Here come the health-fascists – now an obesity tax!!

April 28, 2011

The world is full of “do-gooders” who in the name of the good of the majority indulge in introducing new and wonderful ways of oppressing the minority. The environmental and health fascists who use coercive means – usually taxes and the banning of substances and even the behaviour  of others – have converted the oppression of those who don’t think as they do into a fine art.

The two latest health-fascists are members of a so-called expert group, Dan Andersson and Anna Fransson who want to tax people for being fat – for their own good and the good of society of course.

And to rub salt into the wound,  tax-payer’s money is used to generate this rubbish.

Svenska Dagbladet reports:

To stop the runaway cost of Swedish obesity a “fat tax” should be introduced,  according to a new report “Calories Cost” released by the Expert Group on Public Finance (ESO) on Thursday and written by Dan Andersson and Anna Fransson

They estimate that the cost to the public sector, in terms of healthcare and social insurance due to obesity was 15 billion kronor in 2003, a figure that could rise by between 40 and about 80 percent by 2020, according to the report.

 The authors consider that there are good reasons for the government to do something about the weight trap. “Fat taxes” could be invested in, for example, bike lanes and general public health surveys of adults.

Health costs could be minimised further by introducing a birth tax and perhaps with the tax increasing for every year of survival. This could even encourage people to commit suicide once they retire and their  economic burden becomes too heavy – for the good of the majority of course. It would solve the pensions problem and the ageing problem as well.

Perhaps it is time to introduce legislation prohibiting the fascism of “do-gooders” and banning all expert groups.

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Posted in Alarmism, Behaviour, Sweden | 1 Comment »

Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault’s Rafale make the shortlist for Indian MMRCA order

April 27, 2011
Eurofighter Typhoon

Eurofighter Typhoon: Image via Wikipedia

The Indian $10 billion MMRCA order for 126 fighter aircraft now lies between the Eurofighter Typhoon and Dassault’s Rafale. They have been invited to the Indian MoD for further discussions on their commercial bids on April 28. The commercial bids are to expire tomorrow.

These two vendors seem to have have made the shortlist and the other four – Lockheed Martin F16, Boeing F/A 18, MiG-35 and Saab Gripen IN have been left out. Saab confirmed that they have been informed that they have not made the shortlist. (Svenska Dagbladet).

Dassault's Rafale: Dassault

Under the Indian system of procurement, the top two qualifying vendors will be invited for commercial negotiations and the one which offers the best terms (lowest price) will be eventually selected.

Related:  Indian MMRCA decision in two weeks – Eurofighter Typhoon still leads

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Posted in Aviation, Defense, India | 3 Comments »

Energy saving light bulbs are not so friendly after all

April 26, 2011
Modern fluorescent light bulb with E27 thread ...

Image via Wikipedia

From The Telegraph:

Fears have been reignited about the safety of energy saving light bulbs after a group of scientists warned that they contain cancer causing chemicals.

Their report advises that the bulbs should not be left on for extended periods, particularly near someone’s head, as they emit poisonous materials when switched on. Peter Braun, who carried out the tests at the Berlin’s Alab Laboratory, said: “For such carcinogenic substances it is important they are kept as far away as possible from the human environment.”

The bulbs are already widely used in the UK following EU direction to phase out traditional incandescent lighting by the end of this year. But the German scientists claimed that several carcinogenic chemicals and toxins were released when the environmentally-friendly compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) were switched on, including phenol, naphthalene and styrene. Andreas Kirchner, of the Federation of German Engineers, said: “Electrical smog develops around these lamps. “I, therefore, use them only very economically. They should not be used in unventilated areas and definitely not in the proximity of the head.” ……

The latest report follows claims by Abraham Haim, a professor of biology at Haifa University in Israel, that the bulbs could result in higher breast cancer rates if used late at night.

He said that the bluer light that CFLs emitted closely mimicked daylight, disrupting the body’s production of the hormone melatonin more than older-style filament bulbs, which cast a yellower light.

The Migraine Action Association has warned that they could trigger migraines and skin care specialists have claimed that their intense light could exacerbate a range of existing skin problems.

Related: 

Bring back my incandescent light bulb!

A reprieve for incandescent bulbs? 


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Posted in Alarmism, Energy, Environment | 2 Comments »

Parrakeet to be eliminated from the wild: So much for bio-diversity

April 25, 2011

A case of alarmism vs. alarmism.

That the clamour for protection of biodiversity is just so much alarmist nonsense becomes obvious from this report. The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds apparently supports this action to eliminate a species from the wild even though it has not yet caused any damage!

Bio-diversity alarm always takes second place if any species poses even the slightest threat – real or perceived – to the human species. 

From the BBC:

Monk parakeet

A species of parakeet that threatens wildlife and crops is to be removed from the wild, the government has said. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said the monk parakeet, originally from South America, was an invasive species.

It announced control measures to either rehouse the birds, remove their nests, or – as a last resort – shoot them. Defra estimates there are around 100 of the green-and-yellow birds in the UK, mainly in the south east of England. 

Although the species had not yet caused any damage, Defra said they had the potential to threaten “national infrastructure”. It said extensive damage to crops had been reported in both North and South America, and the birds could cause power cuts when their nests were built on electricity pylons, particularly when they become wet from rain.

…..

A spokesman for the RSPB, the bird conservation group, said: “Our understanding is that they are going to be brought into captivity; we don’t see it’s necessary for them to be culled. “We’re happy action is taking place in that they’re being removed from the wild.

“It’s a small population at large, as the birds are colonial and are concentrated in one or two sites, so it will be possible to deal with as we think it could be a problem.”


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Jail time coming for Anil Ambani?

April 23, 2011

As an “anti-corruption” wave sweeps through the normally long-suffering and silent majority in India, Tihar Jail in Delhi is filling up with the rich and the famous now being caught up in the wake of the Satyam scams, the 2G scam and the pig-troughs surrounding the Delhi Commonwealth Games.

And about time too.

If this wave becomes a tsunami Tihar will soon need a new wing.

The 2G scam was based on the underpricing of 2G spectrum by the Telecom Ministry of India, resulting in a loss to the exchequer of some $40 billion and with a corresponding benefit to the companies being allocated the 2G licences. The former Minister and a number of other players are all currently in jail though a trial and convictions are still a long way away.

Back in February Tehelka reported:

THE 2G spectrum scam is getting murkier by the day. A well-known Maharashtra politician and a Delhi- based real estate group have now come under the probe agencies’ scanner for their suspected role in the scam.

This new revelation takes the probe to the doorsteps of political parties other than the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK). Over the past week, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has interrogated at length senior officials of the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) and Amit Sarin, the Delhi-based billionaire and real estate tycoon, asking them to explain a string of suspicious transactions, particularly one where Rs. 100 crore was transferred to Mumbai billionaire Shahid Balwa a day after he applied for a telecom licence.

The CBI has unearthed a money trail of Rs. 100 crore that starts from the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, goes through the Delhi-based real estate company Anant Raj Group and Balwa, and finally ends with a company associated with the influential Maharashtra politician.

Now evidence is forthcoming from the banks involved in the jungle of transactions  involving the menagerie of companies controlled by Anil Ambani’s ADAG Group and which confirms that Anil Ambani was central to the games being played:

Anil Ambani and wife Tina were the only two individuals with unlimited powers to transfer money and make payments for the sevenAnil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) companies that are now under CBI investigation for their links to the 2G scam-linked Swan Telecom, according to the testimony of Amit Khot, deputy branch manager of ICICI Bank’s Nariman Point branch, where these seven companies have their accounts. 

From Tehelka again:

Swan, Tiger, Parrot, Zebra, Penguin, Giraffe: A corporate menagerie
The CBI believes that the conspiracy behind the Swan Telecom was hatched in early 2006 when ADAG created a web of newly formed companies named after animals.

The following six companies were incorporated between March and July 2006:
1. Swan Infonet (later renamed Parrot Contelesultants); incorporated on 17 March 2006
2. Penguin International Ventures Pvt Ltd (later renamed Reliance Utility Engineers) on 26 June 2006 
3. Swan Advisory Services Pvt Ltd (later renamed Zebra Consultants Pvt Ltd) on 21 March 2006
4. Giraffe Consultancy Pvt Ltd (later renamed Sidhartha Consultancy) on 27 June 2006 
5. Tiger Traders on 20 March 2006, and
6. Swan Capital Pvt Ltd (later renamed as Swan Telecom) on 13 July 2006

All these companies were incorporated with an initial share capital of 1 lakh each. Even these few lakhs allegedly came from the bank accounts of top ADAG officials. Besides, either an ADAG company or directors of ADAG owned equity in these companies. The addresses provided in the incorporation documents were those of the registered office of ADAG.

The ADAG Menagerie: Tehelka

Tina and Anil Ambani with friend

It would seem to be just a matter of time before Anil Ambani is taken in for questioning about the 2G scam but whether he spends any jail time remains to be seen. (Commentary removed – October 2014)

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The Art of Motivation

April 21, 2011

I have been conducting a workshop on motivation in the work place as part of an exercise to establish a performance based incentive scheme for a company trying to change from being a family run enterprise to one which can be floated on the stock exchange in a year or two.

Praise Loudly, Blame Softly

In human behaviour, motivation can be considered to be a force. It is brought to bear when performing actions. Where actions have no purpose motivation is undefined. Where there is purpose I take it to be without doubt that the purpose is better served when the required actions are carried out by people who are motivated rather than by people who are indifferent.

The motivated state can then be described as that biological, emotional or cognitive condition which generates a force – variously called incentive, enthusiasm, inspiration, drive, desire, impetus or commitment – which can be applied to a person’s actions. The difference between a motivated person and an unmotivated person lies in the force they bring to bear when performing the same action. It follows that motivation is that particular force within a person which infuses dynamism into his actions or his behaviour towards a particular purpose. The art of motivation then lies in the manner of generating such a force of engagement in people when acting towards a particular purpose.  It is the influencing of human desires and drives by addressing their needs and deficiencies such that they have a vested interest in achieving the purpose. ……

It is a universal and well established observation that when some dissatisfaction is acute, all other drives and actions are subordinated to the alleviation of the acute dissatisfaction. …

What constitutes satisfaction or dissatisfaction varies from one individual to the next. What levels of these are considered acute or tolerable or acceptable or unacceptable or mild satisfaction or ecstasy, also vary with the individual. To what extent and with what velocity a change of state will drive an individual towards reaching a different state of satisfaction or dissatisfaction also depends upon the individual. With this level of variation, and with this dependence upon the individual, motivating people is in the realm of art and is still a long way from being an exact science. The use of rewards and penalties to achieve the actions chosen to be elicited from specific individuals is the art of motivation. 

….. To be able to consciously engage in motivation, which is a necessary task for a manager, it is vital that some assessment be made of the current status of satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the subject. This in turn determines whether some other state of satisfaction or reduced dissatisfaction will be sufficiently separated from the current state for any motivation to be feasible. This applies irrespective of whether the subject is a subordinate, a superior or a complete stranger. Without such an assessment the drive actually generated by any motivator that is applied, will be nothing more than a guess. The objective is of course, to intentionally provide sufficient drive to the subject such that the desired action results and is carried out forcefully. In a few cases the manager will have sufficient information to be able to make a fairly accurate assessment. In most cases however, he will only have partial information. Nevertheless, the starting point must be an assessment of the current status. 

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A lack of courage in environmentalism today

April 20, 2011
Blue Marble composite images generated by NASA...

Image via Wikipedia

In the style of E Belfort Bax in his book “Courage” from 1890 I take courage to be “the subordination of fear to purpose”.  On this line connecting fear and actions then cowardice is when fears dominate the actions and “purpose” is subordinated.

Once upon a time, the environmentalists were a courageous lot and were surely instrumental in the cleaning up of many areas from the effects of real pollution (smoke, dust, wastes, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxides, food additives …..). But the simple virtues of keeping things clean and preventing disease and improving the standard of living for humans has given way to the more pompous and pretentious goals of preventing global warming (an unbridled arrogance), of maintaining bio-diversity (and why is this important?) and of preserving “scarce resources due to the “limits to growth” (with scare scenarios of “peak” oil, “peak” coal, food shortages, water shortages, metal shortages  and so on). The environmental movement has become a mish-mash of “do-gooders”, amateur scientists and cult members whose primary weapon has become an imposition of draconian measures for uncertain goals. A sort of eco-fascism.

These goals have even become an acceptable political line and have led to what can only be called the politics of alarmism where fears – and most are imaginary fears – dominate all actions. These fears can never be disproved because they always lie a few generation in the future. But they lead to a world where the emphasis has shifted to telling people what not to do (ostensibly for their own good) because of some fear or the other  rather than to having goals for the uplifting of living standards and the actions to be taken in spite of the fears that may exist.

Inevitably the politics of alarmism are accompanied by the opportunists whose greed leads to all the scams surrounding environmental subsidies for renewable power or for carbon trading. But similar scams would appear with any line of politics and I don’t think that the environmental scamsters are any worse than the real estate bubble developers or the sub-prime mortgage supporters or the inside traders or the operators of Ponzi schemes. These scams just reflect the state of ethics that prevail and are not particularly tied to any specific politics.

But I find it a pity that the simple goals of cleaning up the world we live in has given way to the environmentalism of today which generates the politics of alarmism – which is not just a political line without courage – but actually becomes a line of cowardice when it seeks to impose limitations on what others  may not do.

Related: “The Red Badge of Courage” in Essence of a Manager

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Posted in Alarmism, Environment | 4 Comments »

Ryanair fails the ethics test

April 18, 2011

It is what passes for civilised behaviour which is the true test of whether we are truly developing as homo sapiens .

Ryanair lost this case but will still appeal the £1750 fine. They even offered more to settle and suppress their behaviour. But they seem to have forgotten – if ever they knew it – that ethics is more than a matter of law.

Terminal U

A disabled woman has successfully sued Ryanair after her husband resorted to carrying her onto a plane when the airline failed to provide boarding assistance. 

Jo Heath, who suffers from multiple sclerosis and is wheelchair-bound, spoke of her “humiliation” when her husband felt he had no choice but to carry her onto the plane at Luton airport, after being told their flight to Brest Brittany would leave without them. Northampton Country Court heard how the couple were left waiting by the plane for over half an hour, when a hydraulic airlift that they had requested at the time of booking didn’t arrive. Airline staff then allegedly refused to offer any boarding assistance for health and safety reasons. Mrs Heath says they proceeded to prepare the plane for departure. “They treated me like an inconvenience, not a passenger. I was made to feel like it was my fault,” Mrs Heath said. “When I was carried onto the plane, everyone was looking over their seats to see what was happening.”

The court forced Ryanair to pay the couple £1,750 compensation for its breach of contract and breaking disability discrimination laws. Mr Heath said: “We feel vindicated because we have had to fight to get where we are.”

“I don’t think Ryanair will learn from this because they tried to brush us under the carpet. The airline actually offered us more money [out of court] than we eventually received [in court], but we refused it because they wanted us to sign a confidentiality clause. But we wanted open justice.” The ruling Judge in the case, Paul McHale said: “She is a disabled person and she made arrangements with the airline to avoid humiliation in embarking the plane. The defendant did not provide that service.

“All Ryanair was interested in was getting the plane airborne in time”. The court heard how Ryanair staff, including the plane’s pilot, had said that it was their policy to leave disabled passengers behind if they could not be boarded in time for the flight – a point that Ryanair did not dispute in court, the Northampton Herald & Post reports.

Ryanair is appealing the court’s decision, blaming what happened on Luton airport.

A spokesman for the airline said: ‘Under EU law airports, and not airlines, are responsible for the provision of special assistance to passengers. ‘This service is paid for by Ryanair and the failure of Luton Airport’s service provider to assist Mr and Mrs Health in this case was not the responsibility of Ryanair.’

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Posted in Behaviour, Business, Ethics | 1 Comment »

Time-pass

April 18, 2011

http://www.247mahjong.com/Mahjong.swf
created by Mahjong

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He is the cow

April 17, 2011

This is reported to be the successful essay written by a candidate from Bihar for the IAS (Indian Administrative Service) entrance exams.

HE IS THE COW.

The cow is a successful animal. Also he is 4 footed, And because he is a female, he give milks, (but will do so when he is got child.) He is same like-God, sacred to Hindus and useful to man. But he has got four legs together. Two are forward and two are afterwards. His whole body can be utilised for use. More so the milk. Milk comes from 4 taps attached to his basement. (horses dont have any such attachment).
What can it do? Various ghee, butter, cream, curd, why and the condensed milk and so forth. Also he is useful to cobbler, watermans and mankind generally. His motion is slow only because he is of lazy species, Also his other motion.. (dung) is much useful to trees, plants as well as for making flat cakes (like Pizza), in hand and drying in the sun.
A Cow is the only animal that extricates his feeding after eating. 
Then afterwards she chew with his teeth whom are situated in the inside of the mouth. He is incessantly in the meadows in the grass. His only attacking and defending organ is the horns, specially so when he is got child. This is done by bowing his head whereby he causes the weapons to be paralleled to the ground of the earth and instantly proceed with great velocity forwards. 
He has got tails also, situated in the backyard, but not like similar animals. It has hairs on the other end of the other side. This is done to frighten away the flies which alight on his cohesive body hereupon he gives hit with it. 
The palms of his feet are soft unto the touch. So the grasses head is not crushed. At night time have poses by looking down on the ground and he shouts . His eyes and nose are like his other relatives. This is the cow.

 

But apart from the night-time “poses”, the meaning is quite clear even if the language is a little eccentric. And this candidate has clearly actually seen and felt and been chased by a cow.

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