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Skipping over issues like car production being surprisingly small given the population (and that illegal drugs are an even better business to be in than computers), there's one stand-out thing in the environment section: This is that carbon dioxide output (show to ten digits) is racing upward, yet temperature increase has to be extended to eleven digits just to produce an obvious upward movement. That increase is so small that it is a wonder it can be measured at all. Could it now be static or even falling, and isn't this well within the range of normal solar output fluctuations? Are the ice caps of Mars still melting? I suspect maybe not, and if they are are how do those have anything to do with man-made CO2 emissions? I don't think you are going to get cogent answers to any of those questions from our climate "scientists". But here's an even more interesting one they won't answer: Dumb kitchen table "experiments" aside - where is the scientific proof that there is any kind of correlation between atmospheric CO2 levels and mean temperature? Actually there is some correlation, but they wouldn't want you to look too closely at it because all studies show that it is delayed something between 200 and 1900 years! The mechanism is obviously a lot more complex than the simplistic explanations offered, and the timescale of same won't make for imminent doom and disaster scenarios, and so put money in their pockets!

Go back to the 1950's, even 1960's, and the Front Street was a hive of activity. Not so many cars as there are now, but those cars didn't drive right on through. There were factory units in the old Council Yard that provided real jobs making stuff that people wanted to buy, and at lunch time those people, together with many other retail and service workers, came out onto the street and patronised the shops. There was real economic activity on the South side too. It certainly wasn't only the pits that drove the economy. What happened to those factory units - well they got "zoned" by the planners. Moved to the middle of beyond where they steadily died. Instead of walking or biking to work you needed a car, but cheap petrol would go on forever (only relatively lightly double-taxed), and you could park for free more or less where you liked. Instead of just nipping across to Bill Scott's engineering works to get a part drilled or welded and your machine back in service in no time, you got on the phone to the smoke, and then waited days for delivery. This was the era when bigger (we were told) was better. Dozens of "inefficient" small motor manufacturers and parts suppliers were cajoled and bullied by government into large "efficient" groups like the British Motor Corporation. New Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson (not a stranger to Bedlington Front Street) told us all about how our future would be forged in "the white heat of the technological revolution". But the politicians and the planners got it all very wrong. They "zoned" countless millions into white elephants like Cramlington and Killingworth "new towns" when all they had to do was provide a little help here and there to established towns of the region, and allow those towns to develop naturally. As a result they destroyed thousands of small-town economies that worked, all in pursuit of a mirage. The real tragedy is that there are people who still seem to believe that central planning, and even local "grand schemes" can deliver any lasting benefit at all. If you visit the current centres of real activity and innovation in the world you'll be struck by how intertwined it all is. There's been little or no central planing, very little zoning; if there's a need for this or that people just get on and do it. I'm not advocating complete planning anarchy, but maybe something like micro-zoning where light industry is permitted (actually encouraged) just off the front street. Any functioning town needs an economic heart. It used to be the colliery, of course; but the Bedlington blunder was removing other light industry, right at a time when we should have been going all out to encourage it. I'm not talking offices or airy-fairy "innovation centers" here, but places where people get their hands dirty. Ideally we should have some light industry within a couple of minutes walk of the Market Place, but is there anywhere now left that hasn't had "for profit" houses built on it? And, we've now created a major NIMBY problem too! We also need just a portion of that big government (national and regional) squander in the hands of our own local people, and a free hand to dispense it in any direction where it will aid sustainable employment. Sure there will be local squabbling and some mistakes; but they will be our squabbles and our mistakes, and local people will see them and directly correct them. Local authorities without money to spend are a sham, and we shouldn't accept the power structure which has been foisted off on us without any sort of mandate. The past has taught us that small and local is good, and that governments - national and even regional - have (at best) a huge propensity for waste, and (at worst) are totally counterproductive. We need real change - a restoration of local democracy with its own spending power - and not the illusory change which has been imposed on us!

Almost right: two idiots driving down the Union Canal in Scotland. They only got away with it because there's so much muck in it there. They were charged with reckless conduct, but should have been committed!

So how is an anti-vi going to protect you from a flawed piece of software like MSIE running compromised ActiveX controls? This has nothing to do with "bugs". Leaving dangling pointers around is amateur coding in the extreme, and yet this multi-billion dollar organisation keeps on doing it. Maybe that's because of the uncritical customer base who doesn't know any better. The big difference between MS code and everyone else's is that it's closed source and so can't be inspected for obvious flaws. To someone who doesn't write software that's probably only an academic issue. But constant peer review is how good software is written, and little that comes out of Seattle has ever been good software.

Details in today's post here. http://www.bedlington.co.uk/community/topic/1733-serious-security-flaw-found-in-microsoft-internet-explorer/page__gopid__29211entry29211

Once again! This time it's being exploited by the Chinese Govt. to hack into dissident's machines, and is behind the recent Google threats to withdraw from China. http://www.microsoft...ory/979352.mspx If you must continue to use this flawed product then at least make sure: the code execution protection is turned on the Windows Firewall is enabled you aren't using Vista in Admin mode you steer clear of iffy websites - particularly Chinese ones and you whop up the security level for the "Internet" zone to high. [Tools->Internet Options->Security Tab] The last will stop it running ActiveX stuff - which is often at the heart of these sorts of problems.

It was Newsnight, and I meant all the evidence which you pretend to have looked at. You exhibit exactly the same unreasoning intolerance that you so despise in those chanting Muslims. And it's obvious that to you Megrahi is guilty because of who he is rather than what he might have done. And what a pity your concern for innocent people only extends to WASP people. Two simple questions: Do you think it's fair to say to someone: we will release you if you stop protesting your innocence and withdraw your appeal? Isn't this essentially just the same thing as those mock confessions terrorist groups love to show - any intelligent person knows that it's coercion of the worst kind. Where is the evidence that Megrahi put the bomb on the plane? This was supposed to be a fair and open public trial, so that evidence - however circumstantial - should be in the public domain. Point me to it!

Did you look at any of that? 'Course you didn't! Just let your Nick Griffin fueled blind prejudice about Arabs have full reign. This is why the Country needn't worry about the BNP, and we don't need any of your "help" on the matter Mr Straw!

Other reasons being: The previous anti small business attitude, and the we can count on the dummies in Bedlington to vote for us anyway, so let's centralise in Ashington - Labour led WDC. Plus the locking the stable door after the horse has bolted Conservation Area, that wants to apply the same standards as a wealthy Southern rural area. Together with the 15% unemployment carefully fostered by decades of state dependency, so-called employment protection legislation, and the too common belief that anyone that tries to better themselves is exploiting the community. (The Mandelsons of NuLabour no longer believe this, so why do we elect political dinosaurs who do? They're just laughed at an humoured by their very own party! This reinforces the idea that we are a bunch of political illiterates that can safely be sidelined.) ...all resulting in the sad fact that anyone with any enterprise generally buggers off South (or to countries external). Which takes us back to all the former reasons, and the whole vicious circle feeding on itself.

Yet more evidence that the whole thing is a CIA framing exercises. But even they can't pull the wool too much longer. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8441796.stm This one ain't going to go away until the truth emerges - however long it takes! The best guess is that the bomb was loaded at Heathrow, and - as most reasonable people now believe - Libya had nothing at all to do with it.

Safest place for a mini death-trap: on your fridge! Yes, I used to own one way back and I'm still alive; just! P.S. Thanks for testing the new forum. Would have got around to it though.

Melting tarmac swallows-up car!

http://www.bedlington.co.uk/community/topic/1693-would-the-last-person-to-leave-a-o-l/

I've bought RAM on that auction site a few times and it was fairly good value. But it was micro-DIMMs which are rather difficult to find, and on a couple of those occasions either I don't think the sellers knew quite what they had, or there was much buyer competition. So been lucky. My bad experience with these was buying one from an Irish supplier's website who promises a lifetime guarantee blah blah. When the module kept crashing they put up all sorts of excuses, and I'm still waiting for that replacement. Sixty quid down the drain! If what you need is say a regular 512MB module then you can generally get one that someone has swapped out good for larger for a song, and that's low risk. But if you want 1GB and especially 2GB modules it's far safer - and likely cheaper in the long run - to buy from a reputable supplier (who hopefully isn't Irish!). You can get some reasonable buys on Amazon and it's safer, faster, and generally much less hassle than an auction. But you still need to be careful in what you're buying. More careful than through a single regular reputable seller. Also Amazon take over 11% off the top of small suppliers payouts - which I think is a quite greedy, especially on big ticket items. As a result you seldom get a real bargain there, and a lot of what's on Amazon.co.uk is overpriced. The last used computer I bought on Amazon wasn't quite as described, and there were bits missing.

Much flawed arithmetic here.... You only need spend £15 - and give me the other £10 worth! Simples.... http://film.comparethemeerkat.com/

Baidu (which works closely with the Chinese regime and [so?] has 2/3 of the market there now) mocks and says it's for economic reasons. But, they would say that, wouldn't they? I reckon that the folks inside Google have been unhappy for a long while and that management is now having to listen. I think it's not an idle threat, and that they will go through with it. BTW Baidu used to visit bedlington.co.uk almost hourly, but now they seldom trawl us. Read into that what you like, but my take is that we are now on the Chinese Govt censorship list!

Questions in the House of Commons just now. "No one should be expected to suffer anti-social behaviour" says Gordon Brown when put on the spot. Yes, there's an election coming!

www.play.com with free shipping Was going to use eBuyer but they seem quite pricey for a lot of things now, and their delivery to Bedders isn't what it was. Anyone know any better? BTW some of the very best deals on netbooks/laptops come up on www.laptopsdirect.co.uk They are fairly local at Huddersfield and you can collect from there for free. I've dealt with them fairly recently and it was a good experience. http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/ is the same company.

You know I said to myself: that's so funny Monsta is bound to have seen it and cut+pasted a link. But... I was only half right!

£10 off when you spend £25 or more online. Code is: BARKJAUK http://www.dominos.co.uk/Default.aspx

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/8450385.stm?ls