[storm coming] this time we've been warned

Ladies and gentlemen, we've been warned all day that a storm is coming through.

I haven't time to convert to imperial but they say that last time was 26 metres per second and this time they say it will be a bit short of 50. Don't know how strong that wind is but I can say one thing - bl--dy strong. All mobile telephone companies have advised that they will be shutting down this evening.

About lunchtime today we had the first inkling. It went quiet and the rain started falling while the wind picked up but not too badly at that point. The temperature and pressure dropped.

I have the windows on the balcony lashed with cords to the main wall and everything closed. All power plugs will come out of the sockets just as it starts so no computer later. I expect to be spending an hour or so holding the windows in on the balcony.

I'll report after it goes through, if the computer's still operable. As for the last one, the electricity, gas and water is just about back on around the city.

OK people, see you after it. Blogging will be light this evening.

[current list] total horses' backsides

Just got down to the serious task of my Top Ten Total Horse's Backsides.

Barry Humphries called this sort of person a "ratbag", a total waste of space, a useless person who nonetheless gets in the way and feels his/her position is of great importance.

You get the idea.

This thing needs to have some limits, some rules perhaps. For a start, they need to be living - you can't very well put in Messalina or Napoleon, for example. Nor can you put in Jimmy MacDonald of Strathclyde, whom no one knows from Adam. They don't need to be celebrities either but neither can they be total unknowns.

Another factor is if they are deliberate AHs or accidentally so and the level of damage they inflict on the world. Right, with that in mind, go to it! Here are mine [always reserving the right to add to or delete from the list, of course]:

"Total Horses' Backsides" Currently Inflicting Themselves Upon Us

1] Financial cabals leading us into the new feudalism and the next war [Well aware]

2] Pornographers and slavers financing the cabals [Well aware]

3] Spammers [Well aware]

4] Stock photo sellers on the web who put logos through the photo [Well aware]

5] People who waste your time or take the p--s [Often aware]

6] PCers and moral relativists who have destroyed education and society in general [Mostly unaware]

7] Madonna [Half aware]

8] Chinese coalburners killing the atmosphere [Totally unaware]

9] Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [Totally unaware]

10] Paris Hilton [Totally unaware]

I couldn't quite fit in climate sceptics, humanists and a certain type of unreasonable girl [see post below]. Not to worry. Tomorrow, if the flat's still intact, I'll post the Top Ten Good People.

Who's on your list?

[la france] cheeky sod, sarko

This is a really curly one:

Nicolas Sarkozy will ask the European Union (EU) to bend its fiscal rules to help avoid a French economic slowdown. Mr Sarkozy wants to cut French taxes, a move that means France will breach a 3% budget deficit rule set by the EU.

All right, as Brits, we don't want any advantage given to the French, especially if it's going to cost us.

On the other hand, you have to hand it to the guy. He was elected to get France back and running and how can you blame him for trying this one on? He's used every little trick in the book so far and I say good luck to him.

Better than the previous stagnation they had. As for Segolene - what a disaster that would have been.

[country share] interesting percentages

Sorry - just couldn't resist it. Usually the Brits are 45-50% of my readership and when this happens [below], it brings a smile to the face:

[alienation] couldn't care less

The Pub Philosopher brings our attention to the appalling young woman who did this:

Sitting through a murder trial listening to an iPod, hidden under a hijab, shows nothing but contempt for the judicial process.

He was referring to this:

A Muslim juror was thrown off a murder trial when she was caught listening to an MP3 music player under her headscarf.. Ruhela Khanom, 20, was exposed by another juror who spotted headphone wires around her neck. At the time of the discovery, the defendant was giving evidence from the witness box. Legal experts described the incident - which took place 13 days ago - as 'astonishing' and 'unique'.

The prosecution went on to say:

"If contempt is upheld, I would have thought that prison would be the likely outcome."

Before I even looked at the article I surmised it was a young woman. The hijab reference told me it was a Muslim but that was hardly relevant. The thing is, most regular readers know I'm dealing with upwards of 100 girls a week in this age range and the signals were so clear that this was one of those.

I have a lot of good things to say about young people today but I also have some negatives. One of those is the change which is coming over girls of 19 to 22 now. I see it everyday. It's a combination, it seems, of two things:

1] Alienation from the mechanisms of society so that the girl is now reacting more than ever in a closed circle only of other young people where certain behaviours are acceptable. It's a conscious resistance to the "old ways", to the grandparents, to the old traditions and then it slides into a sort of self-contained self-centredness of looks and clothes, music, shopping as an end in itself and the "it's all too much trouble-why do you bother me with your demands" way of operating.

2] It's a lifestyle bereft of constraints - sexual, in mores, in responsibilities - in other words, the life of a teenager is being prolonged past a reasonable age into the 20s and when the adult world makes demands, such as jury service, these demands are met by a teenage mind. She doesn't care, she's not part of it all, she has her ipod to keep to her reality. She's so easily b-o-o-o-ored, you know. She really, truly, believes she's done nothing wrong but will burst into tears that people are being "mean" to her.

Where do we start? Parents and teachers throwing up their hands and crying, "Kids today!" without actually getting down and doing what is necessary - bringing the kids up with strong societal values, making constant demands with no apology, insisting they take their place within the family and so on and so on.

And where are the parents? Out working. And why do the teachers do nothing? Because the majority are PCers who are too frightened to insist on things with the kids [this is a former head teacher saying this]. Too frightened they'll cease to be seen as "cool" and relevant without recognizing there must be some distance.

Once insist on kids toeing the line and accompany that with a clearly loving, caring, interested attitude and kids react positively in most cases. It's the wishy-washiness they meet with which gives them no parameters, no limits, which is the destructive force here. Then they are met with downright hostility and withdraw even more.

Again - firm constraints and a loving, caring, interested attitude are all that's necessary.

So no, it's absolutely no surprise or shock to read this. I feel sorry for the girl and that will sound strange after what I've written so far. I feel sorry because she grew up with conflicting values and like a kid, chose the easy way. Shut out responsibility.

Look about you everyday - ipod in one ear, mobile phone on the other with the new mouthpieces which hang round the neck ready to use. It's a complete world within an outer world.

Though I'm sympathetic to how she got to where she now is, still an example must be made of her. If only to underscore the seriousness of some aspects of life. I'm not talking hanging her up on a gibbet for public persual but a term of incarceration is certainly in order here.

Just as it was essential that Paris Hilton was put away and should have served her full time, this one needs to be incarcerated too for some time. It will do more than any words can to convey the message.

This rant will get too long if we start on the conflicting values themselves swirling around society so that's for another time.

[iceland] babies and big macs

And in cutting edge news from Iceland:

There will not be a vast increase in births in Iceland this year, compared to 2006, as reported in May. A new computer system at the National Hospital made the error of counting women who came in for ultrasound twice as two different women. According to Gudrún Eggertsdóttir, the director of the maternity ward, births have in fact decreased since last year.

Well, that's a relief then. But the Big Mac index is of more concern:

The Icelandic króna is the most overrated currency in the world, according to the Economist’s Big Mac Index. A Bic Mac hamburger at McDonald’s is 123 percent more expensive in Iceland than in the US. Bic Macs in Norway and Switzerland are almost as expensive as in Iceland and in countries which have the Euro, Bic Macs cost 22 percent more than in the US. But in China, Bic Macs cost 58 percent less than in the US.

That may be so but I remember in Bergen many years ago, even though the the Big Mac meal cost the equivalent of $5.50, it was still affordable and 50% filled you, whereas a Scandinavian open sandwich with a sliver of fish, wipe of butter and a suggestion of lettuce and tomato cost $4 and was gone in two bites, followed by the need to buy a $3 tin of cola to take the taste away.

There was indeed the prospect that to fill up in the evening would cost around $15, using this method or to go into a café/restaurant to have a proper meal was going to set you back some $30, if you were careful and didn't drink anything.