Hummer - Is it a Car or a Van

Recently while searching for van hire we at Derr eThings were appaled to see the appearance of Hummers here in the UK.  It would appear that some petrolheaded entrepeneur has had the bright idea of offering these monster-osities to geezers - focussing initially of the van hire london market.

Here's the thoughts of one of our freinds from across the pond:

Hummer is incredibly trashy-looking and ridiculously ugly car. Forget about the whole global warming, impact of climate change thing, that hulky steel box is UGLY and beyond tasteless. No, people make fun of it not because it gets bad mileage, people make fun of it because it makes you look like a uneducated rednecky hick that can't spell A to Z.

I still possess several windshield stickers which I enjoy affixing to the drivers-side window of extra-obnoxious vehicles that park along side me in parking lots. Of course, they say:
S Stupid
U Useless
V Van

No Buts its got to be butter

Margarine has fats in it that aren't found in nature. Refined polyunsaturated veg oil is an industrial novelty (whose introduction coincides with the rise of heart disease, and is implicated in most mental conditions).

Nutritionist have been peddling ideas based on dubious research - statistics produces pseudo-science - that are 180 degrees in contradiction to our hunter gather evolutionary heritage of 3 million years. There were no plump, sweet fruits 30,000 years ago: anthropologists even think there is no original, unmanipulated fruit left on the planet. Think crab apples and damsons for something closer to the truth (small and sour).

Just consider that most veg is inedible uncooked and much of it mildly toxic.

And since the unproven saturated-fat-heart disease theory has now been effectively shown to be only true of marge it's time to pick up a big piece of meat on the bone and eat real food again.

Here's raising my glass to butter! (Avoid 'Willow', it's mostly marge).

A Dozen Cities

The Sunday Times produced their top hot dozen cities -
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/holiday_type/breaks/article7056736.ece.
Sit back and enjoy the comments made by Times readers:

My personal fave is, like me, short and sweet:

Bath? BATH!!- is someone having a laugh?

Bath

A nonsense that you feature traffic-clogged Bath and not sublime, atmospheric and wonderful Venice.

Bath???? Are you hallucinating?

Havana

Bath and Havana? I think not.

London

London is always the winner - sunny Turnpike Lane and Wood Green, ahh the memories. Dog do, kfc wrappers and barf up to your ankles, grumpy rude folk everywhere, a fiver a pint, 60 quid for the footie. Gives me a headache every time.

As for London, the pictures I've seen of ladies on a night out doesn't make for very "hot" even if they are wearing stilletos and short dresses!

London is glamourous at a price. It is overpriced and unwelcoming unless you have pots of money and no expectations. It is burdened with traffic, litter and pollution. Yes there are attractions but as a whole, the city is not a winner in this category. With airports situated far away from the City you can spend as much time getting into the centre as you did on your flights to London.

New York

Berlin

Berlin? I was there last week for the first time and found it as much fun as a cold bath.

Paris

Paris? You have to be kidding. Paris is a late middle-aged woman with only self-denial hiding the saggy flesh and wrinkles. Romantic? Technically being possible, but only with the light out and after considerable intake of alcohol - dont delay search for your flights to Paris today.

Stockholm

Stockholm? STOCKHOLM? Over, say, Moscow, Shanghai, Tokyo, Rio, Sydney? Who is paying these writers?

Even Helsinki is better than Stockholm, not to mention Copenhagen.

Other cities on the list:

Istanbul
St Petersburg
Rome
Seville
Tangier

Replace Dirty Electricity with Clean Renewable Energy

Shine On - PV Panels For Clean Energy

Great news for those thinking about installing wind turbines or the lasets PV panels - photovoltaic panels that generate clean electricity from the sun - attractive to investors in the South West where there is expected to be a surge in interest for PV panels in Devon to cash in on the opportunity to earn from using the clean electricity you generate from you own home PV panels or wind turbine. The feed-in-tariif Devon is set to be embraced by homeowners and communitites alike - keen to be green and benefit from the financial incentive of the governments scheme - the campaign to promote renewable energy in Devon looks set to be one of the most successful in the UK - the future looks bright in the South.

Northerns Remain Dirty

There is a sense of dismay from our friends in the North who suspect that they will continue to pay throught he nose for dirty energy generated from coal and oil power stations. Objections have been voiced by the good folk of Manchester who acknowledge that its grim up North - grey skies and rain - not the ideal conditions for generating solar electricity with even the latest efficient PV panels.

Offsetting Flights

It is sad and ironic that the same people calling foul were those that protested strongly when the Airport announced it was looking to attract more flights to Manchester, claiming pollution was already beyond acceptable levels now that dirty smokers were out on the street. They feel agrieved that they are denied the opportunity to "offset" the dirty fumes of these additional flights to the UK by installing technology in their homes to produce renewable, clean electricity.

The next few months will be critical - if the uptake of home generation of clean electric is good we can all breathe a sigh of relief that we ar doing our bit to lessen the effects of climate change as we continue to take flights around the world.