Posts

UK Cost of Living Increases: Who Should The New Chancellor Support…and How ?

  The new occupant of No 11 (whoever he (or she!) may turn out to be) has a thorny problem on their hands…it's a significant one, and not one they can ignore.... We’re all starting to feel the pinch as a result of the most recent economic shock – Trump’s ill-advised Iran War.  We all knew the economic pain the hostilities would cause; even before they started, a large slice of our population, on low wages but not entitled to benefits were really not able to make ends meet without taking out additional high-interest loans or cutting their outgoings to the bone. For some of them, yet another economic shock may well bring them to the brink of bankruptcy. The excessive electricity and gas price rises imposed by the supplier ‘cartel’ to maintain their profit margins, and sanctioned by a compliant OFGEM, have been particularly injurious. This trend was apparent well before the start of the Iran war, so cannot be blamed on higher world prices as the suppliers claim. Many co...
Post a Comment
Read more

Climate Change - Whatever happened to the Next Ice-Age ? It may still be coming...and sooner than we think

Image
  A midst all the discussion about the perils of global warming, there has been no mention recently of when we might expect the start of the next Ice-Age.... This was a topic that hit the headlines some years ago and was all the rage for a year or two before fading into obscurity. It is probably no coincidence that this media fade-out coincided with the increased coverage in the media about global warming and its wider implications for our future well-being. But should we be so quick to dismiss the possibility of  a much cooler future ? There is now no doubt that our global climate is warming – and doing so quite rapidly. There is also little doubt that our large-scale release of greenhouse gases since the dawn of the industrial era in the early 1800s will have contributed significantly to this process. However, despite the views of some environmentalists, our planet's atmosphere is a chaotic and unpredictable beast, and the jury is still out on whether ‘man-made’ clim...
Post a Comment
Read more

Amazon withdrew support from their older Kindles on May 20th 2026 - Is yours now defunct ?

  Amazon’s Kindle eReaders were ahead of their time when they first emerged in the late noughties, and were the first of the specialist eReaders with e-ink displays and long battery life to hit the mass market. They have amassed a large following of dedicated reader fans over the years since then, and have proven themselves to be robust and long-lasting devices. They are also the preferred vehicle for reading eBooks, given the eyestrain probems associated with long-term use of LED screens.  Amazon have been steadily phasing out support to their older devices 'on the quiet' for the past couple of years, with increasing restrictions on registration and downloads for their oldest models. There has been considerable concern voiced recently amongst the Kindle fan-base over the recent 'final' announcement   by Amazon that they were withdrawing support from all of their older devices from May 20th 2026. Arguably something of an 'own goal' on Amazon's part, and...
Post a Comment
Read more