Posts by Tom Oliva

Windfarm Britain means (very) expensive electricity

As Your Neughbour.....

In discussions about electricity I find it exasperating that European mainland prices aren't quoted.

We now pay ~15p a unit

The French ~ 4.5p a unit

The Germans ~8p a unit

So we're being stuffed ~400% for our electricity by peculating politicians + penpushers who are colluding with their inefficient monopolistic cronies in the "private" energy utilities ....

Strikes me this is like arguing the toss between paddle wheels and propellers as the ship is sinking.

What pray, do you think the public reaction might be if this was the price of OIL ?

Energy utilities in the UK have descended into a stinking pit of dishonesty and cheating - speculative billing is rife, the per unit billing is mired in tariff hell and they're hitting on the taxpayer for their capex budgets = no doubt nice work if you can get it...

Swedish men left frustrated by state sex aid policy

Try Denmark

The Danes might still supply male vibrators on their health service - I was sitting with a bunch of mouth open, dumb struck Brits when the device was comprehensively demonstrated on the Danish version of the national 6 o'clock TV news a few years back - complete with a testimonial from a lady who'd been impregnated after it's successful use :-)

eBay Terror Ambulances of DEATH menace UK - top cops

Doh... Idjits

About 6 months back an acquaintance of mine was stopped driving his 38 year old police car to a film shoot and accused of attempting to impersonate a police officer despite the fact that it had a custom made bobble hat over the blue light and didn't show any "POLICE" markings anywhere. I suppose the chrome bell was the giveaway...... he was attired in a T-shirt and shorts....

BAA boots Vulture from T5 frequent flyer club

Moaning Minnies

They're doing you a favor, you know - flying is glamorous and exciting and you're privileged to be allowed to tread the shiny terrazzo of T5 and should be grateful for the chance to experience the truly stellar service provided by the World's Favorite Airline - so there! don' t hit me .... please

Hamster-in-rain emergency prompts 999 call

If they don't answer...........

A direct personal experience - 27 minutes waiting for the super efficient Wiltshire Constabulary call centre to answer the phone - is it any wonder that folk call 999 out of frustration?

UK military faces spectrum sell off

The Air we Breathe Next - on easy PAYG terms

I almost despair - but that doesn't quite fit, selling off the sky... yeah , right as if we actually need more dishonest predatory corporates providing wireless "services" - if they thought they could sell the air we breathe I'm sure some grasping pen pusher with one eye to "retirement" in the corporate sector would try - the can of "Perriair" in the Mel Brookes' "SpaceBalls" comes to mind.

Give it to Google I say - that'd cause some splutterings in boardrooms

It's only a thought - but how far up - does the government reckon to own electromagnetic radiation?

Germans send teen tearaway to Siberia

West Africa

I have long harbored the fantasy that the UK prison system should be outsourced to West Africa for crimes involving violence.

Dunno, pick a country Nigeria ? or maybe Sierra Leone? - ooohh... what about Ghana?

If the Japanese can built golf themed retirement resorts in the Gambia - what's the problem?

US-Iranian naval clash: Radio trolls probably to blame

Salty Dog

A tactic used to my certain knowledge by irritated watch keepers to shut up Filipino Monkey is >cue bad/truly awful American accent and clipped delivery on Ch16 < "Vessel at (position) this is American warship on your starboard bow... state your intention!" - blissful silence.

Gotta agree with all the comments about idiot mass media reporters and clueless USN press/PR - if they can beat + twist a story as much as this one's been tortured - what about the rest of the "news"?

Oh, and these guys with speedboats, khaki bandannas and ray-bans are notoriously adrenaline fueled + trigger happy - being on the receiving end of .50 cal machine gun is non - trivial as a number of my commercial shipping acquaintances can confirm... And of course, our American cousins are no strangers to mis-reading the situation + screwing up in the heat of the moment as others have pointed out - the worrying thing in their case is - pull the trigger=promotion, don't pull the trigger=retirement.

Reaper airborne war-droids to patrol 2012 Olympics

RAF is gagging for good PR at the moment

I suppose they're going to be more acceptable than low flying Nimrods......

15 years ago: the first mass-produced GSM phone

And - 15 years later

The network operators are still not implementing the IMEI fully so there's likely hundreds of thousands of nicked phones still in use on UK networks alone - a phone is still a target for some scrote to stab you in the street rather than a collection of plastic bits n bobs.

way to go guys!