Where Do New Buses for London Go On Holiday?

According to this story,  LT1 seems to be having a good time in the United States.

Surprisingly, it seems to have lost the green hybrid logos!

Are We Getting Less Intelligent?

This story in the Daily Mail and other newspapers suggests we are. Here’s the first few sentences.

It was an era of glorious scientific discovery.

And the reason for the Victorians unprecedented success is simple – they were ‘substantially cleverer’ than us.

Researchers compared reaction times – a reliable indicator of general intelligence – since the late 1800s to the present day and found our fleetness of mind is diminishing.

They claim our slowing reflexes suggest we are less smart than our ancestors, with a loss of 1.23 IQ points per decade or 14 IQ points since Victorian times.

As the study was done, by three universities, I won’t argue with their findings.

But it does make you think!

There are now so many factors in our modern life and the way we bring up and educate children, that without decent research we won’t know why. and we can’t go back and do experiments on our Victorian ancestors.

Japanese Do Things Differently

This report from the BBC shows that the Japanese do things differently.

A prominent Japanese politician has described as “necessary” the system by which women were forced to become prostitutes for World War II troops.

Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto said the “comfort women” gave soldiers putting their lives at risk a chance “to rest”.

He also said last year, that Japan needed a dictatorship.

I would hope that any British, American or European politician, who made statements like this, would be promptly booted out of office.

Peer-to-Peer Lending In The Times

There is a good review of peer-to-peer lending in The Times today. One of the most significant things of the piece is that Google has taken a small stake in Lending club. There’s more on the Google deal here.

The banks might not like it, but the writing is on the wall.

Today, I’ve started to move my working deposit account to Zopa.

How To Stop Smoking

This story from California, is an interesting way to stop smoking. Here’s the first paragraph.

Think you’ve heard of every way possible to quit smoking? Etta Mae Lopez came up with a new one: slap a cop and go to jail, where smoking isn’t allowed.

Perhaps, we should take a leaf out of California’s book and ban smoking in prison.

What’s Going On In Luton?

Luton has always struck me as a rather boring place, which is a bit like Ipswich, but last night they had their ninth shooting in a year, as reported here on the BBC.

What is going on?

 

A Bail-Out Too Far

The Sunday Times is reporting that because of the big fire at Daw Mill, UK Coal is close to collapse. The story is also here in the Newcastle Journal.

For many decades now, I’ve been against the mining of coal and its use as a fuel. My objection probably stems more from the dangers of mining, the bad disasters of my childhood years and recollections of a few former miners, that I’ve met, and not from any political reasons. When global warming became known, it just reinforced my views that we should get rid of this dangerous and polluting fuel.

If we don’t put UK Coal out of its misery this time, we’ll only be delaying the inevitable for a few years, as some other problem will come along.

A New Superwheat

You’d think as a coeliac, I would not be in favour of the new superwheat developed at Cambridge as reported on the BBC.

British scientists say they have developed a new type of wheat which could increase productivity by 30%.

The Cambridge-based National Institute of Agricultural Botany has combined an ancient ancestor of wheat with a modern variety to produce a new strain.

But I think this is a victory for traditional high-class science. As I understand it, after hearing the scientist on the radio, the combining of the two plants was done using the sort of methods, that have been used for years.  Albeit with some clever seed incubation. No direct manipulation of the genes was involved.

So as this could give a yield increase of 30%, what would happen if these methods were applied to the other staple crops of the world.

Sadly, the problem is that, the Cambridge route doesn’t make any money for the big corporations of this world, who feel that the GM route is much more profitable.

I am not totally against GM, but it has to be used ethically and where it is demonstrated that it the only way to create an important product, such as a new cancer drug.

Odd Stories On The BBC

Perhaps because it is Saturday, four of the most read stories on the BBC, are a bit odd or offbeat.

Thermal invisibility cloak in first demonstration

North Korea’s silent football matches

Turning a scandal into a ‘-gate’

Fake airline pilot ‘landed planes at Gatwick’

Although the science behind the first, may find applications in cooling electronics and I wouldn’t like to be flown by a fake pilot.

 

Co-op Bank Debt Is Rated Junk

This report, says that the Co-op Bank‘s debt isn’t very highly rated.

I wouldn’t know whether it is going bust or not, but because of its political leanings and links to the Labour Party, I bet that management of the bank, wish that George Osborne wasn’t Chancellor.

What I find strange about the bank, is that why some of my left-leaning friends, who support Labour, bank with other banks, like Lloyds, Barclays or HSBC.