The main difference between these is the outcry that is caused when an energy/fuel company makes a profit. People cry foul and demand that “windfall taxes” be introduced, and that energy companies are the spawn of the devil. However, when Tesco announce the increase in profits, is there such an outcry? Will there be phone calls today to the likes of Radio Five Live from outraged Tesco customers? Of course not. And that ticks me off!

Anyone who knows me outside of this blog knows that I’m one of those monkeys that works in the energy sector, and therefore I’m likely to defend it. And I say, “Of course I am!”. It just annoys me when normally level-headed people play such double standards as to not complain about Tesco making money, and not demand that prices should be slashed across the board. Sure I could choose to shop elsewhere, in the same way that people could choose to buy their groceries elsewhere. Maybe I should start a petition to get Tesco to lower their prices even further??!! That gives me an idea…

Here endeth the rant…

Update: So now in the light of day more details are emerging. It appears that this is no longer being classed as a tremor and is now officially an earthquake (“I survived the earthquake” t-shirts anyone? ). It measured 5.3 on the Richter scale and was centred across the country in Lincolnshire. It’s the biggest earthquake in the last 25 years to hit the UK, and is an order of magnitude bigger than the “Dudley Earthquake” of 2002, which measured 4.2. It’s been felt as far south as Windsor and as far north as Northumberland, so quite a wide area really.Only reports of injury are one man in South Yorkshire who was in bed and was hit by his chimney pot which had fallen through the roof. Ouch!

So do things seem any stranger now that it’s daytime and the initial adrenaline has worn off? Not really. It still seems like such a strange thing to have happened. As I said in my opening lines hours ago, it’s one of those things you really never expect to happen, and a sensation that you never expect to experience. The rumble was very loud, and the feel of the whole room shaking was quite disconcerting. There have been warnings that an earthquake of this size, and resonating at the depth that it was could lead to after-shocks, something which doesn’t often happen in the UK. I guess it’s wait and see…

It’s been a long road for all on the project, and the support has been incredible. Over £6.5M has been raised to get the project to where it is now, and a lot of this has come from aviation enthusiasts who want to see the delta back in the sky. I personally can’t wait to see her flying again. I’ve only ever seen a Vulcan flying once, at an airshow at Teesside Airport (now Durham Tees Valley Airport) many years ago. I’ll never forget the feeling of the ground shaking and watching this glorious machine fly past. I even remember the guy stood next to me saying to his son, “Look, it’s Concorde” and thinking how wrong he was. Even at my young age I knew what I was looking at. Of course at the time you think these things are invincible and that you’ll see them forever. How wrong I was…

The Vulcan was one of the main reasosn that we won the Falklands War in the early 1980s. Flying missions well beyond the approved operating range of the aircraft, from the Ascension Islands to Port Stanley and back, the Vulcan dropped 21 1,000 lb bombs on Port Stanley airfield and cut the runway in half, as part of Operation Black Buck. This prevented the Argentinians from having an air defence capability based on the island. Without this strike, who knows which way the war would have gone. After having read the fantastic Vulcan 607, by Rowland White, I appreciate even more the effort that was put into getting these aircraft there. It’s also good to see that names that will be familiar to readers of the book, such as Martin Withers and Barry Masefield, are involved with the flying side of an aircraft with which they created history. Of course it may be a bit of a culture shock to these guys as the cockpit has been drastically overhauled (a friend has described it as being like “a brand new Boeing 747 in there”). The original clock instruments have been replaced with state of the art technology, but I’m not so much of a purist that I’m offended by this!

So what more is there to say? The Vulcan is one step away from returning to where it should be, in the sky. If you hear the sound of thunder and there isn’t a cloud in sight then look for the giant delta wing shape, and take a moment to appreciate what you’re looking at, what it did for the history of the UK, and enjoy the sight of one of the greatest British bombers back where it belongs…

For me I can only see the positives in getting Shepherd out of the club. For far too long he’s had control and I feel it’s time for a change. It’s funny that other Newcastle fans have pointed out how much money he puts into the club. What they seem to fail to realise is where that money comes from (funnily enough, the club), and who puts money into the club? The sponsors and the fans. At 18p per share above the current trading price I can’t see how they could refuse this offer. Rumours are also circulating that, if the deal goes through, Roeder will be given £20m as a war chest to buy in some new talent. If this is true then this deal needs to be done sooner rather than later so that Roeder has time to deal in the January transfer window.

Whilst we’re continuing to prove that you can get by without a great depth to your squad (we have 15 squad players out injured at the moment) we still need more players. We need to be in the Premiership next season as the revenue from Sky increases dramatically (talk of £50m to each Premiership club next season) and this could be the cash injection that we need.

So where does this leave us? Well I think I’m amongst the majority of fans who feel that it is time for Shepherd to go. If he really has the love for the club that he claims, he must be able to see that accepting this offer is the right thing to do. Also, the £68m profit for him should be enough of a temptation to see him sell. I just hope he does the (semi)decent thing and sells…

Well I guess that depends on who you talk to. Talk to an aviation industry expert and they will tell you that there is a belief that the Eurofighter Typhoon (another BAE Systems project) contains an element of stealth within its design (although no official confirmation has ever been given). Talk to some residents of Lytham St. Annes or Blackpool and they will tell you that stealth aircraft have been flying from BAE Systems production facility at Warton for many years. There are countless stories of the “Warton Triangle” being seen over the North-West coast of England in aviation circles, and there has always been the suspicion that BAE Systems is testing this technology ready to enter the stealth industry. Also if you speak to any of the privileged people who have been on a guided tour of the Warton facility, they will tell you of the mysterious hangar near the radar testing facility.

There is one hangar that is always off-limits on these guided tours. It resides on the flying side of the airfield and is always dismissed as a “spray-shop” or a “component fabrication building” and so visitors aren’t allowed to enter. However, there is a paint facility on the flying side that visitors are allowed to enter and so this reason doesn’t really hold. Also, if it was a fabrication building why is it situated on the flying side of the airfield when all other similar buildings are on the other side of the runway?
The building also stands out due to the entrance. What looks quite low key to begin with is actually a two stage “airlock” type entrance. With revolving doors at either end of this entrance, you can never see in to the hangar as one of the 2 doors is always closed.

So what could be taking place in this hangar? Well your guess is as good as mine. I’m not about to start hypothesising and starting conspiracy theories. All I’ll say is it does seem strange that reports of the Warton Triangle have been around for years, and the first major stealth project in the UK goes to the owners of Warton airfield…

News then broke yesterday on Joystiq (here) that the number of consoles available in Japan on launch day has been cut by 20%. There is no word as to whether North America will face a similar 20% cut in consoles available. This follows on the back of the news not so long ago that the Playstation 3 will not be available in Europe until 2007. And given that Sony no longer views importing a console as a viable option (you only have to look at Lik Sang’s fate to see that) and you really have to wonder what Sony are playing at.

Surely they knew that there would be shortages in supply and that they would never meet the demand. But at what point should Sony cut their losses and just move the launch of the console back globally? Microsoft have shown that a launch in the 3 major gaming territories in 2 weeks is possible (and yes I remember how short in supply the 360′s were at launch, but at least they were there). I also have no doubt that Nintendo will manage a global launch with the Wii, and that Wii’s will be available “on the shelf” before Christmas. I guess this will be a big test of Sony’s bullish attitude of “we can do what we want” and that Nintendo and Microsoft are going to share the majority of the Christmas sales…

I really can’t fathom the mentality of someone who would carry out one of these attacks. As someone who, over the past 2 years, has had a couple of very close encounters with various birds of prey I have nothing but total respect for these birds and always feel incredibly privileged to handle or photograph them at very close quarters (check out the Silverband set in my flickr site over on my blogroll -> to see just how close). When I was younger there seemed to be a “craze” for stealing and trading the eggs of protected bird species, but given that you don’t hear so much about this any more, I’d thought that attacks of this sort were becoming a thing of the past. However with the release of these figures you have to guess that this isn’t the case. It really does sadden me that there are people that would purposely try and harm these magnificent birds and hopefully with the current trend of encouraging children to appreciate the nature around them, maybe the next generation will be less destructive towards our endangered species….