Major environmental fail.

Roast a panda, skin a leopard, eat some koalas and sleep on a pillow of monarch butterfly wings because they will all go the same way as the uber cool Pangolin.  Pangolin is cute critter, not unlike an armadillo, grows slowly and live in the delicate forest undergrowth doing nothing in particular.  If the world can't look after this really basic species there is no hope for the headline conservation effort for tiger, elephant and panda.

Endangered Pangolin
image credit: Tim Hudson and Kamal Mistry

Major fail recently, the chinese captain of a boat crashed into a Uneso-designated World Heritage coral reef site on Palawan island in the Philippines. If that's not bad enough in the boats hold had thousands of illegally killed pangolins.  Pillaged from the forests of asia to satisfy the corrupt and broken desires of ineffective "traditional" medicine this little cutie will soon be gone forever.  It's cousins on the Chinese mainland have all but gone already and other sub-specisis will soon follow.

Trade in these darlings has been world wide banned for over 10 years and yet still the slaughter continues. Got run up the trading tree and exposing the facilitators of this exploitative trade, the trappers, shippers, movers, sellers. Going to do this by supporting Traffic in their good works.

#RejectDeadAnimalMedicine

A special place in hell for .... James McCormick

** 2016 Update An £8 Million confiscation order was enforced on this fraudster **

I am not a particularly religious person with mild beliefs in that area but if I believe in anything it's the principle of "do as you would be done by." The reinforcers for that principal are not always obvious but what I really hope, and pray for, is that there is a special place in the hell fires of damnation reserved for those that betray the deepest trust of others.  Abusers that recognise the trust and belief of others and deviously manipulate and betray that trust are truly evil.  That hotspot in Hell is going to be a crowded place but there is plenty of room for the groping priests and dictators that take people over and past the edge of ruin. Mugube and Kim Yun-un you have your places booked in the fine company of Hitler, Pol Pot and Bernie Madoff.

Those bad boys are going to have to move over and make room for the new boy who most certainly will, in gods own time, be joining that pantheon of shame.  Introducing James McCormick a criminal fraudster whose actions beggars belief. He used bribery and corruption to sell fake bomb detectors for use by police and soldiers in Iraq.  Put yourself for just one minute in the place of the guard at the checkpoint with a duty of protection who's only tool can at best be described as a 100% placebo.  Trust is burnt, obligation of care and duty to society is literally blown away for the enrichment of some shithead thousands of miles away.  Yes, there will be other facilitators along the way that share the blame and shame for this despicable crime. Passing off a novelty golf ball detector, which did not even work for that minor function, as a serious public protection instrument is a staggering act of betrayal and corruption.

A whistleblower told the BBC Newsnight program that he had confronted McCormick, saying he did not want to be any part of the business if the devices did not work. McCormick is said to have responded: "It does exactly what it's designed to. It makes money." During his fraud trial, the court was told the detectors, which cost up to $40,000 (£27,000) each, were completely ineffectual and lacked any grounding in science.

Fake bomb detector

Bulletproof medallions, value for money payday loans, effective diet pills and a fair price for your gold/car/house today. All available on the internet near you.

The defence, recognise the principles behind how things work, be just a little bit skeptical and really research and understand what is going on.

Follow-up:  The wheels of justice roll slowly and we see that Mr. McCormick is sentenced to 10 Years in jail for fraud. To be fair that should be 10 years in jail in each of the countries the device was sold in.

Veg Patch

Had a good weekend being rather domestic. Mostly putting some structure into the Veg patch. A couple of fruit cages at each end and some bean sticks in the middle.  The poly tunnel has some early beetroots and carrots under.  The far end has purple spouting broccoli. Spuds are in a few grow bags on the patio.

As spring is a few weeks late this year, the trees are just starting to sprout, so there is time to get started on great tasting home grown veg.

What with the wood, netting, screws, nails, bamboo poles, slug pellets and wire, the veg patch will probably cost more than the produce.  That's not the point people, home grown veg are tasty and rewarding in other ways.

Sharp, on-point and timeless news cartoons

Love the toons - sharp and to the point, topical and scathing.

Zapiro in South Africa, in News & Guardian

continues the heritage from Ron Cobb from the 70 & 80s.

Awesome.

Lance Armstrong

This vid just about sums up the whole sorry situation.

A £4 toothbrush - Really ?

Times are tough, so it was interesting to see at the local supermarket that Colgate are actually trying to sell a £4 toothbrush. That's $6.5 in USA money an outrageously unnecessarily high price for a piece of plastic with some bristles. For goodness sake the Nasa astronauts only spend $3 on tooth brushes to repair and save the international space station.

There it is on the top right row of this photo, a "Colgate 360 Surround toothbrush", single brush for £4 next to the similar one for £3.98.  Looking at the other tooth brushes on sale we can see a range from the basics range 18p (twin pack) through the 67p four pack and the starting to get a bit spendy Aquafresh twin pack for £1.25.  Seriously is any  toothbrush worth 44 times more than the cheapest alternative ?

Teeth are important and dentistry has made big strides in keeping our knashers in good order but expecting that price for a toothbrush, that is not going to last more than a couple of weeks, is taking the michel.  Keep those chompers in good shape with this advice.

In typical supermarket psycho sellmore style, the most expensive brushes are on the shelves easy to reach at just lower than eye level. The cheaper generic and other reasonable brand alternatives are found on the lower shelves slightly to the left right near by.

For some products paying 44 times the lowest price really gets something special.  The Dacia Sander costs about £ 6000. You can pay 44 times that price ( £250,000) and get a Ferrari 458 ( second hand on Autotrader.co.uk ). But really, can you afford to be buying a Ferrari just for your teeth ?

Dacia Sander £6000 aprox

Ferrari 458 £250,000

Update your locks

Here is a good idea for the new year, update the locks for your doors. It's not that hard and not too expensive either.

Many modern door locks use a standardised lock barrel called a "Euro lock". These parts can exchanged quite simply. The lock unit is held in from the side edge of the door by a single screw. Some lock barrels require the door handles are removed ( from the inside ) to facilitate sliding the new lock into place.  The euro lock units come in a selection of sizes determined by the measurements in mm to the middle rotating section ( in black below) from the outside and inside faces.

An example for sale  Yale Anti Snap 90mm Long Euro Cylinder Lock 50 x 40mm Bright Nickel

Look for features such as anti-snap, Anti-Bump and British Standard BS EN1303:2005 and Sold Secure Diamond Standard SS312 markings. One alternatives its the Avocet ABS Anti Snap Anti bump door lock security snap secure euro lock cylinder chrome or gold.

Expect to play about GBP 30 or GBP 200 if fitted by your 24H call out locksmith.  

Uprated Yale Euro lock uint.

Next up are the electronic locks to your doors; update your passwords.  This is also easy, for a quick measure just add at least 4 more character to your existing 6 letter password, include a number or special char from !@£$%^&*()_{}:"|?>< .  Be sure not to use the same password for your social and money sites. Avoid names and works, using the first letters from a phrase is a good way. The first letters from "remember my passwords so I can get in" = rmpsIcgi is just so much better than using Password.

For full advice and guidance on choosing a good password set check out this article.

Be safe out there ...

Gannett

Partridge in the past tree

In the news this week was the possible demise, due to bad wether this year of Grey Partridges and Turtle doves. The Daily Telegraph contribution to this sad conservation story was an article and then in the Sunday Telegraph Stella colour supplement a recipe for "Roast partridge with red wine and juniper berries".

The recipe starts with Ingredients list "8 Grey or red legged partridges"  ...   Conservation fail.

Do not eat this bird !!!!

Photo from W. Braun