Silly(ish) Tuesday
After the last post’s rather serious rantiness, I feel it is my duty to amuse once more. It’s G20 time again, and the protestors are out once more, with just as much to complain about as usual, plus a whole lot more. Firstly, my favourite are the anti-tax haven protestors. Quite rightly they point out that vast amounts of tax are being avoided by the rich, at least £250 Billion a year, in fact. Probably more, if we’re honest. That would be enough to fund… well, just about anything, really. And we are not talking about taking money here, just taxing earned money from interest payments. If you then add in the amount dodged in everyday life (far, far more money than benefit fraud accounts for), and you have a nice, neat solution to the credit crunch. Don’t increase tax, just make sure that people pay the tax they should.
In Australia (and thanks to Richard for this one), an deservedly eminent judge (and I mean that – seemingly an actually great man) has got caught for being a bad boy. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7967982.stm. What should have been a £36 traffic fine has ruined his life and reputation as he tried to lie his way out of it. And then to cover the lie, he lied a bit more. Then dug and dug and dug and dug… We all lie. Most of us lie a lot, here and there, sometimes just for the fun and thrill of it. Even the most preaching moralists amongst us are careful to phrase things to their own benefit, or fail to tell the whole truth with fair regularity. Which is way the amusement this story generates has a bitter aftertaste. Truth be told, the whole truth is rarely told, and if it were, our lives would be revealed for the vulgar public fictions and comforting self-deceptions they always are.
Thousands of lives could be saved by a ‘magic bullet’ pill. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/the-polypill-medicines-magic-bullet-1658027.html This little cocktail of drugs could save thousands of lives a year, halving strokes and heart attack rates. And it’ll be cheap – very cheap. And that’s the problem. All 5 of the components of the ‘polypill’ (a betablocker to regulate the heart, a couple of blood pressure drugs, an ACE inhibitor to relax arterial muscles, and good old aspirin to stop clots forming) are long past patent expiration; therefore, these polypills aren’t profitable for the drug companies to manufacture. Money is the only reason these companies do anything – we have arranged it this way. Do not think for one minute that they care about peoples health. A lesson here, perhaps? Cue a huge campaign to have it produced and administered, then some sort of hideous panic when cancer rates go up, and people panic and stop taking it regardless of evidence. The next thing revealed to give you cancer? Chemotherapy, probably.
I think I might publish a study that proves that dream catchers give you cancer.
Talking about taking on the big boys, which I wasn’t check this out: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/spotify-declares-war-on-itunes-1658029.html. Spotify is something that was recommended to me recently by a friend, and… yep, as usual, I’ve played with it until I knew how to iuse it, then promptly forgot about it until today. I am well aware, however, that it is very good idea. Check it out, and screw iTunes – screw them and their proprietorial attitude towards the information and equipment you own. Don’t tell me they’re any better than Microsoft – they’re just better at convincing you that they are cool. And relax.
And finally:http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/30/cow_fart_armageddon_thwarted_by_fish_oil/. Nice. I’ll have the guilt-free steak, please. To go with my carbon-offset magic tree petrol, my green car insurance and my carbon-compensated holiday. You know, if I try hard enough to ignore the fact that every single thing I do helps to bring on the inevitable ecological apocalypse regardless of my efforts, I might not feel very guilty at all.
Next time – look forward to why we are all doomed again, and why you don’t ‘deserve’ anything.