A Sign of Rising Inflation

The Government has just stopped selling Index Linked Savings Certificates. That suggests politicians may expect inflation to rise. Indeed they may plan for high inflation as a way of reducing the National Debt.

Megabyte Megalomaniacs

Twice recently I've received by email huge files, containing very little information.

Both were posters in jpeg format

Posters usually contain sufficiently few colours to permit storage in gif format, which will not corrupt text. However any picture format is poor for material containing text.

One of the emails suggested I print the poster. As it was in graphics format that would have involved a vast consumption of ink to print the background colour.

I suppose the offenders think they are being clever, but they strike me as pathetic, silly and inconsiderate.

I wish that, if people must make posters, they would just put them on a website, preferably as html files, and give people a link.

The Ill-managed Demise of Mr. Raoul Moat

Mr. Moat was armed, had already shot three people, and threatened to shoot more. After a search that lasted nearly a week, armed Police cornered him.

They then spent about six hours trying to persuade him to give himself up, providing him with food and drink to fortify him for a prolonged stalemate, thus increasing the Police overtime. Finally they shot him with a new sort of taser, not yet approved for use, and he shot himself with a more serious weapon.

Such time wasting could be avoided if, as soon as they have a fugitive surrounded, the police said 'You have 30 seconds to surrender, and then we shoot'. Feeding the offender is ridiculous, unless the food contains a sleeping drug.