Wednesday, 1 June 2011

Deserves a wider audience - by Richard... Wednesday, June 01, 2011

From Adventures in time travel, a dose of Hari Kari. This is today's featured blog in the Independent Political Bloggers site.

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A Wednesday fourteen - by Richard...

With an additional fourteen independent British political blogs, that completes our second fifty, again illustrating the depth and variety of the genre. I have also amalgamate these to produce a list of the second fifty, and I will shortly produce the first hundred.
We also have the MF five for today's selection on the Independent Political Bloggers site. Altogether, we have eight authors signed up in what is to be a blog about bloggers, run by bloggers, all to promote the concept of independent political blogging.

More authors are welcome. Just drop me an e-mail.

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Thieves at large - by Richard...


A propos our piece yesterday, the following report has emerged, from this February. Only the lowest form of pond life could weep crocodile tears about "cuts" and then appoint "sustainability" officials on 40k salaries, pensions and benefits.


If Camden Council had to put their budgets to an annual popular referendum, do you think they would be approved? Do you think these people (above) would be happy to see their libraries closed down so that the Council can afford its team of sustainability officers?


But, of course, it is not only Camden. Here is an example from Chesterfield (above). How many hundreds of millions are being sprayed against the wall, while the leftoids bleat about "cuts", particularly, as we see here, the young and the elderly are hardest hit.


And so it goes on, throughout the country – this next example in Walsall, where the Council is still recruiting, as long as it is for work on cutting down plant fertiliser .


Once again, libraries get the chop ... we are not burning books, we are simply closing down the libraries and disposing of the books ... all in the name of the great God climate change.


Of course, one is extremely happy for all these climate change personnel, when so many other council staff are losing their jobs.


And never forget, if you decide that you have better use for the money, and withhold it from these wasteful councils, you get policemen breaking into your home and seizing you by force. Then you go to jail. This is democracy, people ... but hey! We have sexy MPs!

COMMENT: SPEECHLESS THREAD

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I got it wrong - by Richard...

Steve Connor is not a prat ... on this issue (item below this one):
Drilling of the Preese Hall #1 will be completed by close of business Wednesday 8th December 2010. Management considers this well to be very successful thus far.

This well is the first "true" shale gas well ever drilled in Europe (drilled and operated by Cuadrilla Resources) and will reach target depth of 9,100 feet in the Clitheroe Limestone Complex – 900 feet deeper than originally planned.

Total core samples of approximately 260 feet have been taken which indicate hard, brittle rock – fractured both horizontally and vertically, and producing substantial gas flows as well as a presence of methane and other hydrocarbons.

The core sample will be analyzed in laboratory conditions and the well will be fracced. Initial indications are that Preese Hall #1 confirms and possibly exceeds the original expectations of management as to the prospectivity of the Bowland shale.

Preese Hall #1 is deeper than originally planned in order to encounter all of the prospective shale sections – in excess of 4,000 feet and, has taken longer in order to take additional core samples, as well as to penetrate the hard formations encountered.

The Cuadrilla rig will be located to Grange Hill #1, approximately 15 kms away, for commencement of drilling scheduled for January 2011. The workover rig, fraccing and testing equipment will be mobilized immediately to Preese Hall and a pre-frac well test conducted in December. The duration of this test will depend upon the well response; however, it is likely that the full frac test will commence in January 2011.

Preparations for a third exploratory well in the Bowland shale, Anna’s Road #1, are being undertaken – with a planning permit approved on 17 November 2010.

The equipment and drilling rig (one of the most advanced in Europe) have performed well in excess of expectations and, the well (together with the outside and additional scientific data), confirms in entirety the science and engineering undertaken prior to the commencement of drilling.

Results thus far warrant completion of the full work programme originally envisaged. It must be noted however, that management will not be in a position to make a detailed decision as to the most appropriate way to move forward in terms of commercialization until drilling and fraccing of Preese Hall and Grange Hill have been completed and analyzed. This is expected to be around the end of Q1 2011.
You must admit, when I do get it wrong, I don't go in for half measures ... I get it seriously, unequivocally wrong.

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Thick MSM - by Richard...

For archive only ... see: this correction (item above).


The ignorance of the MSM comes to the fore in their latest excitement over a small earth tremor in Blackpool, which has been linked (tenuously) with local gas drilling. Leader of the pack of ignoramuses is Steve Connor, supposed science editor in The Independent.

The idle fool reports of "controversial new drilling operation for natural shale gas" in Lancashire having been suspended following a second earthquake in the area that may have been triggered by the process, completely oblivious to the fact that there is no shale gas drilling in the area – for the very simple reason that there are no gas-bearing shale deposits.

Here, of course, the drillers are exploiting coal bed methane, a very different proposition, not least because the coal seams into which they are drilling are very much shallower and more easily accessible.

Thus, the slight tremors may have some implications for exploiting coal seams in urban areas, such as in West Lancashire, but have no impact whatsoever on shale gas exploitation. Gas-bearing shale is very much deeper, 10,000 ft or more, and runs in a band from Dorset eastwards then and then through East Anglia and East Yorkshire, across the North Sea into Poland – where there is considerable exploitation.

Such is the enthusiasm of the media wuzzies and their greenie allies for putting the boot in to shale gas, however, that they can't stop to get their facts right. Any old propaganda will do. But all they do is parade their ignorance ... and there is now the blogosphere to put the wuzzies right. And, in any event, we have already recorded that shale gas is not significant in the UK.

As to these terrible earthquakes, according to the BBC (which is also throbbing with excitement), Dr Brian Baptie, head of seismology at the British Geological Survey, says (of the latest tremor): "The earthquake was felt by at least one person in Poulton-Le-Fylde". We await the tsunami.

For archive only ... see: this correction (item above).

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Asheep at the helm - by Richard...

Google "referism": about 4,580 results; blogs, about 1,510 results. In news: "your search did not match any documents". By contrast, "sexymp" offers 5,530 results; blogs about 1,500 results and in news, about 234 results.

Not a sheep, who famously tells us: "I have my own mind ... I will speak out", shows Mrs Nota Sheep the "sexymp" website who then offers some thoughts on some of the top 20, with photographs. Mr Sheep then notes that the top ten of "mixed" are all women. In fact, we are told, Mark Harper is only man in the top 20, to which the comment is: "Well done sir; I salute you - but not in that way".

Of such fearless and strident comment is democracy made. With so much press coverage of this vital issue, and the blogs also pulling their weight, it is far safer this morning than it was yesterday.

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The agenda revealed - by Richard...

In theory, all the greenery coming out of our provincial government and the EU – like carbon credits - is intended to bring down "carbon" emissions, and thus save the planet. That governments make money out of the measures is just coincidental.

And if you believe that one, the latest Reutersreport will come as a bit of a shock. It tells us that the EU's carbon credit market could be flooded with excess permits over the next decade, cutting prices in half and depriving governments of billions in budgeted revenues.

Apparently, this terrible outcome will arise from the new "energy services directive", due in late June, which will force owners of buildings, vehicles and more controversially, industry, to cut energy consumption through efficiency measures.

One might have thought that such a move would be applauded for its planet-saving potential, but not a bit of it. More efficiency and thus less energy usage means less CO2 which means less permits needed ... leading to a surplus.

"There's a real concern of negative impacts on prices if the issue is not properly addressed," says one EU source. "Some of the studies imply that carbon prices will collapse".

One study suggests carbon credit prices might fall to €14 per tonne, compared to a business-as-usual price of €25. Another sees the price dropping to zero. "The energy services directive could potentially wipe out billions of euros for governments across the EU, unless EU ETS allowances are set aside," says Sanjeev Kumar at environment consultancy E3G.

So it is that there are strong rumour that the governments of EU member states will block the energy-reduction measures, to avoid severe dents in their budgeted revenues for 2013-2020. Saving the planet is all very well, but cash in the bank is far more important.

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Speechless - by Richard... Tuesday, May 31, 2011


Anything I might say about this job would most certainly be taken down in evidence, and used against me ... resulting in a prolonged prison sentence. But the real offender is Camden Council. To waste money on such a fatuous appointment is criminal behaviour.

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Twitter ye not - by Richard...


... if you are planning on saying nasty things about genocidal dictators, for you are not going to get any support from Twitter Trust & Safety. And although I've come to regard Twitter in general as akin to an infectious disease, even I had not bargained for quite how perilous it could become. You might be safer eating cucumbers.

Posted by Britannia Radio at 17:19