Nuclear Fusion

For over 50 years researchers have been struggling to make the dream of relatively clean, nuclear fusion energy generation a reality. It has been a long and uphill struggle and at times the chances of succeeding seemed low: there were just too many technical problems to overcome. At long last there are some hopeful signs that the technological breakthroughs are almost there. Even if sustained nuclear fusion is achieved soon in research environments, it will be many years before this translates into commercial scale nuclear fusion plants. Nonetheless I am very hopeful that within my lifetime we may see the first nuclear fusion test reactors built and commercial reactors in place within 30-40 years. The changes to the world's energy situation as a result of this will be immense: raw materials needed are plentiful and inexpensive, radioactive waste will be negligible and immense amounts of low cost energy should be possible.  Let us hope that we all invest in the research and commercialisation of nuclear fusion rather than waste resources on trying to extract the last fossil fuels from the ground.

The future of Europe and the west - downhill?

There was an excellent article in The Times today by Matthew Parris entitled, "Face it. There is no answer to the eurocrisis". I'd like to link to it but don't subscribe to the Times app yet.  In summary, his thesis is that we have now past the best times in the west and our only route is downhill. We are kidding ourselves about our current fate by evasion.

We are kidding ourselves that the problems were created by the bankers whereas it is fundamentally down to our excesses in the last 50 years or more.  We elected our politicians. We allowed a system that rewarded bankers huge bonuses and allowed them to gamble our money for their gain. We could have seen the writing on the wall, but we chose to ignore it. We were all aware we were living beyond our means on money that didn't exist, but we all believed the myth that growth was making the world better for everyone. Now our chickens have come home to roost and we'd better come to terms with the new age we now face.

My own view is this new age is also an opportunity: one in which sustainable living within our means and personal happiness will be more important than growth and the culture of excessive consumption.  Just maybe we'll get our values more in focus and see the last 100 years as an aberration. It is up to us.

Halloween and early Christmas hype

Since 2001 spending in the UK on Halloween has risen from a few million pounds a year to around £350M. Now I've no problem with children dressing up and making a few Halloween masks or candles from pumpkins, but I find the commercialisation of this activity nothing short of a scandal. In the same vein, the Christmas hype starts in some shops as early as late September, which is ridiculous. Why does our capitalist, money centred, world draw so many of us in to this? Why can't Halloween be the simple, low key, fun it once was and why can't Christmas be, well, at Christmas?

Those Indian calls trying to fix my viruses

Even though I have telephone preference registration to minimise unwanted phone calls, I regularly get calls around  lunchtime from an Indian call centre perporting to be from a company wanting to fix a virus on my PC which they've detected. Do they really think I am that stupid? What worries me are all the people who may believe this rubbish and disclose all sorts of data by allowing these rats to steal PC data.

Not sure what is the best tactic to use when taking the call - ignore it, play along for 5 minutes to waste their time, be very rude, threaten them by saying I am from the internet fraud police, or what.

What is sad is the person in the call centre is probably just trying to earn a living, whereas the people behind it have nothing but malicious intent. Is there anything one can do to reduce this menace?

Fixing the Euro?

So the politicians in Brussels have come up with a package to fix the Euro debt problem. Why does my mind think of Neville Chamberlain coming down the plane steps having arrived back from his meeting with Hitler in Munich in 1938? Probably because I think this bit of paper and his have about as much chance of working.

I hope the plan works, but think it totally wrong that the good honest workers of Europe have to bail out profligate and irresponsible governments and banks. The voice of the common man will not accept this much longer. Many, but not all, citizens of Greece have made tax avoidance a way of life. In Italy corruption is still endemic. If countries cannot run their affairs properly when members of the European club then they MUST take the consequences of their (in)action. If the Greeks are allowed a haircut on their debts why not Ireland?

Military expenditure

Today I heard that the UK government  has agreed to upgrade Warrior military vehicles at a cost of £1 billion. Will these really help quell riots on our streets or make the world a safer place?

Like the decision to upgrade the Trident submarines at costs up to £100 billion over a lifetime, I cannot understand what possesses our politicians. In an age when budgets are tight there are surely better ways to safeguard national security that to throw away money on rubbishy things like this.

Do we NEVER learn that wars rarely achieve anything other than stirring up hatred and bad feeling for years to come? Although not a Quaker myself, I am a firm supporter of the Quaker way of peace and reconciliation.

Simple pleasures

Feeding the ducks near Ely Cathedral

Nearly 4 years ago we had our first little grandson. Since then we have been blessed with another grandson and a little granddaughter.  It is hard to explain just how powerful a bond there is between grandparents and grandchildren: in some ways it is even stronger than the bond to our own children. Today we enjoyed the simple pleasures of walking around Ely with its cathedral with our eldest grandson, feeding the ducks and walking in the woods and playing hide-and-seek between the trees. We know that all too soon he and the other grandchildren will grow older and away from us. For now we are enjoying every single moment.