Thursday, February 07, 2008
SCOTS SCIENTISTS LEAD THE WORLD - 2 LETTERS
Letters published today in both the Record & the Scotsman. I sent the Scotsman one on Tuesday & the other went on Weds. Both quite extensively edited [ ]
Record's:
"[The Record Reports (Scots inventors hailed as world leaders 4th feb) that per capita scientists living in Scotland now get cited more often than[[replaced by "So Scots scientists are making more scientific breakthroughs than those in] any other country [in the world except] Switzerland.
[Although Switzerland technically pops us into 2nd place in the world, so many Scots scientists are "brain drained" to England & the US where our emigrants have the advantage of a common language,][replced by "And so many Scots scientists now live outside the country"] that it is almost certain that if emigrants had been included, Scots scientists would be, [per capita,] in first place in the world.
I can literally think of no greater reason for national pride than this. Scotland winning the World Cup would be a minor thing by comparison."
[Shame on our political leaders that we lag ever further behind Ireland's Celtic Tiger economy even though we have this enormous advantage over them.] "
They shortened it by taking out the qualifiers & simplified it by taking out the economic point. But that is ok, they understand their market.
The Scotsman shortened it too & edited out my favourite line about reason for national pride:
[I saw] your report today that per capita scientists living in Scotland get cited more often than any other country in the world except Switzerland. [This is heightened by the fact that we have long been known for our brain drain to English & US centres of excellence. This, we may reasonably assume, happens less in Switzerland, partly because they are richer than us but mainly because such centres are overwhelmingly in English speaking places. While it would be less feasible to do a survey of scientists by claimed nationality (the Americans think Bell was one of theirs) it seems likely if it were done that we would top even the Swiss
I can literally think of no greater reason for national pride than this.}
So is it not disgraceful that economically we are languishing behind even Ireland? [We know how to achieve Irish style growth — the way they did it but with more science & technology. We have had many promises from Mr Salmond to achieve a 'Celtic Lion" economy beating Ireland's Celtic Tiger, but, after nearly a year, little action. It now seems to even need the Tories to push them on their one small albeit real reform - cutting the small business rates that stifle innovation.]
In the same edition you have your list of the 50 most important people in Scotland. Not 1 scientist so far. [Our science may be the world's best but our rulers seem mired in political correctness, parochialism & Ludditry].
It is not clear if this report was commissioned by the Scottish government or if they merely publicised it. If the former it may be somewhat biased but number of citations in papers is a solid, respected & verifiable way to calculate such things.
Record's:
"[The Record Reports (Scots inventors hailed as world leaders 4th feb) that per capita scientists living in Scotland now get cited more often than[[replaced by "So Scots scientists are making more scientific breakthroughs than those in] any other country [in the world except] Switzerland.
[Although Switzerland technically pops us into 2nd place in the world, so many Scots scientists are "brain drained" to England & the US where our emigrants have the advantage of a common language,][replced by "And so many Scots scientists now live outside the country"] that it is almost certain that if emigrants had been included, Scots scientists would be, [per capita,] in first place in the world.
I can literally think of no greater reason for national pride than this. Scotland winning the World Cup would be a minor thing by comparison."
[Shame on our political leaders that we lag ever further behind Ireland's Celtic Tiger economy even though we have this enormous advantage over them.] "
They shortened it by taking out the qualifiers & simplified it by taking out the economic point. But that is ok, they understand their market.
The Scotsman shortened it too & edited out my favourite line about reason for national pride:
[I saw] your report today that per capita scientists living in Scotland get cited more often than any other country in the world except Switzerland. [This is heightened by the fact that we have long been known for our brain drain to English & US centres of excellence. This, we may reasonably assume, happens less in Switzerland, partly because they are richer than us but mainly because such centres are overwhelmingly in English speaking places. While it would be less feasible to do a survey of scientists by claimed nationality (the Americans think Bell was one of theirs) it seems likely if it were done that we would top even the Swiss
I can literally think of no greater reason for national pride than this.}
So is it not disgraceful that economically we are languishing behind even Ireland? [We know how to achieve Irish style growth — the way they did it but with more science & technology. We have had many promises from Mr Salmond to achieve a 'Celtic Lion" economy beating Ireland's Celtic Tiger, but, after nearly a year, little action. It now seems to even need the Tories to push them on their one small albeit real reform - cutting the small business rates that stifle innovation.]
In the same edition you have your list of the 50 most important people in Scotland. Not 1 scientist so far. [Our science may be the world's best but our rulers seem mired in political correctness, parochialism & Ludditry].
It is not clear if this report was commissioned by the Scottish government or if they merely publicised it. If the former it may be somewhat biased but number of citations in papers is a solid, respected & verifiable way to calculate such things.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
WHY HAVE THEY STARTED CALLING IT "CLIMATE CHANGE" INSTEAD OF "GLOBAL WARMING" THEN?
China today"Global warming can mean colder, it can mean drier, it can mean wetter, that's what we're dealing with."
--Steven Guilbeault, Greenpeace 2005
Indeed. Words to be carved in stone, or even in ice.
Presumably "climate change" can mean anything the media want whereas "global warming" would lead the uninitiated to think some warming was involved.
Monday, February 04, 2008
SCOTS WORLD'S 2ND TOP, AFTER SWITZERLAND, IN PRODUCING GOOD SCIENCE
This was reported in the Scotsman & I think is something to be proud of.
"Now a new study has concluded that the current crop of Scottish scientists are among the most influential in the world, bettered only by the Swiss.
The survey has found that, in recent papers, Scottish scientists are cited more often than big-hitting scientific nations – the US, Germany and China – relative to their numbers.
Scientists in Scotland are world-leaders in highly specialised areas of research, with the impact of their work coming top for health-related sciences, second in clinical sciences and third in biological sciences.
Among the most mentioned research was breakthroughs in the treatment of neurodevelopment disorder Rett's syndrome by Edinburgh and Glasgow universities, and the development of fuel cells by chemists at St Andrews University.
The report measures the average number of citations per paper over ten years. It looked at the performance of Scottish scientific research against 26 other nations from 1995 to 2005.
It measured factors including the amount of money spent on research, the number of researchers employed, and the number of citations of research papers."
Now obviopusly it is per capita & it refers to scientists currently living in Scotland which is not the same as being of Scots extraction. However on the 2nd point I think it very likely that, because we speak English, it is much easier for our students to go to England or the US, where they do appear to exercise a disproportionate influence, than it will be for a Swiss national. Thus if the survey were done on national origin (a more expensive & dubious process, as membership of national sports teams testifies) I strongly suspect we would outperform even the Swiss.
I can think of nothing which is a better cause for national pride than scientific achievement.
Which makes the relative failure of the Scottish economy all the more disgraceful for the numpties who run the place.
"Now a new study has concluded that the current crop of Scottish scientists are among the most influential in the world, bettered only by the Swiss.
The survey has found that, in recent papers, Scottish scientists are cited more often than big-hitting scientific nations – the US, Germany and China – relative to their numbers.
Scientists in Scotland are world-leaders in highly specialised areas of research, with the impact of their work coming top for health-related sciences, second in clinical sciences and third in biological sciences.
Among the most mentioned research was breakthroughs in the treatment of neurodevelopment disorder Rett's syndrome by Edinburgh and Glasgow universities, and the development of fuel cells by chemists at St Andrews University.
The report measures the average number of citations per paper over ten years. It looked at the performance of Scottish scientific research against 26 other nations from 1995 to 2005.
It measured factors including the amount of money spent on research, the number of researchers employed, and the number of citations of research papers."
Now obviopusly it is per capita & it refers to scientists currently living in Scotland which is not the same as being of Scots extraction. However on the 2nd point I think it very likely that, because we speak English, it is much easier for our students to go to England or the US, where they do appear to exercise a disproportionate influence, than it will be for a Swiss national. Thus if the survey were done on national origin (a more expensive & dubious process, as membership of national sports teams testifies) I strongly suspect we would outperform even the Swiss.
I can think of nothing which is a better cause for national pride than scientific achievement.
Which makes the relative failure of the Scottish economy all the more disgraceful for the numpties who run the place.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
WAR CRIMES - I ACCUSE
I have sent this letter to the Attorney General Baroness Scotland(correspondenceunit@attorneygeneral.gsi.gov.uk) & also to Scotland's Lord Advocate Rt Hon Elish Angiolini QC. The facts are as I have writen & the UK sponsorship of the Nuremberg Trials is undisputable. I will be very interested in their responses & its legal basis & will publish them.
############################
To the Attorney General
Dear Baroness Scotland QC.
I wish to report a crime. Tony Blair, George Robertson & others are guilty of murder & child rape on a scale that makes Fred West look decent.
At the outbreak of the bombing of Yugoslavia I wrote to your office to point out that under the decisions of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial which Britain accepted & indeed sponsored, planning and launching an aggressive war was a war crime. The attack on Yugoslavia was such a crime, far more blatantly so than the later one on Iraq, since, at no time had Yugoslavia attacked, or even threatened any NATO or other state. Indeed your predecesor refused even to say whether he had even been asked about the legality of that war. Since the end of that war the House of Commons Foreign Affairs committee has stated that the war was illegal. Consequently all the 2,500 deaths by NATO bombing, were illegal premeditated killings, legally murder. The responsible persons therefore provably guilty of murder certainly include, but are not limited to, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair & Defence Minister George Robertson.
Since a formal accusation has been made it is your legal duty to determine if sufficient evidence exists to show whether Mr Blair & Mr Robertson were, or were not PM & Defence Minister respectively at the time of this aggressive war, whether people were deliberately killed in it under their authority & if so to bring them to trial. If this were not done in this most serious murder case then British law would be proven wholly corrupt, which I hope will not be the case.
I further accuse them of the crimes of genocide, child enslavement & rape, all of which are, under the Nuremberg decisions, crimes against humanity. On taking control of Kosovo the accused persons, having undertaken under the occupation agreement to maintain peace & disarm the KLA, an organisation an organisation the Foreign Secrwetary told Parliament to months before going to war to help them, were guilty of genocide.. Instead they were given protection & free reign by NATO, often having been provided with NATO police uniforms, to engage in numerous acts of genocide murdering many thousands of civilians & "ethnically cleansing" 350,000 Serbs, Roma & Jews.
As an example there is the Dragodan massacre when on, or subsequent to, 17th June 1999 (when one of the identified dead, Momcilo Ristanovic, was last seen alive) they murdered a minimum of 210 unarmed civilians under direct British government authority. This was in the Pristina suburb of DRAGODAN in the UK occupation zone. No attempt to stop it or subsequent attempt to arrest the murderers was ever made. Nor even to identify the bodies' DNA. Instead they were deliberately reburied by our government which means that the British authorities including Messrs Blair & Robertson were, at the very least, accessories in murder & genocide
Regarding their involvement in child sex slavery I draw your attention to the statement by Corporal Mark Moss of the Royal Greenjackets who, in 1999 confirmed the effect of the kidnappings of 15 schoolgirls each fortnight, under the new regime "You will not see a single girl alone on the streets, they only go out in packs. Relatives take them to school'."The Amnesty International report, 4 years later "So Does It Mean That We Have The Rights? Protecting The Human Rights of Women And Girls Trafficked for Forced Prostitution in Kosovo" confirms that this is still going on, proving deliberate long term UK government co-operation & that children as young as 11 have been kidnapped & used as sex slaves under Blair & Robertson's direct command authority. This has been going on for years, despite the government having signed an international undertaking to maintain the rule of law in Kosovo & indeed despite our most solemn guarantees under the Helsinki Treaty (Section 1 Clause 1) to "take no action against the territorial integrity or unity" of Yugoslavia. Now Former Yugoslavia. This continuity proves complicity by those in command authority. The decisions regarding the occupation were made under British government authority & mostly on UK soil. This means that, under UK law, both Mr Blair & Mr Robertson are, prima faci, guilty not only of childcrape as a crime against humanity but as a criminal activity under British law.
I have recently been in contact with the FCO who, under an FOI enguiry provided some information giving confirmation of some of this. The rest is in the public record but I would be happy to assist you in any way possible since I believe murder & child rape should not be permitted even when the perpetrator is powerful.
Sincerely
Neil Craig
9% Growth Party
############################
To the Attorney General
Dear Baroness Scotland QC.
I wish to report a crime. Tony Blair, George Robertson & others are guilty of murder & child rape on a scale that makes Fred West look decent.
At the outbreak of the bombing of Yugoslavia I wrote to your office to point out that under the decisions of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial which Britain accepted & indeed sponsored, planning and launching an aggressive war was a war crime. The attack on Yugoslavia was such a crime, far more blatantly so than the later one on Iraq, since, at no time had Yugoslavia attacked, or even threatened any NATO or other state. Indeed your predecesor refused even to say whether he had even been asked about the legality of that war. Since the end of that war the House of Commons Foreign Affairs committee has stated that the war was illegal. Consequently all the 2,500 deaths by NATO bombing, were illegal premeditated killings, legally murder. The responsible persons therefore provably guilty of murder certainly include, but are not limited to, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair & Defence Minister George Robertson.
Since a formal accusation has been made it is your legal duty to determine if sufficient evidence exists to show whether Mr Blair & Mr Robertson were, or were not PM & Defence Minister respectively at the time of this aggressive war, whether people were deliberately killed in it under their authority & if so to bring them to trial. If this were not done in this most serious murder case then British law would be proven wholly corrupt, which I hope will not be the case.
I further accuse them of the crimes of genocide, child enslavement & rape, all of which are, under the Nuremberg decisions, crimes against humanity. On taking control of Kosovo the accused persons, having undertaken under the occupation agreement to maintain peace & disarm the KLA, an organisation an organisation the Foreign Secrwetary told Parliament to months before going to war to help them, were guilty of genocide.. Instead they were given protection & free reign by NATO, often having been provided with NATO police uniforms, to engage in numerous acts of genocide murdering many thousands of civilians & "ethnically cleansing" 350,000 Serbs, Roma & Jews.
As an example there is the Dragodan massacre when on, or subsequent to, 17th June 1999 (when one of the identified dead, Momcilo Ristanovic, was last seen alive) they murdered a minimum of 210 unarmed civilians under direct British government authority. This was in the Pristina suburb of DRAGODAN in the UK occupation zone. No attempt to stop it or subsequent attempt to arrest the murderers was ever made. Nor even to identify the bodies' DNA. Instead they were deliberately reburied by our government which means that the British authorities including Messrs Blair & Robertson were, at the very least, accessories in murder & genocide
Regarding their involvement in child sex slavery I draw your attention to the statement by Corporal Mark Moss of the Royal Greenjackets who, in 1999 confirmed the effect of the kidnappings of 15 schoolgirls each fortnight, under the new regime "You will not see a single girl alone on the streets, they only go out in packs. Relatives take them to school'."The Amnesty International report, 4 years later "So Does It Mean That We Have The Rights? Protecting The Human Rights of Women And Girls Trafficked for Forced Prostitution in Kosovo" confirms that this is still going on, proving deliberate long term UK government co-operation & that children as young as 11 have been kidnapped & used as sex slaves under Blair & Robertson's direct command authority. This has been going on for years, despite the government having signed an international undertaking to maintain the rule of law in Kosovo & indeed despite our most solemn guarantees under the Helsinki Treaty (Section 1 Clause 1) to "take no action against the territorial integrity or unity" of Yugoslavia. Now Former Yugoslavia. This continuity proves complicity by those in command authority. The decisions regarding the occupation were made under British government authority & mostly on UK soil. This means that, under UK law, both Mr Blair & Mr Robertson are, prima faci, guilty not only of childcrape as a crime against humanity but as a criminal activity under British law.
I have recently been in contact with the FCO who, under an FOI enguiry provided some information giving confirmation of some of this. The rest is in the public record but I would be happy to assist you in any way possible since I believe murder & child rape should not be permitted even when the perpetrator is powerful.
Sincerely
Neil Craig
9% Growth Party
Friday, February 01, 2008
"EIGG-TRICITY" as the media insist it is known locally
The papers & BBC are pushing a story about how a "wind, solar & hydro" renewable system is bringing electricity to the people of the Scots Island of Eigg (pronounced egg). This will all be entirely nice renewable power not the nasty intermmittent stuff they used to get from a diesel generator. What a crock of PR shit. The Scotsman here says
Now despiter the fact that it is being refered to by the BBC as "wind, solar & hydro" in that order in fact it is very much a hydro scheme with some token windmills & solar.
And the first punch line:
And how much will it cost. Well fortunately, if the Scotsman is to be believed
"The only public money used was a £17,000 grant from Highlands and Islands Enterprise"
But it isn't because the 2nd punch line is the £1.6 million it costs came from:
"Financial support came from the European Regional Development Fund, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, HIE Lochaber, Highlands and Islands Community Energy Company, the Big Lottery Fund, Scottish Community Household Renewables Initiative, the Energy Savings Trust, Highland Council and the Isle of Eigg Community Trust."
which ALL, with the possible exception of a small fraction of the Eigg trust, are ultimately government money.
Looking at this: £1.6 milliion would, in the commercial world, require a pay back of about 10% annually. ie £160,000. Divided among 83 people this comes to £2,000 per person, plus running costs.
The 3rd punch line is that they could obviously have just put in the 2 new 80kw generators for a small fraction of the price, or better yet put in a cable to the mainland. This would have been far less expensive but:
"We've been talking about it for years but no energy company was going to pay to put miles of cable under the sea" Which means that they went for this ridiculously expensive system because there were no grants for a sensible system.
3rd punch line: Instead of, perhaps £100,000 to cable it to the mainland or put in new diesels the political establishment have insisted on spending £1.6 million (we are told that officially the islander put up £100,000 of it but I am willing to bet that if that gets traced back it comes, through the Trust, from us too) of our money to advertise to us what a wonderful thing windmillery is.
4th punch line:
This is a prime example of how thoroughly domesticated our media is, absolutely willing to distort any "news" the establishment want even when it is quite obvious what is going on. The Wizard of Oz once said "Ignore the man behind the curtain". Unfortunately virtually none of our journalists have 1/10th the guts or integrity of Dorothy, which I think is a very bad thing for our society.
With no electricity connection to the mainland, the 83 islanders on Eigg have been reliant on noisy, costly and environmentally unfriendly diesel generators for their power.
But from today they will switch on to a new era, with supplies to all households coming from renewable sources.
Now despiter the fact that it is being refered to by the BBC as "wind, solar & hydro" in that order in fact it is very much a hydro scheme with some token windmills & solar.
Eigg Electric commissioned Synergie Scotland to manage the project, which involves a 100kw hydro scheme at Laig and two smaller 6kw schemes at Kildonan and the pier; a 24kw wind farm at Grulin and a 10kw solar scheme at Glebe. The design and building contract was awarded to Scottish Hydro Contracting.I have never heard of Synergie Scotland but it sounds very much like a group of Green lobbyists riding the gravy train while Scottish Hydro do the heavy lifting. I doubt if Eigg Electric is a multinational either. Note that the production disparity is even greater than shown because wind & solar are virtually guaranteed not to be producing that much when needed. Despite hydro being an official renewable the eco-fascists hate it - probably because it actually works.
And the first punch line:
A battery storage system will compensate for short periods when energy from renewable sources is not available. Two 80kw diesel generators have been installed to provide emergency back-up and to supplement supply when necessarySo the diesel generators will be able to provide more electricity than all the "renewable" nonsense put together. It isn't really a renewable system at all, that is just PR fluff.
And how much will it cost. Well fortunately, if the Scotsman is to be believed
"The only public money used was a £17,000 grant from Highlands and Islands Enterprise"
But it isn't because the 2nd punch line is the £1.6 million it costs came from:
"Financial support came from the European Regional Development Fund, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, HIE Lochaber, Highlands and Islands Community Energy Company, the Big Lottery Fund, Scottish Community Household Renewables Initiative, the Energy Savings Trust, Highland Council and the Isle of Eigg Community Trust."
which ALL, with the possible exception of a small fraction of the Eigg trust, are ultimately government money.
Looking at this: £1.6 milliion would, in the commercial world, require a pay back of about 10% annually. ie £160,000. Divided among 83 people this comes to £2,000 per person, plus running costs.
The 3rd punch line is that they could obviously have just put in the 2 new 80kw generators for a small fraction of the price, or better yet put in a cable to the mainland. This would have been far less expensive but:
"We've been talking about it for years but no energy company was going to pay to put miles of cable under the sea" Which means that they went for this ridiculously expensive system because there were no grants for a sensible system.
3rd punch line: Instead of, perhaps £100,000 to cable it to the mainland or put in new diesels the political establishment have insisted on spending £1.6 million (we are told that officially the islander put up £100,000 of it but I am willing to bet that if that gets traced back it comes, through the Trust, from us too) of our money to advertise to us what a wonderful thing windmillery is.
4th punch line:
This is a prime example of how thoroughly domesticated our media is, absolutely willing to distort any "news" the establishment want even when it is quite obvious what is going on. The Wizard of Oz once said "Ignore the man behind the curtain". Unfortunately virtually none of our journalists have 1/10th the guts or integrity of Dorothy, which I think is a very bad thing for our society.
