Hello
to you all and thanks for your questions. Thanks
also to the site moderators Stephanie, Dr Sebastian
and Rebecca who have done a fine job in whittling
down the list. I realise how patient many of
you have been waiting for news that never seems
to arrive but, if there is no news to speak
of, then why speak? There seems to be an obsession
with news for news sake nowadays but in an
era when we’re drowning beneath tidal
waves of culture, media and infotainment then
perhaps sometimes simple silence is the preferred
option? Anyway, thanks for your continued interest
in this site and I’ll now endeavour to
answer as clearly as I can.
1. Stephanie - What have you been doing musically since Meltdown? If writing
some new material, please drop a hint. If revisiting old, ditto.
I’ve taken a lot of time away from music for personal and business reasons
since Meltdown. I’m finally settling down to work and concentrating on
several projects which are in various states of completion...
Read
more >
Last August Route 15, from Blackwall in East London - Paddington Station, mysteriously
lost its classic Routemaster buses. One day they were there, the next day very
normal double-deckers were plying the busy route.
The Routemaster bus was withdrawn from London's streets many years ago. It was
an old bus, and employing a driver and conductor was expensive. Withdrawn, that
is, except for a few busy Central London routes where conductors helped to speed
the bus along, and tourists could snap pictures of the Routemaster.
The 15 was the first conversion in the 21st century. Then, in November 2003,
the 23 (Ladbroke Grove - Liverpool Street) and the 11 (Liverpool Street - Fulham)
lost their Routemasters. The 11 was especially tragic, as it had long been marketed
to tourists as the cheapest sightseeing bus in town because of the attractions
it passed.
In January 2004 the 94 (Acton Green - Piccadilly) will go. By autumn 2004 over
half of London's Routemasters will have gone. By 2005 they may all have disappeared.
But why they are disappearing isn't entirely clear and Londoners are certainly
not being consulted about this classic vehicles imminent demise.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN A PETITION TO SAVE THE ROUTEMASTER
www.cryptome.org
As the overall cost of the War on Terror approaches $100 billion, domestic security
is beginning to take on the characteristics of military spending in the early
years of the cold war. Just as an open-ended fear of Communism drove that spending
surge, the open-ended terrorist threat is driving today's spending on domestic
security.
The Communist scare came alive as China fell in 1949 and North Korea invaded
South Korea the next year. Before long, military spending grew large enough to
influence productivity and economic growth, often dragging down both. A dollar
invested in a weapons system, many economists argue, does not have the multiplier
effect of a dollar invested in automated machinery installed in factories to
make trucks and computers, which in turn become tools for additional production.
Spending on domestic security has the potential to become a similar albatross
for the economy, although it has not yet reached the proportions of the cold
war era. By 1953, military outlays had risen to 14.2 percent of all economic
activity from a post-World War II low of just 3.5 percent in 1948. Following
a similar trajectory, but from a much smaller starting point, spending for domestic
security has risen from well under half of 1 percent of gross domestic product
just before 9/11 to roughly eight-tenths of 1 percent three years later. One
percent, or $110 billion a year, is the point at which spending on domestic security
would begin to affect the overall economy. And the nation is quickly getting
there.
-- Louis Uchitelle and John Markoff, Terrorbusters,
Inc., October 17, 2004
