Cooking Season

How many cooking shows can they show on UK and Irish TV channels in December 2012 ? Nearly every night. What am I saying every Morning, noon & night. On different channels. The chefs are house hold names. BBC even has repeats such as Saturday Kitchen on Sunday. Master Chef has three versions Junior, ,professional and celebrity, oh that's four when you count the one for the public. Oh yes then there is the international version's, I've seen an Irish & Australian versions.
Then you get the travel, cooking shows. Nice holidays for the chefs. Then there is the campaigning food shows, Jamie Oliver saving children from school meals ( well ,the turkey twirls ) in then UK ,and USA. "Sustainable fish, vegetables, veal " get a cause and make a food series.
Baking is the new HOT topic for the cooking shows. In a tent in the UK . It's so popular that sales of flower has increased and cake declarations are taking up more space in the supermarkets.
The advice can be interesting on Irish TV were told to put the tin foil on the Brest of the Turkey leaving the legs uncovered as they take longer to cook. In England they advise to rap the legs in foil as you want the breast to have a bronze colour.
Beware there are more to come in the new year, if you can survive the Christmas cooking season.

Getting old

I was watching TV a few weeks ago when I noticed a trend happening. Everyone was getting old. First the Pope was launching his twitter account. He's  85. Mick jagger was in London with the Rolling Stones. He's 69.  Paul McCartney launched a new Album live Kisses, He's 70.  There was a concert for the victims of hurricane Sandy including Bruce-Springsteen ( 63 ) Billy Joel  ( 63 ), the Who's Rodger   Daltry ( 68 ), Rodger Walters of Pink Floyd ( 69 ) . I will stop here, I must be getting OLD.

American election 2012

I said Obama would win by a big majority in the Electorial vote.

I was surprised how close the popular vote  was. ( America divided ).

He Lost congress again, will reduce his power.

The turnout was lower after record last time

117 million 2012 .  131, million  2008

Latino voters are a key demographic in the 2012 Presidential Election

His first 100 days very important to get major legislation through in Medicare  and economic measures.

How to control Israel, stop before they  attacking Iran 

What do do with Iran, 

How to deal with china's new leadership.

Discovery Channel Program's

Discovery Channel

I'm being troubled by some of the shows on digital channels which are beamed world wide. The latest is American Guns which is a reality television series . The series centers on the Wyatt Family at Gunsmoke Guns, located in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, USA; which specialize in gun manufacture, trade, customization, and instruction. They will make you any type of gun. Sniper rifles, automatic guns even cannons. They let there teenage daughter test fire the guns. 

This show might be good fun and interesting to watch but it's not suitable for every society. It would be illegal to own or use these weapons in Ireland. It makes gun owning respectable and normal.

In one episode he travels to a mans home which had rooms full of his kills from hunting. Mounted on the wall were every type of animal you could think of. He wanted to sell guns to go back to Africa and hunt. On the wall was a Rhinos head with horn. Surely this is illegal in America. 

Do the directors of the Dicovery Channel ever watch these shows and think of the damage these shows could be doing to other societies they beam their shows to. Discovery also is a leading provider of educational products and services to schools. Is this the right type of show to be associated with education.

Coal why are we suckers

Coal ! Why are we paying so much

Coal has many important uses worldwide. The most significant uses are in electricity generation, steel production, cement manufacturing and as a liquid fuel. Around 6.1 billion tonnes of hard coal were used worldwide last year and 1 billion tonnes of brown coal. Since 2000, global coal consumption has grown faster than any other fuel. The five largest coal users - China, USA, India, Russia and Japan - account for 77% of total global coal use.

Different types of coal have different uses. Steam coal - also known as thermal coal - is mainly used in power generation. Coking coal - also known as metallurgical coal - is mainly used in steel production.

The People's Republic of China is the largest consumer of coal in the world. 68% of its electricity comes from burning coal. 49% in the USA. In Ireland it's 20%. We use .5% of the world consumption yearly. we import all our coa,l the biggest imports come from 

Columbia -            41.9%

Indonesia -           29.9%

South Africa-      14.9%

There are taxes on coal. In  2010 the government  introduced a carbon tax at the rate of €15 per tonne of CO2. The VAT rate in 13.9%. Why are we paying so much. By International standards we use very little. We only have One power station ( Money Point) using coal.  So the question is why are we paying some of the  highest  prices in the world for  our electricity ? Why are we not rewarded for being good world citizens using so little coal ?

Buying on Internet part 2

Since I wrote about no local sales tax on Amazon in the USA they must have read my blog. They have introduced the sales tax on Internet sites in California bringing to 7 the number of states with such a local tax?

Buying from the Internet

The Americans love buying over the Internet. They buy big ticket items, from cars, television etc in the UK they like buying small goods and cloths . They are all getting a bargin. Here in Ireland it's mixed. Why ? Well in America they skip local taxes. This could be a saving of 5% or higher. In the Uk the companies give free shipping for smaller or lighter goods. In Ireland our market is so small they can't afford to give free shipping. We are charged VAT ( value added tax ) which can be 23%. If we try to get products from America a lot of companies won't ship to Ireland. Shipping from the UK can be expensive. In both America & the UK you have the exchange rate problem as well. So we are the disadvantaged both ways.