first place and now he has put right that mistake, he'll be married for life now. Anne too is now happily remarried, but you never hear much of what Andrew is doing since his divorce to Fergie. Fergie of course whent to the US where she tried to support herself on the chat show circuit for many years, before finding fame as the only girl in the rap group, 'The Black Eyed Peas'.

Another Royal in the news is the King Juan Carlos of Spain, who has become the King of Cool anfter telling Venuzuala's President Hugo Chavez to 'shut up' at a recent summit. This has now been downloaded to phones, put on tee-shirts, mugs etc.. and is being lapped up by anyboday apposed to Chavez (of which there are many).

Come On England, A Nation Expects

It's never a good feeling in football when your fate rests in the hands of others, but today Israel though England the lifeline they need to still qualify for the European Cup.

With Israel beating Russia, England now needs to win against Croatia to qualify. This is tense stuff. The idea of England not qualifying is unthinkable. England has to be there, it’s a matter of national pride. But after Macedonia beat Croatia 2-0, England could actually top the group and a draw would be good enough for them to go through. Even if they loose, Russia still need to beat Andorra.

Britain has a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and a guaranteed place in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest, but in football the team has to earn its place and so far it hasn't exactly done that. But now the chance is there for the team to shine and play the way they have shown they can.

World's First Computer Cracking Codes Again

During World War II the British set up a secret code breaking centre at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. From there they perfected the techniques and machines necessary to break the German Enigma codes and later the Lorenz code, used by the Germen High Command.

The Enigma machine was cracked by an electromechanical machine called the Bombe, designed by Alan Turing, the father of modern computing and was based on a design made by Polish engineers.


The Lorenz code was much more difficult to crack and for this job the Colossus was built. Colossus was the world’s first programmable computer and used electric valves instead of the mechanical rotors used by the Bombe, making it much faster.

After the War, all the Colossus machines were destroyed, to stop the technology falling into enemy hands (in this case probably the Russians, since the war had ended), but now a team at Bletchley Park have successfully re-created one and it is now once again cracking the Lorenz code.

Bletchley Park is now a museum to computing and the code breaking efforts of World War II and is a fascinating place to visit for anybody interested in computers or history.

The work done at Bletchley Park was of such value that it probably shortened the war by 6 months and saved many countless lives. However, this did not stop Alan Turing being convicted of gross indecency after been caught having a homosexual relationship in the 1950s. Even though he was a hero of the war, he was still sentenced to undergo chemical castration and eventually committed suicide in 1954.

More Ways to Make UK Parliament Greener

The British Parliament building is to be made more environmentally friendly in order to cut the huge energy cost. Suggestions include installing double glazing, water turbines, driven from the Thames, and even a wind turbine.

Considering all the hot air spoken by the MPs during debates, I'm sure this could be recovered and turned in to useful energy. All the crap they speak could be used to generate methane to run a turbine too. Maybe MPs who die in office could be composted down as bio-fuel - maybe some living ones too for that matter...

The different political parties in the UK have been recycling each others policies for years, so they are at least ahead of the game in that respect.

Mulder and Skully We Need You !!!

A group in the US is calling on the government to reopen the files on investigations into UFO sightings. But this isn't a group of paranoid nutters, but rather a collection of former pilots and government employees form seven different countries, which have seen UFO's or have investigated sightings.

They claim that these sightings could represent a security risk and so should be taken seriously. Only last month the Democrat presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich, said during a televised debate that he'd seen a UFO.

So its time to bring back Mulder and Skully and find out what is really watching us from the skies, before George W. tries to invade Mars.

GPS: The Must Have Present for '07

In Sweden at least, the must have Christmas present for this year is a personal GPS system. It's not the most blingy of presents; in fact it’s a bit of a geeky toy. I would have thought mobiles with extra big screens for watching TV would have been higher on people’s wish list.

It just goes to show that technology is becoming an ever more important part of our lives. We are now so used to having a phone, camera, radio, MP3 players, games machine etc... All at the tip of our fingers, it’s hard to remember how we lived without it. The humble home PC might soon be made obsolete as well as more stuff is crammed into phones and other mobile gadgets.

I bought a GPS system a couple of years ago to help us navigate our way around Europe with our Caravan. Originally my wife insisted we used the Swedish voice to give the directions as it would be good training for me. However, since the voice had a Stockholm accent and my wife is from Göteborg, she soon decided she didn't like some Stockholmer telling her where to go, so we changed the voice to English. The English voice has a very special ‘1940s BBC radio announcer’ kind of voice.

We call him Charles...

Bhutto Back Under House Arrest

Benazir Bhutto is back under house arrest just days after being freed from the last time she was placed under house arrest!

This time it’s because she was planning to lead a march in protest of the continuing state of emergency in Pakistan. The Commonwealth Leaders have given General Musharraf 10 days to lift emergency rule and reinstate the constitution or else Pakistan will be suspended again.

I wonder where this is all going. Clearly Musharraf wants to hold on to power and is doing all he can to do so. But the pressure on him is building all the time and it can't go on like this. The situation as it is can only weaken the country further. Insider Pakistan there has been news blackouts, TV stations have been taken off the air and internet connection severed to keep the people in the dark as to what is going on.

But Pakistan is no Burma and the people won't be so easily bullied into submission. The irony is that Pakistan has not done so badly under Musharraf. But now he needs to give in to the democratic process, step down as head of the military and hold free and fair elections. The people will then judge his record as a leader.

Baby Care Books - Why Bother

I was looking through some of our books the other day and came across a small collection of books on baby care and raising children. We bought them back when we learned that we were expecting our first child.

Since neither of us had ever taken a very practical role in raising other babies in our families, we felt we needed some idea of what was to come, so being good educated people; we went out and bought a load of books.

They were mainly useless, flicked through once and then left to be forgotten on a shelf. The truth was that as soon as the kids arrived we just bluffed our way though it and made it up as we went along the same as everybody else does. With the second child it was even worse as even the 'great systems' we had devised for our first child became just too much bother when the second one arrived and were even further watered down.

Incidentally, there are two books though which have proved to be invaluable in caring for both our children. These are 'Advanced Engineering Mathematics' by Erwin Kryzig (6th edition) and 'Longmans Dictionary of Contempory English'.

Both these books are about 6cm thick and therefore perfect for placing under the legs of the babies’ cot to lift up the head end when they catch colds and can’t sleep because of blocked noses...

60 Years for Hacking, 6.5 Years for Murder!

Sometimes I really wonder about the judicial system in Sweden when a dangerous brutal murderer who stabbed and strangled his sambo to death can have his sentenced reduced from life to 10 years, which means in practice he could be out in maybe 6.5years.

What kind of deterrent is this? And what happens when this brutal man is released back into society?

And then you have a hacker in the USA who faces 60years in prison for infecting computers with a virus! It's crazy...

Murder must carry longer sentences because it a) Acts as a deterrent and b) keeps these dangerous individuals off the streets and c) gives people a long, long time to reflect on the damage they have done with their selfish actions.

Bhutto Freed From House Arrest

It's good to see that the house arrest of Benazir Bhutto has been lifted. Only time will tell if this was due to President Musharraf bowing down to international and internal pressure, or if is all part of an elaborate charade between Ms. Bhutto and Musharraf (See Is Musharraf-Bhutto conflict all it seems?)

We Should All Be Worried About Pakistan

Pakistan's President Musharraf has now placed opposition leader Benazir Bhutto under house arrest for 30 days (Dn, Svd).

Interestingly it has been done, 'for her own safety', which is very decent and thoughtful of him don't you think ?

Musharraf himself is under pressure to end the state of emergency and resign as head of the Army. However, he'll only do this if the High Court agree that it is legal for him to stand as President again.

All this does not make one feel very secure that the election, if and when it happens, will be free and fair. Ms Bhutto's party is the largest in the country so she does command great power amongst the people of Pakistan. It is this which has Musharraf so worried.

A military commander who takes power by force and then abuses his position to keep down opposition and rigs elections to give the illusion of credability is a dictator, fair and square.

As I have said before, anachy and political strife in Pakistan is bad for all of us. The situation in Burma is bad enough, but Pakistan is a country with nuclear weapons, and a small, but dangerous group of Islamic militants, waiting to exploit the political situation.

Classic Film Quotes

A List of the top 10 movie lines has been published recently. Here are some more.

" I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."
- Aliens.

"I got a bad feeling about this"
- Star Wars (various episodes)

" You're only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!"
- The Italian Job (original)

"Listen, you fucking fringe, if I throw a dog a bone, I don't want to know if it tastes good or not. You stop me again whilst I'm walking, and I'll cut your fucking Jacobs off. "
- Snatch

Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has recieved a standing ovation from the US Houses of Congress during his official visit to the US. It is hard to believe a French Prsident could be so walmly recieved after the cool relationship betwen the US and France in recent years.

It's not so long ago that the French were being rediculed as Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys in the US press and even in an episode of the Simposons. France, along with Germany and Belgium were also decsribed as the 'Axis of Weasles' for thier lack of support for the Iraq War. Fance also has been in the top 3 list of Most Weasliest Nations' on the Dilbert Site for many years, beating the likes of Iran and North Korea. Finnally who could forget the campaign to rename French Fries to Freedom Fries.

But not now, Sarkozy has put on a charm offensive of stunning magnitude and said all the things Americans want to here from a European head of state (Thanks for saving us from the Nazis; Yes we will support you in Iraq and Afganistan; No we won't stand by and let Iran develop Nuclear Weapons). The fact that France has a permanent seat on the UN Security Council will also help.

So now the American people will be free to embrace all things French again without feeling like traitors.

Vive La France!

Pakistan President Getting More Desperate

The situation in Pakistan is getting worse as General Musharraf has declared a state of emergency and is now rounding up opposition supporters of Benazir Bhutto.

The West has always turned a blind eye to Musharraf's not-so-democratic behaviour in the past as he has been such a keen ally in the War on Terror. However, now we are starting to see a desperate man using his position as head of the military and head of state to take unconstitutional action to secure his position in the face of popular resistance.

The danger is that a power struggle at the top of Pakistan's political system will give the militants breathing room to and spread further instability in the country. We can't afford to let Pakistan descend into chaos. This will give the likes of Al-Queda a haven to grow, just as they did in Afganistan.

Stability in Pakistan is good for all of us in the long run.

Don't Be Surprised When People Want Things For Free

Is it really a big surprise that so few people have been willing to pay for Radiohead's new album after they were invited to download it from their website and pay only as much as they felt appropriate.

When this was announced the Thom Yorke said something trite about trusting to the honesty of the public and proving the cynical record industry wrong.

Well that is a fine and noble idea but the fact that 62% of people have not paid anything and the rest have paid an average of 38Kronor says something else. The whole reason that people pirate music and films is because it is free and people like getting things for free or at least as cheap as possible. You only have to look at the scandal in the Swedish Moderata Party over ministers buying services without paying taxes to see this.

Still, maybe the people who downloaded the album for free from their website would have downloaded it for free from Pirate Bay or some other site anyway. In this case the band will not have lost out financially and have gotten a whole load fo free publicity.

Put An End To November NOW!

What is the point of November? Its just dark, cold, wet and nothing fun happens. There are no holidays, festivals of sporting events to take peoples minds of the tedium of getting up in the dark going to work in the rain and then tramping home again in the dark and gloom.

September has the blaze of colour that a nature throws up as its swan song for the end of summer. December has the lights of Christmas, Lucia and the anticipation of a well earned holiday. But November has nothing like that.

I propose to simply cancel November and go straight from September to December. That way we can all miss out the most depressing month of the year.

April is pretty rubbishy too. There isn't enough decent snow to ski and the weather is too cold and wet for it to really feel like spring.

If we could cancel April too then we could also ditch the silly Gregorian Calendar and replace it with a nice modern 'Metric' calendar with only ten months (only they would't be called months they would be 'deciyears').

Maybe I should start lobbying the EU parliament......

Religiously Inspired Terrorism in the 17th. Century

Today is the anniversary of a plot which, if it had suceeded, would have been the worst terrorist attocity in English history. The plan was very simple, to cause an explosion under the House of Lords during the state opening of parliament and kill the monach and most of the English ruling class.

This happened in the year 1605 and the plotters were Catholics angry at the mistreatment of other Catholics in England. They hoped to kill the Protestant King and then start a revolt to put a Catholic back on the English Throne.

At this time it was possible to rent store rooms under the Houses of Parliament in London and one of these was loaded up with gunpowder. In fact there was enough gunpowder to completely destroy the Parliament building and blow out windows in a 1km radius.

But the plotters were betrayed, discovered and tried. Although Robert Catesby was the ringleader it was Guy Fawkes, the explosives expert who is most associated with the plot. He was arrested and questioned by the authourities. Of couse in those days you didn't need to fly a suspect to a secret CIA prison in Romania to torture them, you just sent them to the Tower of London.

After being found guilty the plotters were sentenced to Death by being hung drawn and quartered. This involved hanging somebody until they were nearly dead, then drawing out their intenstines and burning them in front of the condemend man before beheading them a cutting up the body into four parts (presumably to make sure they were really, really dead!)

The idea of the plot was to give greater rights and freedoms to the Catholics in Britain, but instead Catholics were even more pursecuted in the later years.

Every year in Britain, on November the 5th. people light bonfires and fireworks. It is also tradition to make a figure of Guy Fawkes to burn on top of the bonfire. When I was growing up it was my favourite day of the year because I loved watching the fireworks so much and, unlike in Sweden, people don't light fireworks at New Year in the UK.

Stuck in Standstead Airport's Security Check

Last weekend I flew to England from Sweden for a weekend visit. Flying out from Sweden with Ryanair was a dream as I had no baggage and had checked in on-line so I didn't even need to queue for the check in desk.

Getting home again was a nightmare though. There were so many people trying to squeeze through the security check at Standstead airport that it took me an hour to make it into the departure hall. It's always the same; there are so many flights and just too few X-ray scanners, which creates this terrible bottleneck.

All around me were people worrying that after queuing for God knows how long to check in they were now going to miss their flights as they couldn't get through the security check. We were hot, frustrated and just shuffling along like sheep. By the time I made it through, there was barely enough time to buy a sandwich before I had to go to the departure gate. I wonder how many people miss their flights after being stuck there so long.

It was ridiculous and made me again wish that Ryanair had not moved their flights from Sweden's Västerås airport to Standstead from Luton. Luton airport is much smaller and consequently it does not take as long to clear the security.

I would have hated to have had my kids with me. Whenever I fly with my kids I use SAS or British Airways since the service is much better, even though the tickets cost more.

Madeleine McCann's Parent Pay of Loan from Fund

A spokesman for Madeleine McCann's parents has said that the couple used money from the Madeleine fund to help pay the loan on there 450 000pound (6 000 000Kr) home(SvD, Dn.

This has caused some outrage in certain quarters (especially from people convinced the couple are guilty). You have to put it into the correct context though. Firstly, the terms of the fund allow it to be used to support the family financially, so what they have done is not dishonest. Secondly, the couple have not worked since Madeleine’s disappearance, so their income has become very much lower than before. It must surely be in the spirit of the fund that they should not be forced out of their homes because instead of going back to work, they are looking for their missing daughter.

The other thing is that as soon as they were made formal suspects, they stopped taking money from the fund for personal reasons, as they felt this would be inappropriate, and rightly so.

If the McCann's had been a couple of Blue Collar workers living in a small terrace house, nobody would have complained if they needed support to avoid being thrown out of their home, but instead they are a couple of well educated, highly paid professionals, and this does not sit well with some people.

Also the fact they live in an expensive house has not helped, but it is worth noting that the AVERAGE house price in the area where they live is 3.5MK. Before I moved to Sweden I lived near to Brighton where the average house price is over 6MKr!

Gerry McCann will now return to work part time as a consultant heart specialist.

This story is being used by some for more McCann bashing. One of the worst things about this case is how many people want them to be guilty for no other reason that it makes the story so much more juicer and exciting.

Changing Seasons - Not Good for Sleep

There is new report out saying how people are more affected by the change from summertime to wintertime than previously thought.

When I lived in England I was never that much affected by the clock change from summer to wintertime, but now I live so much more further north I really notice it. In the Summer I can't sleep because it is so light outside my body never gets the signals it needs to rest, but strangely I don't feel tired either.

In the winter I am tired all the time and even if I regularly go to bed at 21:30, it does not really help. As a naive Englishman I kind of assumed that Swedes had learnt to cope with the varying daylight hours or maybe even had developed genetic tolerance to it over all these centuries, but not so. I still meet loads of Swedes who become almost like zombies during the winter months.

Luckily we have coffee to help (or at least give a working placebo effect).

In the summer I am very much an evening person, but in the winter I am neither a morning nor evening person - I 'm at best lunchpigg!

The only good thing is that when my young kids wake up at 5:30, it is easier to persuade them to go back to sleep again when it is dark outside.

Pornographic Naked Jesus Statue ???

A group in Austria is protesting about a statue showing a naked figure of Jesus, which has stood for 20 years in a public place without anybody complaining before. Strangely the man (an 82 year old who should know better) is attacking the statue for being pornographic.

If this is pornographic, I wonder what kind of sheltered life this guy has had for the past 82 years....

The English Give a Bad Impression

It may be that people from other countries have a better view of the English before they meet them, but I have just come back from England and I had a great time. It was so nice to be around real English people again and to talk English to people who have it as a first language.

After seven years of living in Sweden it was a refreshing change to meet people who were that bit more open and chatty. Maybe this just reflects on the fact that I am more confident when meeting English speaking people. I miss having other English people around me, living in Sweden, and these trips back to Blighty really help. Not that I would necessarily move back there, its just that this is my cultural background and my roots.

Non-Religious Schools Good For Integration

Sweden is considered the best country in the EU when it comes to integrating foreigners, on paper at least.

As I wrote in an earlier blogg, the decision to limit religious teaching in school is a good move towards aiding integration as it stops isolated communities from setting up their own religious schools, where young immigrant children will be at risk of becoming even more culturally isolated.

"How can you integrate foreigners from other faiths if they are allowed to be taught in religious schools only surrounded by others of that faith learning that their religious teaching is right and others are wrong? Only by having multicultural schools, where faith is not an issue, can you forge integration. The first generations of immigrants are always the hardest to integrate and need the most help. By the second and third generation though they can't help but become more influenced by the larger society around them."

Students to be Protected From Religious Teaching in Schools

I was very happy to read in both SvD and Dn that the Swedish government is to tighten the rules for teaching religious ideas in schools so that it will no longer be allowed to teach Creationalism as an alternative to the scientific theory of evolution.

I have written at length on the subject in an earlier blogg and I am very satisfied with this new ruling. I would like to see all religious teaching banned from schools. Schools are places where young people get some of their most important views on the world and if this is tainted by religious dogma then they can end up carrying this through their entire lives. Religion only pretends to teach tolerance and understanding and in reality teaches that one idea is superior to another on a moral and spiritual level and so people not sharing this view are therefore morally or spiritually inferior by definition.

How can you integrate foreigners from other faiths if they are allowed to be taught in religious schools only surrounded by others of that faith learning that their religious teaching is right and others are wrong? Only by having multicultural schools, where faith is not an issue, can you forge integration. The first generations of immigrants are always the hardest to integrate and need the most help. By the second and third generation though they can't help but become more influenced by the larger society around them. This is what happened with Muslims, Sikhs etc.. in Britain and I hope it will be true in Sweden too. Young British Muslims still go to the mosques but also wear the modern British clothes, listen to British music and talk about popular culture and British TV.

Amsterdam's Magic Mushrooms Losing Their Magic

It appears that Amsterdam's repution for the being the vice capital of Europe is under threat again. This time its a ban on the sale of hallucinogenic 'magic mushrooms', which until now have been freely available from certain shops in the Dutch capital.

Maybe this is just the state ruining peoples fun again. Amsterdam is the only place the non-Dutch Europeans can go to try these things out and not feel like criminals. Sure people have had bad reactions and done some stupid things whilst tripping, but I'm sure the number of people hurting themsleves or others through alchahol is much much higher.

I find it a bit of a contradiction that in Sweden people think that if so much a smoke a spliff you become an out of control drug addict but at the same time it's ok for them to let their 15 year old kids get pissed out their heads at weekend parties on moonshine.

Seams a bit odd doesn't it?

The Real Inconvienient Truth

Al Gore and the UN's IPCC have jointly been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for spreading the word about man made climate change and what steps need to be taken to counter it.

The thing is though that however well meaning they are they are not in a position to implement these changes and cannot halt climate change themselves. A really brave man would be a world leader who took up the casuse and actually implemented these recommendations.

Lets wait until the G8 agree to implement the steps needed to tackle climate changes and then give them the Noble Prize.

For me the real 'Inconvieniant Truth' is not that man made climate change is happening, it's that there is still no real political will to do anything about it.

50 Years Since Sellafield's Nuclear Accident

Now that Sweden is sending its nuclear waste for reprocessing at the Sellafield plant in England it is worth noting that almost 50years ago today, this site was the scene for the worlds first nuclear accident, an event which could have been equivalent to Chernobyl.

On October 10th. 1957 a fire broke out in one of the Windscale reactor cores which led to dangerous radioactive material being released into the atmosphere. Luckily the engineers were able to put the fire out using water before things got as far as they did in the Chernobyl disaster.

One reason for the fire was that reactor was being pushed too hard since the politicians were desperate for it to produce enough plutonium to build a British Nuclear Bomb (a point worth remembering when Iran talks about peaceful nuclear power).

After the accident the name was changed from Windscale to Sellafield (Which was a good PR decision).

Now every time it gets a big shipment of waste for reprocessing there is an outcry. It was the same a few years back when the Japanese were sending waste there. I wonder what the Brits are getting paid for being Europe's nuclear dustbin?

Football Gets Its Own 'God Squad'

The Vatican is has bought majority share in Italian football club Ancona which they want to turn into a 'moral' club, free from racism, hooliganism, swearing drugs drinking etc.. They will have a code of conduct for players and fans to follow.

So will we see some amendments to the 'Ten Commandments' revised for football?

• Thy shalt not foul thine opposition.
• Thy shalt not chant 'Who's the Wanker in the Black' when addressing the referee.
• Thy shalt not fall for the offside trap.
• Thy shalt not take a dive in the penalty box.
• Thy shalt not argue with the refs decisions.
• Thy shalt not pretend like nothing has happened when thy foul another player behind the refs back.
• Thy shalt do penance Opus Dei style if thy receive the red card.
• Thy shalt not roll over in fake agony if another player just brushes past thou when thoust have the ball.
• Thy shalt not marry a spice girl.
• Thy shalt not play like pussies after going one nill up straight after kick-off thinking you can defend the lead for 90 minutes.

(Actually the last one applies only to the English football team.)

I wonder if Maradonna's 'Hand Of God' will be used by the new team? - That would be a bit unfair.

If the Church is worried about declining moral standards why don't they do something about the totally immoral practice of preaching against birth control and abortion in third world countries racked with diseases such as AIDS, where millions of women die each year.

Ryanair: Passengers Win but the Planet Looses

Ryanair are now paying passengers to fly on its planes. They are offering the seats for free and then THEY pay the taxes and other charges. So long as you take only hand luggage and check in on-line Ryanair pay the rest!!

Where's the catch? Well you have to fly at off peak times but still this is ridiculously cheap.

The reason is actually because the number of air passengers is dropping and Ryanair is seeing planes which have too many empty seats. They still have to fly the plane so if they offer the seats for free they reason that they can at least recoup some of their costs be selling on-board snacks, travel insurance, hotel reservations etc...

However environmentalist groups have been very critical with Friends of the Earth saying,

"Passengers may be getting a free ride, but the planet certainly isn't. It is unbelievable that Ryanair is resorting to such tactics."

Ryanair has been expanding rapidly and investing heavily in new planes so that last thing they need is to fly planes with empty seats.

Intelligent Design: Stop These Religous Fanatics

After all the discussion around Islamic fundamentalism it is a sobering reminder to see that the Christian extremists are not for behind, and already active in Europe.

SvD reports today on the 'Intelligent Design' and Creationist movements who have been trying so hard to get a foothold in America schools and are now at work in Europe too.

The premise is this: Since the Bible says that God created the Earth and explicitly created man and everything in the Bible is true, so you can't ignore it, it follows that Darwin’s view of gradual evolution and the Origin of species must be wrong.

Young Earth Creationists have looked at some time markers in the Bible to show the Earth was created around 6000 years ago. They have to explain away things like Dinosaurs and the Carbon Dating to make this stick of course. Dinosaurs lived alongside people and were gave birth to all the Dragon and Monster Myths. You don't see them today because they never made it onto Noah's Ark (of course!). Carbon dating is simply rubbished as being based on inaccurate assumptions, making its results worthless.

Intelligent Design (ID) proponents say that since life was designed by an intelligent agent (God), then signs of this will be visible in the biology of living organisms. They rubbish Darwin by saying his theory has too many holes in it to be trusted (whereas just throwing up your arms and saying, God did it is much more plausible).

These people are dangerous and are trying to take us back to the Middle Ages when scientists were heretics and the Biblical dogma was all that mattered. Don't forget they once believed the world was the centre of the Universe and the sun revolved around it.

ID not science. It makes no testable theories or predictions and exists only to prop up the belief that the Biblical work must be the absolute truth and so by default, everything else is wrong. Is this what we want to teach our children? That religious dogma should be blindly accepted instead or looking for truths through the rigours of logic and scientific method.

Darwin's theories have made many predictions and have been seen to be at work countless times, even changing species on time scales we can observe. Saying it is wrong because it cannot answer everything is just plain stupid, as all theories take time to develop and expand and we build up our understanding of the world in small incremental steps.

One argument against Darwinism is that there is no explanation as to how life spontaneously began and evolved from the most simple amino acid building blocks. But just wait a minute, Nature has had millions of years to evolve these mechanisms and modern Biochemistry is only about 50 years old. The human genome was mapped less than a decade ago. Who knows what our knowledge will be in 50 more years time.

Keep Science with the Scientists and keep this kind of mindless, thoughtless faith in religious dogma out of the schools so we can bring up generations of kids who will have enquiring minds ready to search out the real truths behind our origins and not just robots to faith.

Amen.

Madeleine McCann: Now the Blame Game Starts

So now after five months and no leads the blame game has started over why the Portuguese police have not found out what happened to Madeleine McCann. Having failed to find any evidence to charge the parents and no other credible leads the case has well and truly stalled.

So to deflect critisism, the Portuguese Police chief in charge of the investigation, Goncalo Amaral, is blaiming the British Police for being led around and fooled by the McCanns. This has led to his bosses firing him from the criminal investigation branch.

Hopefully his replacement will take a fresh look at the evidence and maybe find some new leads which have been missed before. Right now it looks like the trail is cold and we will never learn the truth.

The latest theory is that she was snatched by a an angy employee of the hotel. Although this lead came about after it was sent to Prince Charles's Website, which seams like a very strange place to inform the Police of infomation and does start the, 'Another Loony Lead' alarm bells ringing

Solar Power: Not Quite Ready to Replace Nuclear!

I'm looking to buy a house just now and since many older houses have direct electrical heating I am very interested in alternative energy, solar power being one of them.

However, when you read the article in SvD today, you get the impression that solar power can solve the worlds energy problems and help replace all those nuclear reactor and coal plants. I'm just not convinced of this. Sure there is a collosal amount of solar energy waiting to be tapped into, but you have to collect it first. Solar cells are not that efficient, giving them quite a low power to weight ratio compared to nuclear and fossil fuels. This means you need a lot of surface area to collect useful amounts of energy. I haven't calculated how much you need to replace a nuclear reactor, but I bet its pretty huge.

It's the same thing with running cars with solar power, you have a limited space on the roof of the car (assuming you don't have a roofbox!) and that just can't generate enough power to run the engine, even in a hybrid. The best solar powered cars are totally engineered to to be as lightweight and efficient as possible, but none of them would make practical veichles. So you end up back to a combustion engine of some sort. Solar powered cars tend to get tested in places like Australia where you have lots of sun anyway. It's not exactly like that in Sweden is it?

Maybe if all the houses had solar cells then the collection area would mount up to someting big enough to close down some conventional reactors, but then you run into the other (rather obvious) problem of what to do at night. Nobody has found a way to store large amounts of electricity, so you will always need back up capacity at night.

This was a good article in that it will raise awareness and hopefully bring in investors, which will drive prices down and spark innovations, but like so many articles on alternative energy sourses it is high on possibilities but low on practicalities. If solar power is going to make a big impact though the efficiency of the cells will need to be increased, whilst the manufacturing costs will need to come down.

I'd love to see more solar power (or indeed any alternative power sourse) and I am quite concerned that we might be being tricked into thinking that biofuel will solve more probelms than it causes, but I'd also like to see more realistic predicitons and suggestions on how to implement and use these emerging technologies, as I'm getting a bit sick of the hype.

Nun Fighting - How funny is that

How do three nuns who have all taken a vow of silence get into such a bad situation that they end up fighting?

This has happened in Italy where three nuns are all that is left in a small convent near Bari. Two of the nuns became so fed up with the bad habits (no pun intended) of the third, they ganged up on her scratching her face

Maybe one of them snores too loud, or eats in a very nessy way, I mean if they never say anything what on Earth did she do to piss the others off so much....?

I wonder if as the first two nuns were attacking the third they were also passing her notes saying things like 'Take that bitch!', whilst she was frantically scribbling down notes saying, 'I'll fucking get you for that'

I guess this is what happens when you get a small group of people in a confined environment for a long period of time with no chance to leave. NASA would do well to take note when planning future missions to Mars.

Mohammed Al Fayed Just Can't Let Go

Mohammed Al Fayed has been shouting his conspiracy theory to all who would listen to him since Diana and Dodi were killed. He is just a doting father unable to come to terms with the death of his son and looking instead to rationalise it as being the work of agents of the British Crown.

The idea that Prince Phillip ordered a plot by the British Secret Service to kill Diana so that she and Dodi would not marry is quite an accusation. However, you have to consider that if this is the case they picked a very strange assassination method. I mean they needed to get Diana and Dodi in the same car. Drug the driver so he would drive in an erratic and dangerous way, arrange for them to be followed by the papparazzi and then just at the right moment, engineer the car to crash out of control. There must be so many ways this plan could have gone wrong, when a simple bullet or bomb would have done the job much more efficiently.

Al-Fayed was repeatedly refused British citizenship before Diana and Dodi even met, so he has always believed the establishment was out to get him. This is just a bitter mans attempt to make sence of his loss and grief.

Burma: Soon to be forgotten?

The UN special envoy to Burma has finnaly left Burma after meeting the military leadership, the opposition leaders and Aung San Suu Kyi. In fact he has met pretty much everyone....except the monks. I haven't seen any reports of him meeting with representatives of the monks themselves to give them support or to learn how they are being treated by the regime in the wake of the protests. After all, these were the men who literally put there lives on the line to make their voices heard.

Now we hear that up to 4000 monks have been imprisoned by the Junta, it is clear that the Junta has won again, as it did in 1990. The bottom line is that peaceful protest by monks alone was never going to topple the Burmese regime. The world has not brought sufficient pressure to bare on them, particularly the Chinese who have the most influence.

The remaining monks will be too afraid to gather in large numbers and I fear that soon the world will forget about the events of the past few weeks and move on.

Y0u can't fight an army with words and voices, as the monks are now learning. Having been put down twice it is hard to see them rallying a third time, so for Burmese at least the future looks bleak.

Biological Hazzards

When I dropped my son of at dagis this morning I was greeted by two big signs on the door, one saying that stomach flu had been reported and another saying that chicken pox had also been reported.

I couldn't help thinking of the foot and mouth outbreak in Britain. Only they were still letting kids go to dagis anyway. My wife and I have both had chicken pox, so I guess the sooner my son gets it over with the better, but stomach flu is a terrible thing to have. Not for him of course, he's just two and a half and barely notices he's ill, but for us, the parents.

When you have a kid with stomach flu you know that everytime you clean up a pool of projectile vomit or change a particulary messy nappy you are playing russian roulette with your internal digestive system. I've had it twice now and whenever my kids get sick I want to jump into a bio hazzard suit.

Maybe stomach flu should be treated just like foot and mouth and the dagis should be quarantined and nobody allowed to go within 3km of it. ........Well, ok maybe burning all the kids on big bonfire would be going too far.... but at least it would contain things....

I live in dread of the stomach flu season and all the colds I catch from my kids. It makes the winter months really tough. If its a bad year I barely have time to get healthy before spring and the hayfever season starts.

I hope that by the time they grow out of this I will have an immune system so tough and battle hardened it will be like a detatchment of marines and this will get me through the later years of life.

Until then I'll carry on trying to drop my kid off each morning without breathing the air, talking to anyone or touching anything.......

No More Sacrifices at Schulman's Alter

So Sweden's premiere shock-jock Alex Schulman is closing down his blog (SvD, DN). It was very interesting to read his reasons for this, namely, that the blogg had taken on a life of its own and was no longer showing a side of Alex Schulman that he was comfortable with.

His blogg was a bit like a modern day collosseum, with a bloodthirsty audience always screaming for the next celebrity to be sacrificed in the arena of popular entertainment. And Schulman has always been all too happy to provide this...until now.

If he realy feels that things went too far then I actually think it's a brave thing to stand up and say this and shows the man may actually have some integrity after all.

Of course it could be a smoke screen and the real reason he is quitting now is because if he pisses off many more people he'll never work again in the business.

Worlds Longest Hangover

The Scots of always had a reputation for heavy drinking, well now one of them has another dubious honour, the worlds longest hangover. A man walked into a hospital complaining that he had headaches and blurred vision and it had been going on for four weeks.

The doctor did loads of test unitl they finnaly discovered that the man had drunk 60pints of beer (32 litres) in four days after an argument with his girlfriend. This had caused a very rare condition called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis , which only affects about four in every million people and most of those are children.

It's worth remembering this story as it will probably appear as a case for Dr House (SVT4)and his team in a few years time!

Burma Crisis Edging Nearer to Tragedy

For the last week the world has been gripped by the events unfolding in Burma. Here are the people of Burma, led by the Buddihst Monks protesting against the oppressive military rule of their country. But it has been an entirely peaceful protest, no rioting, no firebombs, no murders or suicide bombings to terrorise the authourities into submission. Instead we have seen people of conviction and integrety taking a stand.

And now it looks like what the world has been fearing will come to pass and the military will brutally put down the protests as they have before.

You know something is fundamentally wrong in a society when the military, who must always be the servants of the people, turn on the people. We can only hope that the government will agree to negotiate and take note of the wishes of the people. The government freeing Aung San Suu Kyi is maybe too much to hope for. In the meantime we can only look on and give our support.

Iran: A Safe Haven for Transvestites

Iran might not have any homosexuals (presumably becuase they have stoned them all), but it is the safest place to live if you are worried about people finding out you are a transvestite..., as this picture from Theran Transvestite Accociation shows.

Persson: Makes the Alliance Look Like Wimps

So it turns out Göran Persson, the former standard bearer and leader for the Social Democrats, is now milking the system for all its worth, in the true style of fat cats everywhere. Though not leagally wrong it sends a very clear message that taxes are not for the rich and powerful, but just for the prolatariat.

It really makes the alliance look like wimps in the tax avoidance stakes, I mean what are a few unpaid TV liscences and a bit og back labour compared to this?

I never liked Göran Persson anyway and he always came across as a big arrogant Mr Potato Head kind of guy. I wonder how many voted for the alliance just to get rid of him...

It's something for Fredrik Reinfeldt to think about, but stories like these will only make people more certain, that despite the alliances recent policies, it was still the right thing to have a 'regime change' in Sweden.

Anniversary of the Battle of Stamford Bridge

Today is the 941st. anniversary of the Battle of Stamford Bridge where King Harold of England fought and defeated the Viking army of Harald Hardrada of Norway and Earl Tostig.

It was Tostig, Harold's brother who pursuaded Harald to launch the invasion as he felt the English thrown should have gone to him and not Harold after the death of King Edward the Confessor.

The Viking army landed in the North of England near to York and were first met by the Earls of Northumbria and Mercia at Fulford on the 20th. September where the they easily routed the English.

After the battle they went to Stamford Bridge on the 25th. September to exchange prisoners with the people of York, when to their horror King Harold arrived with a second English army, which had marched a staggering 240km in only four days. Though exhausted, the English army had the critical element of suprise. The battle was very long, fierce and bloody but after King Harald was killed the Vikings lost their moral and it was their turn to be routed. Of the 200 Viking ships which sailed from Norway only 24 returned.

This Battle marked the beginning of the end for the Viking way of life as so many Vikings leaders where killed. As for the English, their success was short lived for they then had to march all the way back down to Southern England to meet an even greater threat from William, Duke of Normandy.

On October the 14th. 1066, the English met the Norman army at the Battle of Hastings and this time the English were not so lucky...

No Private Driving Liscence Tests in Britain

Privatising the driving licence test is not a good idea. Right now the quality of the test is carefully controlled centrally and has a high standard. Allowing the driving schools to control both the teaching and the assessment of the tests can create a conflict of interest and make the high standards more difficult to control.

As a parallel you can look at the bilprov test we all do every year on our cars. In Sweden this is done centrally by independent professionals and so the standard is very high across the board. In Britain it is done by private certified mechanics, who not only control whether you pass the test, but also provide the services to repair the problems if you fail and so conflicts of interest do occur.

Incidentally, in Britain the driving license test IS done by an independent body.

Madeleine Media Circus

When people start to discuss why the Madeleine McCann case has become such global media phenomena it is worth considering why this story is different to the stories of other missing children stories.

The bottom line is that this story is very media friendly in terms of the circumstances of the disappearance'. The family were on holiday, which should be a very safe and relaxing time. The parents left the kids alone to have dinner which polarises people between those who have never done such a thing and feel outraged at their negligence and those that have, who want Madie found safe to offset their own guilt.

Then there is the fact this was a British family on holiday in Portugal, which ensured it would be a big story in those two countries and so more likely to be picked up by the media in other countries. Then you have the parents, both doctors, both very articulate and confident when talking to the press and willing to be interviewed. This has kept the media engaged right from the start.

As the story progressed there have been regular events to keep the media hanging on, like the parents meeting the Pope, the DNA evidence found in the flat and car and then the couple being named as suspects.

The depth of the tragedy, media circus and subsequent intrigue have made this feel more like a Hollywood movie being played out on the TV and in the press.

The only thing missing is a happy ending......

Browsing the Web at Work is Risky Business in Wales

Browsing the web at work can cost you your job, at least in Wales where 3 people have lost their jobs for spending up to 2 hours a day on eBay. They were employed by the local council and a council spokesman said:

"We have a policy of allowing employees to use the internet in their own time.
"But we clearly don't want them to use it in council time - at the end of the day they are employed to do a job of work not be shopping online."

The Unions then hit back by saying it was the council's fault for putting temptation in their way (by allowing them internet acess in the first place! ???).

The council servers already block certain sites like porn sites but not eBay.

The British Trade Union accociation has already come out and said its workers have a right to view sites like facebook on company computers.

This does show that there is a backlash now against unrestricted browsing during office hours. I can see a time when even news sites will be blocked as companies crack down more an more.

Peruvian Meteorite Crash

A meteorite crashed to Earth in Peru and people nearby have started getting sick. This has led to widespread panic among the populations affected by the noxious vapours coming from the alleged crash site.

The government has tried to reasure people and Modesto Montoya of the National Academy of Sciences has released a press statement saying...

"None of the meteorites that fall in Peru and make perforations of varied sizes are harmful for people...."

He then helpfully addeed..

"unless they fall on a house"

:o)

Thanks For Nothing !

So finally the finance minister has clarified the new property tax rules(Svd, Dn). If feel very happy that he's given me the opportunity to subsidise the high earners living in expensive villas.

I'm trying to sell my house right now and since I live on the edge of Västerås my property tax is not so high anyway. But when I sell my house the extra 2% tax on the profit will more than make up for the lower property tax. Then there's the 0.5% interest on the tax...

Where is the money going to come from to pay for this I wonder? Oh yes I forgot, it's the money the government is going to take away from all the sick people......

Digital TV Blues

Now that summer is over, the winter TV schedule is starting to fill up with all the new and returning drama series. Last night Desperate Housewives returned. So too has Grey's Anatomy and the last series of Soppranos. The excellent Rome will also be returning for a second season.

One thing though is that we have got digital TV now and you can't watch one show while recording another. What is the point of owning a video recorder if not to compensate for clashes in the TV schedule (which happen a lot this time of year)? On Tuesdays this means deciding between House and Desperate Housewives....

New technology is supposed to make life better and more convienient (or at least fun). We are used to new products being packed full of new features, but this is a big step back for the user.

Last Night of the Proms

I've just watched (and listened to) the Last Night Of the Proms concert on TV. There is just something special about this event. The enthusiasm of the audience (although it's more like a crowd now) with all the flags and hats is more like a football match than a classical music concert. It stirs my British soul in a way a football match never could (not the way England play anyhow, though maybe if we lifted the world cup again one day.....)

Land of Hope and Glory always makes me think of the Second World War, Jerusalem makes me think of the three years I sent at a very traditional Grammar School in England and God Save the Queen makes me want to stand up and salute (although like 90% of the British population I can't remember the words after the first verse).

The interesting thing is how internationally popular something so very British and blatantly nationalistic can be. As well as flags from the UK, British terretories and former colonies, there were French flags, German flags and I think an Icelandic flag (or it could have been Norwegian). I guess this is because the nationalism comes from pride in ones country and musical heritage, rather than a 'we're better then you' attitude.

Still if singing along to God Save The Queen at the Proms creates too much of a stuffy feeling of the Old British Empire you can always go along to The Sex Pistols reunion gig on November 8th. and here a very different vesion....

Swiss Government Exercises its Right to Freedom of Speech

The Swiss Peoples Party (SVP), the largest party in the Swiss government, has stuck this poster up all of Switzerland. Its part of a new campaign aimed at deporting the families of foreigners when a family member commits a crime.

The image is of the good people kicking out the black sheep, but it also has racist connotations and the back, red and white colour scheme does have that 'hint of Nazi' vibe going on.

The SVP have also published a poster showing a veiled Muslim woman with the question, "Where are we living, Baden or Baghdad?".

Jewish groups, left wing parties and even the UN have complained about the poster. The United Nations special rapporteur on racial discrimination, Doudou Diene from Senegal, has asked the Swiss government for an official explanation of the campaign.

The SVP responded by saying,

"We have got freedom of speech in our country. Obviously [Mr Diene] has not understood our culture of democracy. I would suggest he reads up on it."

When Lars Vilks published his Mohammed cartoon he said he did so to provoke and to see where the limits of freedom of speech are. Much has been written since then regarding this issue, so I wonder what people think of the SVS evoking the 'freedom of speech' arguement in this case.

This isn't just a rogue person after all who one can choose to ignore, or some small rightwing group looking for publicity, but rather the democratically elected government of a soverign European country, who enjoy a clear lead in the polls.