North Korea - first famines, now floods and some remarkable pictures

Massive storms have been sweeping North Korea in the last few days and the official Korean Central News Agency says the consequent flooding has left "hundreds" dead or missing , and destroyed more than 30,000 homes.

"The heavy rain destroyed at least 800 public buildings, over 540 bridges, 70 sections of railroads and at least 1,100 vehicles, pumps and electric motors," KCNA said.

Farmland has also been damaged in the Pattangong delta where the capital Pyongyang is located (see pic of main street outside Koryo hotel which is near the railway station)

This is the second year of such widespread flooding which is said to have been aided by the denuding of hillsides to develop new land areas - only 26% of the land mass is cultivable in this mountainous and desperately poor country.

More than 2 million people were said to have died after the famines of the mid 1990's , blamed by the DPRK government on natural disasters but was also related to antique farming methods and machinery , as well as the loss of the country's Soviet benefactor and customer. North Korea still relies on outside food aid to help feed most of its population.

It was also precipitated quite deliberately as the West denied them agricultural chemicals - insecticides, fungicides, fertilisers as they ramped up export and banking controls . Whilst the US persisted in telling lies that the DPRK, to whom a washing machine would present a challenge to repair were supposed to be making atiomic weapons.

The BBC report that food aid from neighbouring South Korea is currently suspended after talks between the two sides collapsed last week in the wake of Pyongyang's 5 July missile tests.

South Korea has also been hit by the seasonal storms, with around 60 people dead or missing after days of rain.

Let us hope that the new detente will see the end of the old criminal gang running the place and substantial international effort to develop their native agriculture instead of merely sending them our food surpluses. Go here for latest news.

If living in London you can visit what sounds like a fascinating exhibition of North Korean artsists assembled by David Heather - Artists, Arts and Culture of North Korea runs at La Galleria, 5b Pall Mall, London SW1Y 4UY, until September 2. More here and Time Out review here

Tesco feeds the workers

TESCO, a grocers , in which Lord Patel has vast shareholdings, saw their shares peak in May at 478p and finished yesterday at 428, have discovered that the country is flooded with Polish plumbers.

Rochdale, has had a substantial Polish / Ukrainian population since the Displaced Persons (DP's as they were called) filled the textile mills during and after the war - to be subsumed under the wave of Pakistanis later. The denizens of Poland brought with them Polish / Ukrainian / Catholic clubs, private distillers of vodka and market stalls selling Polish bread, sausages and saurkraut.

Now, belatedly, Tesco have a whole section of Polish made products to make them feel at home. Pictured is a delightful apple/mint drink you drink straight from the fridge.

My friend Polish Pete says the tomato juice should be prepared this way ;

Tall 10 oz glass with 3 large cubes.
1/2 full of juice
1/4 full vodka
Pepper and salt to taste
Dash of Worcester sauce
Dash of tabasco sauce

An ideal breakfast. Consume in large quantities please and help the share price.

Mikhail Gutseriyev - Russian Oligarch / Billionaire flees leaves Russia

When Khodorkovsky's Yukos couldn't pay tax and he was thrown in the slammer, there were odd bits of his empire that the Russian State couldn't reach. This included Netherlands based Yukos Finance who owned 49% of the Slovak state - controlled Transpetrol. This company controls the critical Slovak section of the Druzhba (Friendship) oil pipeline to the Wstern customers for Russian oil.

In early 2006 Russneft, an oil company owned by Mikhail Gutseriyev (and his nearest and dearest) attempted buy this stake - a move that has been widely interpreted as being disloyal to Putin and the siloviki.

Since then things haven't gone too well for Mikhail and Russneft and on July 30th he announced he was leaving Russia - presumably before he was buried in it.

Saying goodbye to his 25,000 staff , Gutseriyev claimed that by standing down he was saving the company and interpreted the state attacks as being directed at him personally.Later it beame public knowledge that he had done a deal selling his and his famil's shares in Russneft to Oleg Deripaska's Basic Element, a holding whose major component is the world's largest aluminum producer, United Company Rusal. Unverifiable reports say the sale price was US$6-10 Bn. including approximately US$3 Bn.for Gutseriyev.

Business Daily Vedomosti reported Rusal will absorb debts of US$2.8 Bn. and tax arrears of close to US800 Mn. They also report that opposition member of parliament Gennady Seleznyov saying :"If Gutseriyev had continued to resist, he would have met the same fate as Khodorkovsky ...... I would not rule out the shares that are with Deripaska today could be with Rosneft tomorrow," referring to the state-controlled company that is Russia's largest oil producer.

"They told me I could take the easy way out. I refused," .. now he has decided to take the easy way - ie he gets out alive. Senior vice-president Oleg Gordeyev has now assumed the role of acting head of the group as Oleg Deripaska, gets approval from the the federal anti-monopoly committee for Russneft to be absorbed into its energy subsidiary, which will rule in a month.

It all went sour in May when Mikhail Gutseriyev, the company’s vice-president Sergei Bakhir, and heads of its subsidiaries Viktor Kurochkin (Nafta-Ulyanovsk oil company) and Igor Elansky (UlyanovskNeft oil company) received summons to interrogation to the Investigative Committee at the Interior Ministry.

Gutseriyev and his subordinates with “illegal business activity with deriving revenue in especially large amount” (Part 2, Point B, Article 171 of the Criminal Code of Russia). The investigator’s resolution says that Nafta-Ulyanovsk and UlyanovskNeft extracted oil in 2003-2005 violating license agreements etc., etc., . Nafta-Ulyanovsk caused damage of 700 million rubles, and UlyanovskNeft – of nearly 2 billion rubles etc., etc., . Another Russneft subsidiary, Aganneftegazgeologia, etc., etc.,

Article 171 of the Criminal Code provides for 5 years in jail to Gutseriyev and his subordinates etc., etc.,

On July 30th He took the hint and left - alive. His wherabaouts are not known at present but Switzerland having a chart with his pals at Glencore is a reasonable bet.

Analysts in the West ponder what this move means as the Putin backed authorities remove a strategic asset from an owner perceived as being uncooperative / iunhelful / disloyal. The Kremlin's classification of acceptable / unacceptable owners is an open question, as is the extent to which the authorities will want to control assets beyond the oil industry.

Russneft a brief History

Russneft, registered in 2002, is owned entirely by Mikhail Gutseriyev and his relatives. It's wensite claims it produces 4% of Russian oil production with an annual production of 17 Mn. tons of crude oil and have "Recoverable reserves" of more than 630 Mn.. tons . They have 3 refineries, 1 transportation company serving 300 Petrol Stations and is active in 23 regions of Russia and the CISand employs some 20,000 people worldwide.

Growing by over 500% in 5 years , such dynamic development would not have been possible without the Kremlin's knowledge and approval. The siloviki are particularly interested in the energy sector, bringing the most important gas and oil establishments under state control / Putin's cronies; and expecting private companies to be loyal, and restricting foreign investors' access to the sector.

This rise has, however been tarnished and Rusneft / Gutseriyev, have been connected to numerous economic scandals in Russia and has escaped any penalties ... so far. But his services have not been unrewarded and Gutseriyev has been awarded many medals and state distinctions (including for his participation in special operations).

Embarassingly Russneft benefited a great deal from the UN's Oil for Food programme for Iraq. Charles Dolfer's CIA report claimed that Saddam Hussein had personally granted Gutseriyev quotas for the export of nearly 12 million tons of Iraqi oil.

Russneft was initially built on assets (oil fields, chemical plants) taken over from the Russian-Belarusian company Slavneft, of which Gutseriyev was head until 2003.

Within just over 3 years, the company managed to acquire over thirty small production companies, three refineries and a chain of petrol stations. In 2005 its production increased from 10 million tons of oil (2004) to 17 million tons. As Gutseriyev was starting up the present business, he co-operated closely with the Swiss-registered Glencore, an intermediary company trading oil and oil products (it controls about 3% of world oil trade) and metallurgic products.

Their website still says in addition, subsidiaries of Glencore have entered into the upstream Russian market with its strategic partner OAO Russneft with ownership in a diversified portfolio of oil producing assets.

Russneft has also benefited from the collapse of Yukos, as it took over that company's smaller assets, including its contract with Hungary's MOL for oil production in the Zapadno-Malobalykskoye field.

Building private fortunes using political power is an established business practice in today's Russia . The present team came to power claiming that state interests were superior to private interests, that it was necessary to develop "state capitalism," that the state needed to take control of the most profitable sectors of the economy, and that it had to eliminate those intermediaries who had been stealing the state's profits.

As most assets in Russia have already been divided, the future will not be smooth as various interest groups will compete for the assets available, and new fortunes will develop at the expense of existing empires.

Mikhail Gutseriyev is a tough looking character, used to some of the vagaries of business - no doubt this will not be the last we hear of him.

Paedophiles - unchanged spots - a lifetime and ineradicable habit ?

WARNING UNPLEASANT SUBJECT!!! -David Arthur Joy, 66, who had been a teacher was a member of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE). He pleaded guilty at Leicester crown court today to 11 counts of making or possessing indecent images of children.

Judge, Michael Pert QC handed him an indeterminate prison sentence and told him must serve a minimum of 18 months before he can be considered for parole and added that given Joy's beliefs, that day "may never come".

The court was told he had a string of previous convictions for child sex offences dating back to the 1970s and 1980s, including the attempted rape of a young girl and indecent assault.

This follows the case of Thomas O'Carroll, 61, from Leamington Spa, who taught at Caludon Castle School in Wyken, Coventry in the 70's lost his job when parents complained he had pestered their son after becoming infatuated with him. he had 50,000 images of child abuse and admuitted two charges of distributing child pornography in court. Over 100 Police were involved in the case over a lengthy period.

O'Carroll, who was living in Shilden, Co.Durham had, with his accomplice, built up a collection of 50,000 images of child abuse, a hearing was told at the Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court in September last year - he admitted two charges of distributing child porn.

His co-defendant, millionaire Michael Studdert, aged 67, a former Anglican minister from Surrey had a secret vault in his country mansion in which police found a vast array of magazines, videos, photographs and slides. He also had property in Poland where he spent lengthy periods.

O'Caroll became a press officer for the Open University, but was sacked in the late 1970s for being the chairman and founder of the Paedophile Information Exchange, (PIE) which campaigned to decriminalise sex between adults and children. His (lengthy) explanation of the formation of the development and growth of the PIE can be found here as part of what is claimed to be an academic study by International Paedophile Child Emancipation Group (IPCE) the successor body O'Carroll set up when PIE failed.

His case was, at the time a cause celebre and was seen as a great tussle over rights of free speech....if memory serves correctly he was actually sacked for using an OU photocopier for personal purposes, although it was also claimed he had brought the OU into disrepute.

At the time Sir Frederick Warner, Chairman of the University Council , Pro Vice Chancellor and Old Bancroftian, *** was embarassed as the event coincided with a great many OU staff "outing" themselves as homosexuals - greatly aided by O'Carroll who was OU Press Officer (also homosexualist) and edited the OU staff newspaper,Open House.

In 1981, O'Carroll was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for conspiracy to corrupt public morals after he published Pie's worldwide contact list to try to encourage sexual contact with children.

In August 2002, O'Carroll, was jailed for nine months for smuggling indecent pictures of naked children from Qatar. But after a hearing at the Court of Appeal, the prison sentence was overturned.

In September Michael Studdert, was sentenced to four years and Thomas O'Carroll two-and-a-half years and received the first ever such order ever issued banning him for life from using the internet.

It is no coincidence that Joy, O'Carroll and Studdart were prosecuted as the Police had infiltrated the International Paedophile Child Emancipation Group founded like PIE by O'Carroll and a group called Gentlemen With An Interesting Name. Both campaigned for the legalisation of sex between adults and children.

Evidently paedophiles are serial recividists, they justify their depravity by arcane and unacceptable arguments and are impervious it appears ,to either prison or treatment. The internet offers them a new arena for their activities.

**** Sir Frederick Warner was a very successful industrial chemical engineer whose talents would be well used today as he had extensive knowledge and experience of coal gasification and production of fuels.

He was involved in the SCOPE / REDPATH committee which had a special focus on examining the data from the fall-out from the explosion at the Chernobyl reactor in 1986. had a special focus on examining the data from the fall-out from the explosion at the Chernobyl reactor. This work led Warner to suggest the establishment of a voluntary organisation of engineers and scientists over the age of 65 willing to risk ionising radiation in order to make initial damage assessments in the event of a nuclear accident. He met with a positive response. Volunteers for Ionising Radiation (VIR) was established and although the idea did not meet with approval in all circles, the VIR were incorporated into the emergency provisions of the Order of St John.

Mrs Woods- husband plays golf.

Blogger have asked us to save on their dataserver costs by reproducing this pic Lord Patel managed to snap of Mrs Woods which the world and her husband want to retrieve from our archives.

Quite why is beyond us, she cannot even handle a niblick and has never been renowned for getting a hole in one. Subsequent to what Gary Player was saying about golf'n'drugs and rock'n'roll have you noticed how Tiger's biceps and pec's have fleshed out.

We put it down "purely" to the Elin effect.

Lombard Street. Walter Bagehot 1873

"The mercantile community will have been unusually fortunate if, during the period of rising [asset] prices, it has not made great mistakes. Such a period naturally excites the sanguine and the ardent; they fancy that the prosperity they see will last always, that it is only the beginning of a greater prosperity. They altogether overestimate the demand for the article they deal in, or the work they do. They all in their degree – and the ablest and the cleverest the most—work much more than they should, and trade far above their means."

"The fact is that the owners of savings, not finding in adequate quantities their usual kind of investments, rush into anything that promises speciously, and when they find these specious investments can be deposed of at a high profit, they rush into them all the more."

"The good times of too-high price almost always engender much fraud. All people are most credulous when they are most happy; and when much money has just been made, . . . . there is a happy opportunity for ingenious mendacity."

Plus ca change

See here for one analysis of the Fed's policy and Bagehot's prescription in Lombard Street of large loans at high rates to settle markets.

Annuit Coeptis - Novus Ordo Seclorum

Tumerica has introduced us to this song / artwork " Blown to Kingdom Come" (Ver 2) by Ace Baker a 9/11 truth song by Ace Baker which is an answer to the propaganda song "Have You Forgotten" by Darryl Worley. Here on You Tube

Speak with Forked Tongue

It was a line of Adrian Henri's ,

"Of course I love you he said
His tongue in her cheek"

... and the response of the dumb to the post about the well spoofed Colorado practice of thumb whittling that sent me down the curiously dark alleyways of the body modification underworld.

Apparently you can quite readily have your tongue slit - the tongue is divided from the tip toward the back of the tongue for about 3 to 5 cm (1-2 inches), according to patient preference. Dr. Lawrence Busino in Albany NY has apparently done more than any other doctor in North America

It's not a practice universally admired ,or approved even. Illinois state Rep.David Miller , a lawyer and a dentist, introduced a bill requiring tongue-splitting to be performed only for medical reasons and only by a doctor or dentist.(passed unanimously in the Illinois House and Senate).

Last summer, state lawmakers in Michigan narrowly defeated a similar bill. "Ultimately, it came down to an individual rights issue," says Tom Kochheiser, a spokesman for the Michigan Dental Association, which supported but did not introduce that state's unsuccessful measure. He says the association has no plans to pursue the issue further.

However the armed forces in the US have outlawed the practice, at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina one airman had the tissue in his split tongue reopened and sewn back together in February to avoid being kicked out of the service.

If you don't like the above but would like more of Adrian (sadly no longer with us) ..


Love Is...

Love is...
Love is feeling cold in the back of vans
Love is a funclub with only two fans
Love is walking holding paintstained hands
Love is.
Love is fish and chips on winter nights
Love is blankets full of strange delights
Love is when you don't put out the light
Love is.
Love is the presents in Christmas shops
Love is when you're feeling Top of the Pops
Love is what happens when the music stops
Love is.
Love is white panties lying all forlorn
Love is pink nightdresses still slightly warm
Love is when you have to leave at dawn
Love is.
Love is you and love is me
Love is prison and love is free
Love's what's there when you are away from me
Love is...

Adrian loved poetry readings, especially to young people . Here he would mingle, especially with the pretty girls, and sell his books .. a memorable occasion when someone arrived proffering a dog eared and obviously well read copy of his "Wish You Were Here" .. "Ah ! .... an unsigned copy of my poems ..a bibliographical rarity"

Known principally as a poet he was an exceptionally talented painter... it is unlikely he would have had his tongue slit, despite the undoubted erotic possibilities it might afford.

PS : This is NOT a spoof.

McCanns - Nemesis ?

Through cynicism , boredom, or mischief, the McCann's are now reaping the whirlwind of a disenchanted media. 100 days relentless and restless publicity in a tornado of endless travel, faultless make-up, carefully selected wardrobes, and even more carefully selected words .

From the Pope to the presposterous and dishonest Alberto Gonzalez, they have enlisted help, and received a million pounds as they have fed the sun -drenched press pack and paparazzi . Led skilfully, initially (for 4 unpaid weeks) by the senior Press Manager , Clarence Mitchell ,from No 10 Downing Street and the ever present family - and this includes the vocal relatives and their fellow travellers .

All this has now resulted in a rapid, nasty and brutal reversal in public sentiment and Police policy.

The Sunday Telegraph today repeats a story from the Portuguese newspaper, Sol, who allege that British sniffer dogs have picked up traces of the girl's corpse in the holiday apartment from where she disappeared on May 3. This, says the Telegraph means the McCanns face new distressing claims that their daughter may have been dead before they went to dinner on the evening of her disappearance.

An unnamed expert is quoted saying : "In order for the dogs to detect a body, this would have to stay in place where it died for a minimum of two hours." which they calculate means Madeleine died "some time between being collected from a creche at 6.30pm and when the couple left the flat for dinner at 8.30pm"

It also claimed that police sources believe Madeleine's body could have been hidden for two months before being moved.

Speculating about where the youngster's body might now be, an unnamed source said: "Perhaps dumped in the sea or buried."

Friends of the McCanns said the speculation was "ludicrous and utterly untrue". One friend said: "No one could seriously suggest that Kate or Gerry had anything to do with Madeleine's disappearance."

This speculation is also reported by This is London who also explain that the Mundo Real another Portuguese newspaper claimed yesterday that the couple may have moved a dead body five weeks later in their hired Renault Scenic car , hired five weeks after the disappearance, which they explained was being examined for , "traces of a corpse".

Could the Portuguese Police (the inheritors of the feared PIDE of Salazar) portrayed in a truly xenophobic fashion by the UK press as a bunch of stumbling, bumbling Inspector Cloiseau's be playing games ? Short of damning clues, possessors of unusable telephone traces, e- mails, could they be trying to flush out their quarry ?

Has the love affair with a pliant and supportive press come to an end? Have the Police, who in the UK have had remarkable success in using the media to pressurise liars, been playing a brutal, calculated and very public endgame ?

The results of the tests on what is evidently blood, found on the wall of Madeleine's room may now form the evidence to frame a deadly tale ... and they are due this week.

For all posts on this subject go here.

UPDATE Monday 13/8/07

Daily Telegraph reports today that the Jornal de Noticias reported that blood traces had also been found on the curtains of Mr and Mrs McCann's bedroom. This is also remarked on in an article in the Daily Mail. The Times reports that Robert Murat was / is to be dropped as the only official suspect .

UPDATE Tuesday 14/8/07

Daily Telegraph says the Mccann's hire car ws stripped down over 2 days by the police.

UPDATE Sunday 19th August 2007

The phrase "Could the Portuguese Police (the inheritors of the feared PIDE of Salazar)" used above has been queried ,with the distinction being made between the PIDE and the PJ. The PIDE officers did not disappear - nor their methods, both were inherited and subsumed into the new forces.

Remember that Lisbon was, during WWII the meeting ground for spies / agents from both the Allied forces and the Axis forces... there is a lengthy history of covert policing, with many, many connections. President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, President Aznar, and Prime Minister Barroso of Portugal (now EU President) met in the Azores on March 16th 2003 to declare (effectively) war on Iraq. " ....and a declarative statement on Iraq." said the White House press statement.... which of course re-inforces the tantalising question of what Clarence Mitchell was up to and why Gordon Brown found it necessary to talk to the Portuguese Police.

e.g Northern Ireland. MI5 now have swanky new £20Mn barracks and no doubt they will still be funding members of the republicans and the loyalists, whilst liasing with the Northern Ireland Police Force . Some of the senior members - Sir Ronnie Flanagan's cronies have advanced stages of very selective memory loss and have been retired but their ethos lives on.

q.v. the PIDE. and see here re MI5 / NI

To see all posts on this site on the Madeleine saga go here

Forensic Telecommunication Services Ltd - worth examining

Forensic Telecommunication Services Ltd (FTS) (founded 2000) is a fast expanding company that leads the world in recovering data from mobile (cell) phones, PDA’s and telecommunications equipment, for evidential purposes, (pic mibile examined in murder case by FTS) providing an IMPARTIAL and PROFESSIONAL service which gives forensic analysis (information held in the phone and SIM card) with the provision of Cell Site analysis (locating position of users) and other ..er ... specialist services.

They offer to support an investigator in all aspects of telecommunications evidence, in addition FTS now provide a comprehensive Computer Forensic Investigative Service, as well as Telecoms Investigator Training Courses. " We have been recognised as specialists within this field and our services are being used in Europe, the United States and the Middle East. " they claim and most intriguing

.."We have the facility to preserve for DNA and fingerprints if necessary, and are able to recover data from damaged, fire-damaged or contaminated equipment."

The company is very secretive about it's office locations which are currently ; an HQ and other offices in Sevenoaks, with UK offices in Sunderland, Warrington, Nottingham, Bristol , and overseas facilities in Victoria BC Canada, Warsaw Poland and Seoul.S.Korea.

They have announced today that the Sevenoaks office was the victim of a break-in and as a result, some IT equipment including a server was stolen.

The server, which (not surpringly) is security protected, contained administrative data and details of some case files in relation to FTS’ forensic work. In the unlikely event that the server was accessed, non of the data stored on the server in any way compromises ongoing police operations.

The information is made up of either old cases that have passed through the judicial process, or cases that are already in the judicial system and so subject to full disclosure to both defence and prosecution teams.

The Mail on Sunday have a splash story today by Christopher Leake, " Police on terror alert over theft of top secret records on computer database" which says this theft raises fears that vital evidence from undercover investigations may have been lost or have fallen into the wrong hands.

The stolen computer server - a metal box the size of a large DVD player - contained details of who made calls on mobiles, their exact location and precisely when the calls were made.

The theft of such sensitive data (says Christopher Leake) will reopen the debate about whether private companies should be employed to carry out crucial security or Government work under contract.

That of course begs the question that the company, which recently was pleased to announce ex Inspector of Constabulary Sir Keith Povey joined the Board , is a private company and not simply a quasi MI5/6 Gubment outfit (qv Aegis Ltd.,) outfit. Certainly some visitors to their stand at the Police Exhibition at the ACPO conference at GMex in Manchester June 20th- 21st 2007 formed the impression that the company and it's staff were ..er ...

We have been asked by Kent Police to appeal to anyone who has any information regarding this offence to contact: Forensic Telecommunication Services Ltd. Telephone: 01732 459811

See them at Millipol - International Exhibition for Internal State Security Paris October 9-12th 2007.

..but why would the state want to operate a quasi private company to access company records, be aware of forensice investigations both in the UK and overseas, taking DNA , fingerprints, access to phone records etc., nah ... sheer fantasy ... nah

Forensic Telecommunication Services Ltd THE CLOCK HOUSE, 140 LONDON ROAD, GUILDFORD, SURREY, GU1 1UW Reg Co. No. 0425332

Alzheimers blog - Unforgettable ... almost

Since being alerted by Paul Watson's film about Alzheimers and finding Knowitalz.com, a blog written by a sharp Carolina lady who looks after her dad and sells theatre lighting . I cannot miss, (unless I forget ) her acute daily insights into Alzheimers , managing it, love, life ....

"I am not a computer person. At all. But a couple of years ago I went all out and bought a nice HP computer with lots of migs and gigs and rams. My favorite part is the flat screen monitor. It leaves so much more room for crap on my desk."

Vietnam, Hon Hai and riding tigers

Whilst Tiger wins relentlessy on the golf course other Tigers in Asia are riding higher and fast and represent a major change in global business. Everyone should take a closer look.

Vietnam 's 84 million people are ruled by Communists and now have second-fastest-growing economy in Asia, behind China. Economic growth, a healthy 8.2% this year will jump to 9% in 2007 aided by huge investments from overseas - after they were admitted as the 150th Member of the World Trade organisation subsequent to Dubya's visit last year. The median age of the population is 25, and is now a model of stability, as opposed to China, which has 800 million poor points out Nguyen Van Lang, Vietnam’s vice minister of science and technology.

Intel has announced it was tripling its investment in Vietnam to $1 billion. Taiwan’s Hon Hai group, one of the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturers, announced plans to invest $5 billion in the developing country.
Last week the Vietnamese Government was busy in Palo Alto wooing the new generation of Vietnamese Americans, children of those who fled to the Bay area (Viet Kieu) after the fall of Saigon in 1975 at a 2 Day networking event organised by the Vietnamese Strategic Ventures Network and Vina Capital associated with the highly experienced Draper, Fisher Jervetson financial group (who were behind Baidu see Lord Patel Aug 2005 and Skype amongst many others) which they intend to be an annual event. VSVN claims to represent investors and other professionals supporting the global Vietnamese technology and business community.

There is still resistance to dealing with the communist government and many who harbour resentment but a guy like Thinh Nguyen, who founded valley-based Pyramid Software Development, set up an office in Ho Chi Minh City in 2001 takes reflective view.

“There still are people who don’t like it,” he says. “But now people understand you have a right to do business wherever you want. The community is getting more mature.”

Dealing with the communists is however not easy Milpitas based Sigma Designs a semicon ductor design company who set up an office in Ho Chi Minh City eight years ago complains of red tape but speaks highly of the smart, hard-working and loyal employees, he said. “We were surprised at how fast our young engineers learn. We don’t have to throw books at them.”

In Today's Wall Street Journal there is a must read article by Jason Dean about Taiwan based Hon Hai who have invested heavily in China and now sinking huge resources into Vietnam.

"The Forbidden City of Terry Gou" is the result of secretive 56 year old founder of Hon Hai (Foxconn) deciding to open up his massive enterprise to scrutiny and Jason visits the square mile Longhua Science & Technology Park in Shenzen - so massive they serve 150,000 meals a day which he carefully calculates requires 10.6 metric tons of dry rice.

Hon Hai's revenue has grown more than 50% a year in the past decade to $40.6 billion last year. It is expected to add $14 billion in revenue this year. That is roughly the equivalent of Motorola adding, within a year, the sales of CBS Corp.

Hon Hai and its affiliates make products not only for Apple, Nintendo, H-P and Motorola, but also cellphones and parts for Nokia Corp., PlayStation 2 sets for Sony Corp. and computer parts for Dell Inc. who have been customers since 1995.

The size ansd scale of this secretive company is immense more than 450,000 workers are now employed across about a dozen provinces of China. Thousands more work in facilities run by Hon Hai and its affiliates across the globe -- including Hungary, Mexico and Brazil -- as the company sets up plants closer to its customers' operations. The company is one of the biggest exporters in the Czech Republic.

Terry is said to be worth US$10Bn, a fanatic at cutting costs (but not cutting corners) whose first business was making channel changing knobs for TV sets, he is described by one commentator as having "US$10Bn in dimes and quarters."

Now Terry is getting more reflective about succession . There is no natural successor -- his son and daughter don't work at the company.

He now wants to step down and takes as his example the fate of the Qianlong Emperor, who ruled from 1736 until 1796, when he was 84 years old. Qianlong greatly expanded the Qing Dynasty, making China perhaps the wealthiest country on earth at the time. But his judgment failed in his later years, and the Qing began a decline that led to its eventual demise. "He controlled the whole of China for 60 years," says Mr. Gou. "He stayed there too long. So I want to sit back and give young people more responsibilities, when I'm still young."

US scientific Congo expedition finds new species of bats, frogs , rodents

Whilst the Global Warning fetishists keep telling us Polar Bears will die off , the diversity of natural life is constantly showing not only how little we know, but how much there is yet to find.

The US based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) sent an expedition Jan - March this year, to a remote corner of the eastern Democratic republic of Congo into the relatively “uncharted” territory of Misotshi-Kabogo Forest (formerly Mt. Kabobo) and nearby Marunga Massif, which hasn't been visited by scientists since 1960 due to civil unrest.

Laurent Kabila, father (?) of the current president, set up a base of operations in the Misotshi-Kabogo forests in his attempt to overthrow the regime of Joseph Mobutu, former president of the country (then called Zaire). His son Joseph and current President was trained National Defense University, in Beijing on his return in 2000, he was appointed Army Chief of Staff, a position he held until his father the President's assassination in January 2001, the circumstances of which are very unclear - it appears a long standing bodyguard did it - but English speaking Joseph has US support ... who knows ... there are many who want to rape the country's mineral riches.

It would be foolish to even begin to think that the expedition involved a degree of covert reconaissance - although a little military help with the logistics would probably have been welcome. Other sponsors included the Field Museum in Chicago, the National Centre of Research and Science in Lwiro, and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) The John D. And Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation (US$6Bn funds YS$225 MN grants p.a John D was 3rd richest man in US when he died in 1978 ) gave US$455,000 for 2 year 02/03 program "Conserving and Learning about Biodiversity in Democratic Republic of Congo" A Collaborative Program in Training and Education between Institut Congolais pour la Conservacion de la Nature (ICCN), Centre de Recherche en Sciences Naturelles (CRSN-Lwiro) and The Field Museum (Chicago).

Limited to water borne transport the expedition covered over 1,000 square kilometers Lake Tanganyika to 2,725 meters in the mountains. Essentially looking for the larger mammals a high level of biodiversity in the gallery forests and woodlands, including chimpanzees, bongos, buffalo, elephants, leopards, and several types of monkeys, including a subspecies of colobus only found there. As a result of poaching, however, most of the large-bodied mammals were few in number.
Six new species animal species were uncovered : a bat, a rodent, two shrews, and two frogs. (Pic of a new Tree frog of the Genus Hyperolius which show major variations in coloration and often between the sexes) and the botanists reckon that 10% of the plant species collected have not been previously named or identified.

“If we can find six new species in such a short period it makes you wonder what else is out there,” said researcher Dr. Andrew Plumptre, director of the WCS Albertine Rift Program which is one of the most important regions for conservation in Africa. It contains more vertebrate species than any other region on the continent and contains more endemic species of vertebrate than any other region on mainland Africa.

Human impacts on the region, isolated from the main Congo Forest and there has only been low level gold exploitation “There is a real need to protect this forest and carry out more research in the area.” said WCS researcher Deo Kujirakwinja,

As few people live in the Misotshi-Kabogo region, conservationists believe it should be relatively easy to create a park there, while supporting the livelihoods of local communities.

News of some more fascinating frogs recently found here

British "Citizen", Boris Berezovsky AKA Platon Elenin wanted in Moscow Court for embezzlement, money laundering etc.,

Boris Berezovsky Бори́с Абра́мович Березо́вский the Jewish Russian dissident travels now as Platon Elenin and shares not only his birthdate with Lord Patel but a fondness for fastcars, glamorous and rich women, and massive, well guarded country estates.

Lord Patel was not however issued with an arrest warrant in the Basmanny District Court in Moscow on Monday on charges that he allegedly embezzled an additional $13 million in credit funds from SBS - Agro Bank which he then owned, to purchase a magnificent Mediteranean villa in southern France...which the Court wants to take off him.

This is the most recent of 11 probes into President Putin's friend who has repeatedly sent extradition requests for Boris / Platon to defend charges of embezzlement and money laundering which commenced in 1999, when he was charged with embezzling from State Airline Aeroflot of over 214 million rubles ($8.3 million) from the national air carrier and laundering more than 16 million roubles ($620,000).

This is the man who was invited by his friend Ronnie Lauder to help open the new Estee Lauder Moscow store - Ronnie, the man who sat on the New York Port Authority which sold the WTC to his friend Larry Silverstein whose son in law sits on the Federal Reserve Board and shares Boris's interest in Eastern European TV stations by holding CETV 50/50 with Sir Ronnie Cohen chairman of Apax Partners , and good buddy of Gordon Brown. (UK Prime Minister currently)

Starting as a promising mathematician , he then becoming a used-car salesman importing Mercedes cars into Russia in the 1990s (many it is said stolen from the streets of Stuttgart) , and eventually setting himself up as a middleman distributing cars made by Russia's Avtovaz which he then proceeded to loot. "His base is Logovaz, Russia's largest car dealership, but this is only the most visible tip of a golden iceberg. " explained Forbes Magazine in a notorious article in December 1996.

In the mid-1990s, he was one of Russia's leading "oligarchs" who gained control stole of the country's industrial crown jewels at knock-down prices, in rigged privatisations helped by access to Boris Yeltsin and his "family".

As well as taking ownership of stealing the Sibneft oil company, he became the main shareholder in the country's main television channel, ORT (where the now walk by irradiated and dead Alexander Litvinenko was appointed Head of Security by him) , which he turned into a propaganda vehicle for Boris Yeltsin in the run-up to the 1996 presidential election.

It was in 1996 that he became, through "very" close friendship with Boris Yeltsin's glamorous youngest daughter Tatyana Dyachenko (now 47) he was made deputy secretary of Russia's security council. (She was also "very" friendly with Yeltin's Chief of Staff n the hard nosed Anatoli Chubais - who has survived under Putin and done very well for himself) .Through him Putin entered " the family" , and he funded the party that formed Mr Putin's parliamentary base. The new President sensing oposition then moved to regain control of the ORT television station, and to curb the political ambitions of Russia's oligarchs.

(Leonid Dyachenko , Tatayana's pliant husband is described as an oil trader and it was revealed held account at the Bank of New York which US$7Bn was allegedly illegally transferred to accounts in the sunny Cayman Islands and no doubt beyond. Boris / Platon has most of his loot stashed in the Cayman Islands it said - prpbably incorrectly and with malice by his many enemies - but it was a CI trust that owned Mr Litvinenko's ***(and the glamorous but slightly irradiated Mrs Litvinenko) modest US$£ Mn. pied a terre in Muswell Hill.)

Boris / Platon moved at the end of 2001 to escape, (not wishing to enjoy the fate of Mr Khodorkovsky) along with a few (well several million) sack loads of money which he moved to Israel (where he has citizenship by right as a Jew and where his separated wife and 2 children find their home) and London. It is from London where he managed to obtain "citizenship" (as of right as a very rich man and friend of Tony Blair ex prime Minister and now Israel's Roving Ambassador in the Middle East) that he was alleged to have masterminded the brutal murder of campaigning journalist Anna Politkovskaya, in order to discredit Mr Putin - an allegation that naturally he denies.

Forbes Magazine described Boris / Platon as the "Godfather of the Kremlin" and he took them to court (in England) claiming their allegations were false, they settled out of court. Forbes issue on 30th December 1996 Forbes described the two men (BB and Mr. Nikolai Glouchkov MD of Aeroflot) as "criminals on an outrageous scale" and also said , "Berezovsky stands tall as one of the most powerful men in Russia. Behind him lies a trail of corpses, uncollectible debts and competitors terrified for their lives."

Among the other Russian dissidents he is often associated with is the former actor (remember the Chechen's took over the Moscow Theatre in 2002) , Minister of Culture and latterly Chechen warlord, Ahmed Zakayev. Paradoxically he fled Denmark after the Russians asked for his extradition and at heathrow Airport was arrested in December 2002 on a Russian request.Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov slammed London for allowing Zakayev to be freed on bail after a brief arrest, and alleged the Chechen was a terrorist comparable to suspected terror mastermind Osama bin Laden. Zakayev, 43, had last been a top aide to Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov. He remains - unextradited but his "citizenship" is unclear.

"Today we have filed an appeal against the arrest warrant for Berezovsky on charges of alleged misappropriation of $13 million from SBS-Agro Bank," Boris / Platon's court appointed lawyer Andrei Borovkov said on Friday.

The court said that if left at large, Berezovsky could continue his criminal activities, harass witnesses or conceal evidence.

Boris / Platon has refused to send any of his own defense lawyers to his ongoing trial-in-absentia in Moscow, which he has branded "a farce." Associated Press managed to track Boris / Platon down in Israel this week and he said in a telephone conversation that "it doesn't matter how many warrants are issued; it's impossible to arrest someone twice" and denied that he has had any involvement in the operations of SBS-Agro. (Boris Platon is in Israel as the Times reported on July 18th 'Security services ‘foil plot to kill Berezovsky at the London Hilton’ and suggested he scoot there for his safety... and all we hear about is these bloody asylum seekers saying we do nothing for them. "Mr Berezovsky said last night he was confident he was safe in Britain under the protection of the police." .. so that's alright then.

In an interview with a Russian radio station in January, Berezovsky labeled Putin's regime as 'anti-constitutional' and having 'lost all legitimacy', advocating the forceful removal of Putin from office. Interviewed in the UK he has repeatedly called for Putin's overthrow.

There are many amongst us who wonder why 3 bankers who are alleged to have committed a fraud in the UK can be express extradited to the US. The same Government cannot extradite a man (not forgetting the terrorist Ahmed Zakayev as well ) to his native country who has looted the public coffers, laundered the proceeds and continues to plot and publicise the violent overthrow of a legally elected Government, and it is claimed has been responsible for organising murders within Russia, still maintains his freedom as a British "Citizen"

***
The Polish newspaper "Rzeczpospolita" claimed in July 2005 that Ayman-al-Zawahiri, the second most wanted member of al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden, received terrorist training in 1998 at an FSB camp in Dagestan and later became Osama bin Laden’s deputy, they quoted Litvinenko - a story repeated by AP and Pakistani newspapers. Litvinenko said he ," was working in that section at the time and I can confirm the fact Zawahiri was not the only link between the FSB and Al-Qa'ida", yet no-one sees the hands of the US in his baloneyium related death / murder .. if it was that that killed him and Linvinenko was telling the Polish journalist the Truth.

PIC ? That is My good friend (and Boris / Platon's ) flame haired temptress, Romana Tomasová , who calls herself the Director of Corporate Communications at CETV these days ( the little minx) collecting from Richard Parsons, Chairman & CEO of Time Warner Inc., on behalf of Ronnie Lauder the 2006 International Emmy Directorate Award to CETV and Ronnie for "pioneering the development of independent television broadcasting in Central and Eastern Europe " at the glitzy 34th International Emmy Awards in New York.CETV HQ is of course in the heart of Mayfair, London and curiously, is domiciled in the Cayman Islands.

iPhone owner requires surgery to use it. Amazing Pictures

We don't get to read the North Denver News often - evidently not often enough, because it brings us some astounding (if True!) news. James Bentley in the course of his journalistic enquiries bumped into 24 stone Thomas Martel of Bonnie Brae residential district in Denver , near the U of D and well equipped with liquor stores. James describes Thomas as a "big guy".

An early adopter, Thomas, despite his bulk enjoyed using, successively, a Treo, a Blackberry, and now he has an iPhone (money is definitely no concern to Thomas) . " I had a hard time hitting the right buttons, and I always lost those little styluses," He explained to James.

He had a big thumbs. He needed a smaller ones. So he called on cosmetic surgeon Dr. Robert Fox Spars who is now anxious to explain his technique of thumb "whittling"

The procedure (cover your eyes here if squeamish) involved making a small incision into both thumbs and shaving down the bones, followed by careful muscular alteration and modification of the fingernails.

Tomas's new thumbs are slim, effeminate but make using his new technological toys a treat , he says he can still lift "pretty much anything I could lift before the surgery". The only drawback is opening Spaghetti sauce bottles - which if he had laid off the spaghetti he might have....

"We're turning plastic surgery from something that people use in service of vanity, to a real tool for improving workplace efficiency." says Dr. Robert Fox Spars ... of whom there is no trace in the Denver telephone Directory .. nor any trace of him anywhere else... and James Bentley doesn't return calls and it's a slow news time in Denver the ski capital of the US.... and the ghost of Hunter Thompson lingers on ...

National Moth Night 2007

Tonight is National Moth Night which was started in 1999 in an attempt ot encourage members of the public to record moths they have seen.

There is a website for more information and a splendid page for identifying the more commonly seen moths here. There are some 2,000 species in the UK and they are important pollinators, especially in residential gardens.

Many entomologists will be collecting in Conservative Party Headquarters where the New Policy cupboard will be opened by David Cameron.

Anthony (Tony) Wilson 1950 - 2007 R.I.P

Anthony (Tony) Wilson had a massive ego, a little learning and prodigous energy. He undoubtedly had an enormous effect on some aspects of what passes for popular culture in Madchester.

He was an insufferable child who never grew up and was, remarkably, allowed extensive freedom - for which he can thank the very liberal minded Granada management under the Bernstein family who loved his undoubted in dustrial sized chutzpah and throwing grit into the artworks from time to time - "You don't sharpen an axe without making sparks "etc., and other tiresome pieces of Jewish schmaltz.

He was no cultural colossus, and beyond the very narrow world of clubland was disregarded , not least because he was such a rude cunt. There will however be massive media coverage and encomiums from the semi literate pop literati whose few brains have not been too addled by drink or drugs who will allowed by the confused controllers of TV to wallow self indulgently in a dismal past, trying desperately to recall the parties, the booze and the birds.

BBC2 Newsnight have just shown a clip - which will be shown again and again of the notorious incident on a late night Granada TV show in 1990 when Kendo Nagasaki the masked "Wrestler" - "brutal, silent and with a hint of Samurai savagery " as the playbills said - who was, in a plot contrived by Wilson , who was presenting the show , unmasked live on TV by Big Daddy.

The absurd, masked, Nagasaki , claiming to be the resurrection of a Samurai , was actually a 6 foot 2 inch 18 stone labourer from Stoke called Peter Thornley. Unmasked publicly, on cue , he went apeshit, as required and ended up throwing the attending make up artist, slim, gorgeous, talented, luscious, 8 stone Lois Richardson into a fire extinguisher on the studio wall.

Lois was always a first choice of Sir Laurence Olivier (and Lord Patel) and did all the make up on "Jewel in the Crown" on location in India which presented massive challenges due to heat, humidity and continuity. As a result of this stupid and authorised stunt she was lucky to survive, had her back and many bones broken, was in hospital for nearly a year and to this day still has major problems walking. It ended her career.

Granada tried to blame Nagasaki but the broadcasting union Bectu (to their eternal credit) took up the case and after seven years , the judge accepted that Nagasaki had done as instructed and Granada shelled out £375.000.

Tony Wilson never lifted a finger to help her case and persisted in the lie that the whole thing was not a set up.

Nagasaki was famously portrayed by Peter Blake who had some infantile idea about being Nagasaki.

UK Forces Lose it in Basra

Daily Telegraph report ... "The British have basically been defeated in the south," the intelligence official told the Washington Post.

The newspaper quoted from one think tank report that said the legacy of British rule in Basra was: "the systematic misuse of official institutions, political assassinations, tribal vendettas, neighbourhood vigilantism and enforcement of social mores, together with the rise of criminal mafias."

This has absolutely , totally, completely, nothing to do with the activities of these two guys and their rescue General (Hero 2 face) Jackson of Basra "Let me make it clear that it was important to retrieve those two soldiers. The British Army looks after its own.” (Times, 12 Oct 2005)


"The British Army looks after its own" , demolishing a jail, releasing prisoners, and killing Police in the process. .. and er .. repeating the process again earlier this year but they took prisoners then ..... about whom we have heard nothing since.

NO. never. Certainly Not

..absolutely , totally, completely, nothing to do with those guys ...

Bio-terrists ? Cows collapse, Dollar collapses and bee Colonies collapse

The Times has a report today "Fresh outbreak of virus suspected as scientists point to sabotage as cause" which contains noteworthy comment on 2 matters relating to the origin of the FMV outbreak.

1. Current IAH Director Dr. Martin Shirley said that measures to ensure viruses did not enter the water system from his organisation were working properly. A back-up effluent treatment system that further treats water leaving the IAH and Merial had no reported problems. Concluding the Times to say that "Concerns that the FMD outbreak was caused by live virus escaping into the environment via the Pirbright research facility’s drainage system were effectively ruled out last night".

2. Dr Andrew King, a former head of molecular biology at the IAH, has been drafted in to help.
He told The Times: “As far as I am concerned the authorities have failed to find any chink in the armoury of the establishment’s bio-security. What you are left with is human movement, which is not a matter for the institute, it’s a police matter. It’s very, very unlikely that it could be spread by accident. People do not spread the disease easily.”

Dr King said he thought it likely that Merial would also be given a clean bill of health. “That establishment is inspected by Defra every six months. Defra grants the licence. Defra says it’s OK,” he said.

He also added that the longest period after which the virus had ever been recovered from the human body after heavy exposure was 48 hours, and that involved a full body search. To pass the virus from human to cow “you would have to hug a cow and breathe down its nose”, he said. Which is an alarming picture but we recently saw that is what Hindus do with cows who have TB.

The Times AKA Ben McIntyre, also tells us today the Government spends just £180,000 on bee research, a figure that has shrunk continuously over recent years. (Almost as fast as the bee population).

Bees are dying across the world at a terrifying rate. The apian epidemic started in the United States, where entire populations of honey bees have simply vanished in the phenomenon known as colony collapse disorder (CCD). At least a quarter of America’s 2.5 million honeybee colonies have been wiped out already .

If you really don't want to sleep at night Google "Bluetongue" and read how this bovine viral disease is spread by flies (midges) of the Culicoides genus. The South African vector is C.imicola which appears / seems to have spread northwards, carried on winds or as a response (?) to global warming.

In the US, " “bluetongue is a major obstacle to exportation of U.S. ruminants and ruminant products and probably affects the United States more than most countries.”

The good news is that IAH are on the case and working hard at it .... In August 2006, Dutch authorities reported the first ever case of bluetongue in Northern Europe. Since an initial report on June 14th in North Rhine Westphalia, clinical and subclinical cases have been reported from sheep and cattle in Germany, Belgium, France, and the Netherlands over 2,000 herds so far have been infected.

IAH Pirbright is an International Reference Laboratory for bluetongue, and provides diagnostic services to the European Community (EC), the World Animal Health Organisation (OIE), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The Institute is working closely with several authorities, including the European Food Safety Authority, on the current outbreak.

Which shows how essential it is the Institute is properly funded, staffed and equipped and supported.

Stock Market Jitters - City Canyons filled with jumping bankers as Jaweh Shayler arrives

Two Tupolev-95 bombers flew from Blagoveshchensk, on Russia's border with China, to the US naval base at Guam in the West Pacific and buzzed a military base during a 13-hour round trip on Wednesday.

Equity markets saw frantic trading scenes throughout the day, as traders grew increasingly fearful that the decline in the availability of debt may lead to a slowdown in the global economy.
On Wall Street, the sell-off saw the Dow Jones Industrial Average tumble 387.2 to 13270.7.

The picture was similar in Europe, where the CAC 40 in Paris retreated 2.17pc and the German DAX shedded 2pc and in London the FTSE 100 index fell 1.92pc,

Plainly, Jaweh Shayler has arrived in the nick of time.

David Shayler .. Messiah ..A Man for All Seasons

For those who seek the eternal Truth through Jaweh Shayler here is a picture in Lord Patel's collection taken in April 2005 in a Blackburn caff when it is believed he saw the light and failed to pay for his round of coffees..."The Lord will provide he said".

He was right, Lord Patel paid up.

The book he held was Shayler's First Book of Revelations in which he revealed very little, other than the astonishingnews that HMG wanted our new friend and football fan Generalissimo Gadaffi dead ... which as President Reagan provided with airspace and not a little encouragement by Mrs Thatcher had actually tried with a massive force of UK based F 16's was hardly news.

Remember .. Jaweh Shayler can CHANGE THE WEATHER ... so that H.A.A.R.P thingy in Alaska is evidently redundant and he will therefore save the US Gubment considerable billions and maybe part of the Alaskan wilderness. See here and here and even the TES

Sid Boil, our man on the Spot says a few Bob on Middelsboro' fer't Cup might be where the smart money is going..nudge, nudge, wink wank.

UPDATE -Apparently la Machon has forsaken the Messiah and he is currently living on Dartmoor and taken up an natural and organic diet of wild mushrooms ... so if you fancy a party girls ...

FMV - suspected farm near Dorking - what a difference a day makes

Midnight last night and Movement of animals orders were lifted.

Midnight tonight and Debby Reynolds SVO at DEFRA announces a suspected animals ona farm in Dorking Surrey. 3 /10 Km control zones have been set up. (Mr Hilary Benn silent and absent)

This is not a confirmed outbreak as testing is required but the animals show clinical symptoms as did some of the 327 animals culled today on the third farm near Pirbright, which included sheep and goats.

Leaving yet again the increasing impression that DEFRA is moving after one week into the chaos theory of crisis management, as the decision makers are harassed by the grasping NFU and their lawyers... there goes the export trade.

Don't send Vaccines .. send the whitewash.

PS 2 freelance journalists , the new agricultural paparazzi - Philip Hollis from Kingston and James Purkiss from Swindon - were charged today under Section 27 of the Animal Health Act and are facing prosecution by Surrey Trading Standards.

They were arrested, disinfected and their equipment was seized on Saturday 4 August, after breaching a cordon inside the protected foot and mouth zone close to Wanborough.

Look at Sheepdrove and keep looking at warmwell

Press war : Meriel v IAH / DEFRA - who pays for the farmer's compensation ?

It is evident that Meriel briefed the press about the HPA concerns over Legionnaire's disease at HAI Room ISO10 - first surfacing with the Guradian... evidently wanting to take the heat off any liabilities - and consequent costs and compensation claims from the NFU, whose lawyers are already girding their loins to slap on someone "real soon now".

Now BBC2 Newsnight,tonight, quote DEFRA's own guidelines about not siting buildings holding Class 3/4 biohazards, where there is any danger of flooding (Flooding is when "water overflows it's natural confines"). IAH has part of the site (on which Meriel sits) adjacent to the stream that flows down to the site from the farm where the first cases erupted on July 29th which appears as a flood risk on the Environment Agency's Flood Map.

Curiously young Mr Hilary Benn has dropped public references to his pie in the sky £120 Mn super dooper IAH site , due ..er .. 2011 ..er 2012 - hardly an ideal site if it appears on the Environment Agency's Flood Map... more astute planning Gubment Planning at work ?

Not a peep publicly from DEFRA's Chief Scientist Dr Dalton or Geoff Rooker Lord Rooker who have jointly been so effective in cutting funding, resources, and staff at IAH over the last decade .. not to mention la Beckett.

Oddly the Hadley centre of the Meteorological Office - funds up 40% and a spanking brand new centre in Exeter crammed with Cray computers - failed to forecast the floods for Surrey - but will happily tell you the Earth's temperature in ten years time.

Little known fact. It was Mrs Thatcher on May 25th 1990 who opened the Hadley centre for Climate Change in Bracknell. She said ;

"Your Report (IPCC 1st report) confirms that greenhouse gases are increasing substantially as a result of Man's activities; that this will warm the Earth's surface, with serious consequences for us all, and that these consequences are capable of prediction. We want to predict them more accurately and that is why we are opening this Centre today."

"But the changes which we are talking about now will occur at a faster rate than anything our natural world has known in the past."

"We must also take action on carbon dioxide emission and that will mean significant adjustments to our economies: more efficient power stations, cars which use less fuel, better-insulated houses and better management of energy in general."

It will surpise many how forward thinking she was.."As the Panel's Report itself makes clear, we should have a better understanding of many of these things in ten or fifteen years time, say, by about the year 2005. " she was by education a scientist .. and quite evidently took a long view .. something lost on the Lord Rooker's of the Westminster world.


“The Hadley Centre has the highest concentration of absolutely outstanding people who do absolutely outstanding work, spanning the breadth of modelling, attribution, and data analysis, of anywhere in the world.”

Dr Susan Solomon, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Co-chair IPCC AR4 WG1: The
Physical Science Basis

Thanks to Mrs T pic of her opening the Hadley centre in 1990 - meanwhile a well established International resource like Pirbright has been allowed to fall apart and could soon lose it's status as a World centre for agricultural research by the intellectual pygmies at DEFRA and it's ignorant Minister.

Global warnings,Met Office, IAH, funding science and the NEW MESSIAH can Change the Weather !!!!

Two things to burn into your brain when discussing (or making) meteorological predictions beyond Christmas ..

1. To give a sense of scale..the land mass of the US of A = 3% of the Earth's surface.

2. To give a sense of scale CO2 in the atmosphere is said (where

Imagine a line drawn on the sand 1 KIlometre long = 1 million millimetres. So that means we move the peg from about 34 cms to 309 cms. (NB these measurements never provide for experimental error + or - let us say, 5 /10 /20% - my blood sugar tester is accurate says the manufacturers to +/- 20%.

Now to add to this there is the astounding revelation (for it is nothing less) on Channel 4 More4 News tonight (see pic) that David Shayler Jewish (ex?) MI5 double agent has been having a chat it appears with Mary Magdaleine, and (Shayler - Jaweh - Messiah word shift) is THE NEW MESSIAH ! ***

Besides predicting that Middlesboro' will win their Division and move up next year .... HE CAN CHANGE THE WEATHER.

Right! OK! Got all that on board ? - The Met Office Hadley Centre (UK's official centre for climate change research. Partly funded by DEFRA - who also partly fund the IAH) have decided what the weather will be like in 10 years time.

Or rather they have issued a Press release about a paper that will be published in Science on August 10th - this will be the first decadal climate prediction model ever (and folks you can be sure it won't be the last) and includes a prediction for annual global temperatures to 2014.

Over the 10-year period as a whole, the climate continues to warm and 2014 is likely to be 0.3 Degrees C warmer than 2004. At least half of the years after 2009 are predicted to exceed the warmest year currently on record - Frame of reference - Total global warming on a decadal average is 0.8 Degrees C since 1900 (IPCC 2007) ****

The new model ( well the updated and fucked about previous model) incorporates (we think) the effects of sea surface temperatures as well as other factors such as man-made emissions of greenhouse gases (naturally) , projected changes in the sun's output (there is a novelty) and the effects of previous volcanic eruptions - the first time internal and external variability have both been predicted. (i.e more variables built in to "adjust" if it proves none too accurate)

Team leader, Dr Doug Smith (do not confuse with David Shayler) said: "Occurrences of El Nino, for example, have a significant effect on shorter-term predictions. By including such internal variability, we have shown a substantial improvement in predictions of surface temperature." Dr Smith continues: "Observed relative cooling in the Southern Ocean and tropical Pacific over the last couple of years was correctly predicted by the new system, giving us greater confidence in the model's performance". (El Nino was observed historically by fishermen and named by them. "Observations of conditions in the tropical Pacific are considered essential for the prediction of short term (a few months to 1 year) climate variations." see NOAA website for full clear history and operation over decades of El Nino)

Now that's really good news for swimming pool owners, manufacturers of ice creams, sun creams, swimwear, swim pools, air conditioning ... but nowehere do they mention the effect of David Shayler THE NEW MESSIAH !

One thing is evident though, the money DEFRA have saved on labs, equipment, staff, at the IAH research centres brand spanking new Hadley centre in Exeter bursting with Cray computers and scientists with planet sized egos. "Our funding to the Hadley Centre incidentally has increased by 40% over five years" Prof Dalton Chief scientist DEFRA Nov 2006 to Select Committee on Science and Technology Hansard Q220

*** Er.. well maybe not ,Hugo Rifkind in the Times had to apologise for saying he was the Messiah and David pointed out that he was actually ..er.."I was, though, crucified with a crown of thorns and nails when incarnated as Astronges, a Jewish revolutionary put to death by the Romans at around the end of the last century BC . . . "

To get the record straight David revealed this at the Glastonbury Symposium, a lecture on Investigating Crop Circles and Signs of our Times lecture at Glastonbury Town Hall and not just on Channel 4.

**** How you arrive at a global temperature for say 1921 (or 1948) is a peer reviewed consensus secret of the alumni of the Climatologists. You'd better believe it if you want a research Grant. You get my meaning ?

IAH Pirbright - DEFRA report on progress and update on the Legionnaires Disease

Fred Landeg Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer at DEFRA has produced a report available here (PDF alert 2.7 Mb) which is clear, precise, detailed and well illustrated, about the current FMV outbreak.

Page 12 (of 15) shows a fascinating "hypothesised" timeline which details that Week Commencing 16th July commercial vaccine was produced (at Merial site) using O1BFS1967. Extract shown above.

Backtracking, the IAH calculate that the period 17th - 23rd July was the most likely period of infection derived from SOURCE tracing.

In this period - on the 20th July, "Drains from Mains sewer opened and flooded field "
The first clinical signs were observed on 29th July. (water based effluents leave the site in two ways one heat treated and one chemically treated, by different routes - it appears that all effluent is the final responsibility of IAH)

The report concludes "This is an evolving situation and is subject to an on-going review"

At the warmwell site they have identified that the ISO10 building at Pirbright, where the person with Legionnaires disease had been working, had been built the previous year to replace SAPO-4/ACDP-2 containment level accommodation - "for work on exotic viral diseases and vaccine development." This information was obtained from the IAH Annual report 2004

As Mary at Warmwell raised yesterday - There's more at stake than paying compensation to farmers if Pirbright is found to be responsible for the leak - and comments on gossip / news reports in Switzerland whether Pirbright will be able to remain a reference laboratory of the European Union for all FMD work, bluetongue illness and vesicular illnesses, has not yet been discussed. This year the British laboratory has received some 750,000 Euros towards its work."

Amazingly there has not been a peep about bio-terrorism in all the Press /TV reports - but the whole history of IAH funding shows the critical importance of having adequate, facilities, equipment, trained staff - which it is evident are lacking.

We repeat.

See also :Memorandum from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council to Select Committee on Science and Technology November 2006

BBSRC—FUNDED RESEARCH OF RELEVANCE TO COMBATING TERRORISM4.

Although most infectious diseases of agricultural plants and livestock rarely pose a direct threat to people (with some notable exceptions—eg anthrax, TB) they do provide an opportunity for "economic terrorism" by groups intent on the deliberate introduction and dissemination of disease agents in the environment.etc., etc.,

IAH Pirbright - Legionnaire's disease contact investigation by HPA

Things don't get any better for the IAH - a nice early Christmas present from the HSE Inspectorate ;

Dec 12, 2006: Failed to protect staff and visitors from "substances hazardous to health" - including the Legionnaires' Disease bacteria at Compton. Ordered to improve safety standards.

Today the BBC report a case of Legionnaires' disease linked to the Pirbright laboratory site in Surrey is being investigated by Health Protection Agency (HPA) officials.

The Health Protection Agency confirmed that the probe related to the Institute of Animal Health.

So far it appears that the Legionnaires' case pre-dates the outbreak of foot and mouth.
A statement from the HPA (not available at time of writing on HPA website) said its early findings indicated that an individual linked with Legionnaires' had been working at the ISO10 building on the Pirbright site.

"These findings, backed up by temperature monitoring in the same area, suggested that the Institute was carrying out all necessary maintenance and monitoring work in compliance with the Approved Code of Practice for the control of Legionella. Results of tests carried out on further samples are still being awaited" it continued.

Investigators were examining where the patient had visited in the 10-14 days prior to falling ill, including their home, workplace and anywhere else they may have travelled to.

Meanwhile let's hope they have sorted out the HSE complaint from february earlier this year :

Feb 28, 2007: Failed to protect staff from exposure to potentially deadly asbestos dust at Pirbright.

The Good News - The Archers keep up to date

One of the Archers and his wife - the soppy Geordy who nearly had it away in the cowshed with the hired staff, lamented in today's episode about the plight of the Surrey farmer's and the lab staff. Listen again tonight. 7.0pm BBC2 as the drama unfolds.