Much of our food these days comes out of a factory. This place produce 2 million frozen pizzas a week ! Phew !

Hmmm… As you can see, I’ve kinda stopped blogging. Two reasons I guess:

1. I’m not the wordsmith I want to be
2. I don’t have the time

Some say blogs are dead. They might be right. I’ll try and keep this one alive.

I came across an old ad for a PC I bought back in ‘97.

What a high-powered beast it was… for £1000 you get a 166Mhz processor, 2GB hard disk and a whopping 32MB of RAM. Whoosh !

My phone has more storage than that !

Obama or McCain ? One to watch…

It’s odd how fixated we Brits are with American elections.  I mean it’s so long-winded and complex. The state primaries and conventions seem endless !

In the UK, the Prime Minister can call and hold an election in a matter of months. In America it can take years from eager hopefuls declaring their candidacy to the actual winner taking office.  Extraordinary ! But, strangely reassuring.

It’s good to see the most powerful person in the world selected by a long, open, very public process with plenty of room for debate, argument and upset. I’d rather the superpower chose it’s leader by an awkward, sometimes baffling, and very long-winded process than a totalitarian inner circle appointing one if its own.

Will America really elect a black man with the middle name Hussain ? I sincerely hope so.

George W. Bush was in London last week on the final European tour of his presidency and his motorcade was universally met by protest. You couldn’t imagine a more unpopular visitor. At the time, someone asked me whether I thought Iraq and the Bush presidency have terminally damaged America’s reputation around the world ?   The media coverage of the Bush visit seemed to suggest that it had. Could America recover ?

Imagine a newly inaugurated President Obama sweeping into Downing Street for a press call with the PM or meeting the Queen at Windsor for a grand state banquet. He’d be cheered from the roof-tops. The bad old days of Bush, Cheney and the Iraq oil grab would fade pretty quickly. Obama would enjoy a genuine wave of good-will, abit like Bill Clinton did on winning  in 92. I’d certainly turn out to see him…

Again, a lack of blogging goodness from yours truly. Ho Hum !

Anyway, here’s a very neat, and thought provoking, film about  the Story of Stuff.

1. Teaching Maths In 1970
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for £100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

5. Teaching Maths In 2007
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of £20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers. )

Jeez…. I haven’t posted in ages ! Bit of a blogging drought going on here.

So, to break the impasse here’s an awesome youtube clip on climate change….

hell, I love Youtube !

This came in on email the other day… Fantastic !

24: The Unaired 1994 Pilot: Jack Bauer saves the world with Windows 3.1 and AOL 3.0.

Iran, Iran, Iran ? What to do about a nuclear Iran ? There seem to be two schools of thought:

• Iran’s Nukes: Still Room for Diplomacy (Time)
  
• Five reasons to bomb Iran now (Jerusalem Post)
  

Let’s face it, the US has fewer and fewer options when it comes to Iran. What we’ve learned from Iraq is what question to ask. It’s not: ‘will you bomb Iran ?’ It’s ‘what will you do after you’ve bombed Iran ?’

America had no plan for baghdad + 1. Do they really have a plan for Tehran + 1 ? When the Stealth bombers return to base after flattening Natanz what will the Americans do ?

You can bet the Iranians have planned for an American raid and have spread their nuclear technology far and wide, creating dummy facilities, deep bomb-proof bunkers and hiding key equipment. They know Israel and America might try a pre-emptive strike, as the Israelis did against Iraq in 1981.

Bombing isn’t a silver bullet. Far from it. They may obliterate some key sites, but they won’t stop Iran’s nuclear programme dead. You can be sure a raid will accelerate, not to mention justify, Iranian determination to go nuclear. Bombing will only buy time.

Sitting in Tehran, America looks a real threat. The US occupies Iraq - on Iran’s western border - and Afghanistan - on Iran’s eastern border. America also has a history of anti-Iranian aggression, ranging from the Iranian hostage crisis to the Iran-Iraq war, when America actively backed Iraq against Iran.

The Iranian leadership knows there is one deterent to perceived US aggression: nuclear weapons. The US won’t mess with a nuclear armed state. North Korea proves that.

Bombing won’t work and, other than blowing up a few Iranian nuclear installations, could detonate a region wide conflagration that makes Iraq look like a walk in the park.

So, let’s think for a moment what Iran could do if America or Israel launched an attack:

• close the Straights of Hormuz. Between 15 and 16.5 million barrels of oil transit the Strait of Hormuz each day, roughly 20 percent of the world’s daily oil production.
• flood Iraq with high tech weaponry and put a $10,000+ bounty on every dead American
• launch long range missle attacks on Isreal and American targets in the Middle East
• massively increase its support and funding for anti-Israel Islamic groups like Hizbollah and Islamic Jihad
• sponsor, arm and encourage al-Quaeda to repeatedly attack America, at home and abroad.
• encourage and arm radical, anti-American Islam across the Middle East focussing on US allies like Saudi Arabia and Egypt

Basically, Iran has a range of responses to an American or Israeli attack. After the bombing raids, America has even fewer choices.

The US won’t, indeed can’t, invade Iran and is powerless to effect regime change. When the Stealth bombers return, what’s left for America to do other than brace herself for the inevitable retaliation and fall back on… diplomacy.

After all, the road to a stable and peaceful Middle East runs through Jerusalem not Natanz.

Arrrrgh! London is cold. Brrr. Why can’t I migrate for the winter like all sensible creatures ?!