Save the environment by, er, buying a new car

I know that the reasons given for tax increases are usually lies - the only reason is to boost government coffers - but the supposed environmental reasons for increasing car tax really bug me. I’ve got a knackered old Saab which is seven years old and therefore comes under the new regime, so from next year I’ll have to shell out a fifth of its value in car tax every year. Come to think of it, it’ll be more than a fifth because by next year it’ll be worth approximately 2p and the annual tax will be £300.

Given that the kind of car I need doesn’t change - I can’t fit a baby, a pram and a dog in a Smart - and that the tax is painful, that gives me two options. I can get an older estate car, or I can buy a newer estate car.

Older isn’t that green, because older cars pollute more. If I go back one  year and buy an identical Saab, the petrol and the diesel versions both pump out more CO2 than my current car, because the engines were revised to make them less polluting in 2001. Other manufacturers aren’t any better. An eight-year-old Mondeo estate pumps out more CO2 than my seven-year-old Saab whether I go for the petrol or the diesel. And of course, as cars get older they become dirtier.

Newer isn’t very green either, because most of a car’s environmental impact is in its manufacture. So changing a car that’s running more or less okay in favour of a newer one is just wasteful, and kills polar bears.

Which leaves a third option: keep the car, pay the tax, and don’t change anything.

Only a cynic would suggest that that’s exactly what the government expects most of us to do…

Don’t all rush to HMV at once, now

From the press release pile:

Finnish operatic rock supergroup, Northern Kings, release their debut album, Reborn, in the UK on Monday 16th June, on Warner Music, and the single ‘We Don’t Need Another Hero’ will be released in the UK as a digital download and limited edition CD on 12th June.

Reborn, which has achieved gold status in Finland, features symphonic orchestral rock interpretations of eighties classics ranging from Brothers in Arms, Ashes to Ashes, Sledgehammer, Hello, I Just Died In Your Arms, We Don’t Need Another Hero, plus Radiohead’s 1993 song Creep.

Here’s the full track listing.

Don’t Stop Believin’
We Don’t Need Another Hero
Broken Wings
Rebel Yell
Ashes To Ashes
Fallen On Hard Times
I Just Died In Your Arms
Sledgehammer
Don’t Bring Me Down
In The Air Tonight
Creep
Hello
Brothers In Arms

Computer games, diddies and the breakdown of society

This morning’s episode of Radio Scotland’s Morning Extra was about videogame violence and GTA IV (yep, I was the one who called in at the end to call irresponsible parents “diddies”, heh). I know phone-ins don’t exactly attract rocket scientists - I mean, they let me on air - but even by the usual standards of jaw-dropping nonsense I was gobsmacked by one caller. He thinks violent videogames are bad. He, er, lets his eight-year-old play 18-certificate video games for hours on end. He doesn’t approve of this.

WTF?

*bangs head on desk*

All this scratching is making me itch

Many years ago, I was driving a Transit (badly) through St John’s Wood in London and misjudged the width of the van, knocking out the taillights of a parked car. I stopped and left a note so the owner could get in touch with a bill (he/she didn’t, which surprised me). A few years after that, I was driving my mum’s car through an exceptionally narrow street and scraped someone’s bumper. I stopped, left a note, and paid for the repairs to the other car - which I regretted, as judging by the bill the owner replaced the standard bumper on his Ford Fiesta with one made of gold, rubies and diamonds. Despite that, I’d do the same thing again. To me, it’s obvious: you smash something belonging to somebody else, you pay to make it good.

I don’t know when it happened, but at some point in the last week or so somebody has scored deep lines along one side of my car while I’ve been parked in Tesco (I know it was Tesco - I’m a parent, I don’t go anywhere else). The car’s worth approximately 5p; the damage would cost several hundred quid to repair (it’s a wing, two doors and a rear panel). And it’s not the sort of damage you can do without noticing. So some bugger has scraped the shite out of my car, known full well what they’ve done, and just buggered off.

I think I’ve mentioned this before: one of my neighbours takes a note of the registrations of cars parked next to him in supermarkets. I used to think it was a stupid idea, but now I’m not so sure - because if I’d taken a note of the cars parked next to me, I could find them in future and set them on fire.

Life’s a gas

Apropos nothing…

Cost of filling a car with petrol in the US: $62 (£36).

Cost of filling a car with petrol in the UK: £71 ($142).

Comes with music. And stupidly large bills

Is Nokia’s Comes With Music deal one of the dumbest digital music deals ever struck? Could be!

The deal, which enables the phone firm to give users unlimited music downloads, could cost Nokia a fortune.

The Register has learned that Nokia must pay the wholesale per-unit rate for downloads over a certain ceiling - believed to be 35 songs per user.

Morrissey, racism and the NME

No, not that story. This one.

It seems that Morrissey has stepped in to save the Rock Against Racism event after the NME, which was sponsoring the gig, pulled out. So Moz is saving anti-racists from the NME. Blimey.

Elsewhere, Metallica appear to be considering “doing a Radiohead” and embracing downloaders rather than suing them.

It’s a funny old world.

The war on terror… and dogshit

When the Regulation of Investigatory Powers legislation was introduced, tinfoil hat wearers like me wrote a lot of words about how the rules would be abused. And lo! It turns out that councils are using the anti-terror legislation to find the owners of crapping dogs.

Earlier this month, it emerged that a family in Poole in Dorset had been covertly tracked for nearly three weeks to check if they lived in a school catchment area.

The investigation has also revealed that the law was used in at least seven cases to find out about people who let their dogs foul; a breach of planning law; an animal-welfare case; and an instance of littering

Wanking for coins

The BBC reports that webcam stripping jobs are being advertised in Jobcentres.

“Do you have an internet ready computer and a webcam? If yes, Barcode18.tv is looking for adults aged 18+ for immediate start either from home or from employer site in Mitcham, Surrey.

“Guaranteed minimum wages per 4 hour shift. Duties require the successful applicant to be nude/semi-nude.”

Under the heading “webcam operators” the company said it offered £10 an hour with 50% commission.

If you liked NYPD Blue or Hill Street Blues, you’ll like this

…because it’s great.