Tomorrow

Tomorrow I have morning meetings, but how can I finish very early so as to watch a fair bit of the Ryder Cup singles?

Two more things for the middle-aged to worry about

First news that there are

"Plans from the EU's economic and social committee (that) would see firms carry out psychological tests on older members of staff.... The EU committee said: "The policies target workers at risk due to their personal belief that they lack adaptability skills, self-motivation and the ability to learn.

"If older workers are to stay in work, it is vital for firms to introduce an anticipatory mechanism as early as the middle of a worker's career, to avoid workers becoming at risk." "

Second news that "An American woman suffered a sudden attack of amnesia after having sex with her husband. " Apparently:

"The 59-year-old woman, known only as Alice, had the worrying experience after she and her husband Scott had sex last August. She suddenly, albeit temporarily, lost all memory of the last several years and the ability to form new memories.

After sex they turned on the television, which was showing the Beijing Olympics, and she asked: "Is there an Olympics?"

...

...neurologists were soon able to diagnose TGA, a relatively common experience in the over-50s.

Dr Louis Caplan, professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, said: "[Sex] is actually a well-known precipitator.

"One of the things people have done to look at transient global amnesia is to look at frequency of various precipitants and sex always comes out as one of the most common."

People with a history of migraines and severe headaches are more prone to TGA.

Although her memory has otherwise returned fully, Alice remains unable to remember the act of intercourse that triggered her attack. However, it is likely that she enjoyed herself.

Dr Caplan said: "It usually is after climax that [TGA] develops." "

As if there wasn't enough to worry about

I read that:

"A 14-year-old German lad survived a close encounter with a meteorite when a pea-sized piece of rock travelling at 30,000 mph left him with nothing more than a "nasty" three-inch gash on his hand.

According to the Telegraph, Gerrit Blank was on his way to school in Essen when a bright light in the sky heralded the arrival of the red-hot space rock. It bounced off his hand before embedding itself in a foot-wide crater in the ground."

The next election?

The newspapers and the blogosphere are alive with rumours of impending general elections, you can read Iain Dales's rumour-mongering here.
However I find it less than likely that Gordon Brown will go to the Country any time soon, or indeed any time at all.

As I have said before (here, here and here), this most anti-democratic Prime Minister is more likely to use the Civil Contingencies Acts to postpone a general election; read "Meaning of “emergency”" and tell me that you don't think he could do this based on almost anything from rioting on the streets to a rumour of a major terrorist attack being planned. This Labour government want and need to keep their hands on the levers of power and they will do anything to keep that power.

Fantasy stuff? Well how about the news that:

"Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, is to arm police with 10,000 Taser stun guns in an escalation of the government's fight against violent crime.
Smith will unveil plans tomorrow that will enable all 30,000 front-line response officers to be trained in firing the electric guns at knife-wielding thugs and other violent suspects."

Tasers will be most useful at putting down civil disorder, and that could include you and I protesting at the suspension of democracy in this once great Country.

Come off it, civil disorder, nobody seriously believes that is a possibility in the UK? Really? How about the head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn?

"Violent unrest may be sparked around the world by a prolonged global slump unless governments act with greater urgency to jump-start stalled economies, the head of the International Monetary Fund said on Monday.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn sounded a stark warning over the consequences of what he argued was weak and uncertain government reaction to the economic crisis. He used a hard-hitting speech in Madrid to single out eurozone nations over what he attacked as an inadequate response. "

Take a look around the web, it's not just me saying that suspension of "democracy" is a possibilty, there are plenty of others. Before you yawn and call us scaremongers, remember who was predicting this economic crisis and what you called us for that?

If you read only one newspaper article this weekend, read this one...

Edward Lucas in The Telegraph, his article entitled "Russia sees us as pawns on its chessboard" is well written, nicely analytical and very very worrying.

"Russian thinking is still rooted in a Soviet approach that leaves little room for the concept of mutual benefit. The "zero-sum" game is deeply entrenched: if something is good for the West, it is bad for Russia, and vice versa.

That chimes neatly with the story pushed on Russian state television that treacherous Russian politicians connived with the West in the 1990s to weaken the country. We promoted chaotic economic reform and phony democracy that enriched a handful and impoverished the rest, leaving Russia near disintegration until it was rescued by Putin's firm.

That is preposterous. In fact, the West provided billions of dollars to prop up Russia in the 1990s; it failed not because of our bad advice, but because of its appallingly difficult starting position and weak Russian leadership. Yet for that mythical wrong, Russia now wants revenge....

Russia's skilful pipeline politics has wrecked European attempts to diversify the continent's energy supplies. An EU-backed project called Nabucco, which would bring gas from Central Asia to Europe via Turkey and the Balkans, has been kyboshed. The Russian pipelines of Nord Stream (in the Baltic) and South Stream (across the Black Sea) form an effective pincer movement, eagerly backed by key Russian allies such as Germany and Austria, leaving Ukraine and Poland open to Russian energy blackmail.

Russia is a big investor in our economies; our bankers salivate at prospect of Russian bonds and stocks. The presence of Gerhard Schröder, the former German chancellor, on the board of the Nord Stream gas pipeline epitomises the way in which Russian influence has penetrated deep into our political system. Checkmate is looming."

Something else to worry about when you fly

The BBC are reporting that:

"An unwitting passenger arriving at Japan's Narita airport has received 142g of cannabis after a customs test went awry, officials say.

A customs officer hid a package of the banned narcotic in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to test airport security.

Sniffer dogs failed to detect the cannabis and the officer could not remember which bag he had put it in.

Anyone finding the package has been asked to contact customs officials.

The cannabis is estimated at having a street value of nearly $10,000 (£5,000)."

This is worrying news

Apparently "Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has declared emergency rule and suspended the country's constitution. Troops have been deployed inside state-run TV and radio stations, while independent channels have gone off air. Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who condemned the moves, has been replaced and is being confined to the Supreme Court with 10 other judges." This is a country that has nuclear weapons, this is rather worrying news.