Why are there so many MX5 convertibles in Edinburgh?

I don't know whether there really are more MX5s in Edinburgh, but that was my impression from being there for a couple of days last October. You'd see two or three an hour, rather than one every few hours where I live (Essex).


Picture from Gumtree showing an MX5 Mk1 in front of the Forth Bridge, of little relevance to this post.

As others have pointed out, Great Britain is pretty much the optimum latitude for open-topped cars. If the sun is blasting down all the time, it gets uncomfortably hot and what you need is a roof and air-con; if it is below 10 deg C most of the time, it is too cold and you need a roof and heating. For open-topped driving, what you really need is daylight and a moderate temperature. And we have to make the most of what little sunshine we get.

The only explanation I can think of for the prevalence of MX5s in Edinburgh v Essex is the much longer evenings in summer. Assuming everybody gets home from work around six o'clock and likes to go for blast in the evening, for six months of the year, you get no daylight whether you are in Edinburgh or in Essex. Whether it got dark at three o'clock or at four o'clock is neither here nor there.

But during the summer, in Edinburgh you get up to an hour more daylight than in Essex; that makes a huge difference to the number of useable hours.

That Top Gear expedition got nowhere near the North Pole.

They showed that episode again over the holidays, all great TV and so on, but if you pay attention at the end, the co-ordinates on the satnav shows latitude 78 deg.

Wikipedia's write-up says that they reached the Magnetic North Pole, which is very close to the true/geographic North Pole (which has latitude 90 deg, obviously).

Not true, they had reached the Geomagnetic North Pole, which as the map in the previous link shows is hundreds of miles further south. They set off from Resolute, which has latitude 74 deg, which is to the north of the geomagnetic North Pole, so on the outward journey they were heading south (or south-east or south-west or whatever).

So AFAICS, epic fail.

Short List

Rivers called "Don".

Any advance on two: one in southern Russia and one in Aberdeenshire?

Via the comments: there's another one in South Yorkshire and another one in Ontario.

Fun Online Polls: Is it racist & countries smaller than Israel.

The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

Is it racist if a black British woman tells a woman in a full-face burka to go back to her own country?

Yes - 40%
No - 60%

A good turnout with 126 votes. Thanks to everybody who took part.

I was with the majority on this one.

It is clear that "Jewish" is both a people/race and a religion, and there is a ninety percent overlap between "Hindus" and "Indians", in which case it would be impossible/futile to say whether criticising members of either group simply for being members of that group would be 'religionist' or 'racist'*, but Islam is not a race. It's not even a religion if you ask me, it's an inferiority complex/massive grudge against 'everybody else'.

* Unless somebody could show that he dislikes all Indians equally, be they Hindu, Sikh, Christian or Muslim. That would just be racist but at least no religious prejudice involved.
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Just for fun, this week let's have a geography/general knowledge quiz: "Which of the following has a smaller surface area than Israel?".

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

Short List

Areas in Europe called Galicia.

Bayard adds: Galatia (ancient place name in modern Turkey)

Short List

I watched the last episode of Maps: Plunder, Power and Possession yesterday, and another short list sprang to mind:

Continents whose names don't start and end with the letter "A"

Or for an even shorter list:

Continents whose names don't start and end with the same letter.

Songs about long road trips usually end in California

Chuck Berry: Promised land
Start: Left my home in Norfolk, Virginia...
End: Los Angeles give me Norfolk Virginia... Tell the folks back home this is the promised land callin'

Nat King Cole: Route 66
Start/end: It winds from Chicago to LA

Roger Miller: Me and Bobby McGee
Start/end: From the coal mines of Kentucky to the California sun

Lobo: Me and you and a dog named Boo
Start: I remember to this day the bright red Georgia clay
End: I'll never forget the day, we motored stately into big LA

Is power shifting eastwards or westwards?

From Free Critical Thinking:

Financial capitalism and the ruling elites, which control it, have no national loyalty or interest, they move to reap the fattest harvest.

Thus in the 19th century, the British empire was the vehicle for world domination until Britain's demise in the 20th century shifted attention westwards to the USA. Now that America is in decline, focus is shifting eastwards to China.

Nope.

The oldest empires were Asian or Middle Eastern, then came the Egyptians and the Greeks, then the Romans, then the British Empire etc, the centre of power (if by that you mean the capital cities and trading centres such as major ports and harbours) was clearly shifting westwards at a leisurely pace.

Then came the "American century", which had also been colonised from east to west.

The next shift was from America to Japan and possibly Korea in the latter part of the twentieth century, which is clearly another westward shift (across the Pacific - presumably Hawaii was the world centre of power for a few months in 1973).

Those two countries are now also in relative decline and we observe the rise of a massive state-cum-conglomerate trading under the name "The People's Republic of China" run by a nominally Communist Party, which is based on mercantilism, land speculation, political and financial repression, intellectual property theft and most of all, slave labour, which from Japan and Korea's point of view is yet another shift westwards.

So presumably it will be Russia's turn next and give it a century or two, the Europeans and then the British will be top dogs again.

"Alan Partridge finally puts Norwich on the map"

From ITV News:

The nation's cartographers were celebrating this evening after fictional DJ Alan Partridge finally put Norwich on the map.

Hitherto, larger scale maps indicated the approximate location of the semi-mythical settlement but it was absent from local maps. Ordnance Survey maps will now be hastily updated to show the town's precise location.

Norfolk Broads

TomTom and Garmin are expected to follow shortly.

A spokesman for the Highways Agency confirmed that they held a stockpile of road signs showing distances to Norwich of ten miles or less in a warehouse at an undisclosed location.

"After the Worboys Committee, we ordered all the signs necessary, but we only actually used the ones saying that Norwich was at least ten or fifteen miles away," he added.

Las Vegas showgirls

"We simply didn't know where to stick the ones saying 'Norwich 1 mile' or 'You are now entering Norwich'. So we cheated a bit and set them up so as to send drivers on a meaningless circuitous route between Lowestoft, Thetford and Cromer, in the vague hope that motorists would get bored after a few hours and go home again.

"So far, it seems to have worked."

Branches of McDonalds and Burger King in East Anglia are competing to offer their own take on the traditional 'spine in a bap' recipe as soon as their master chefs have made their way to Norwich and uncovered the secret recipe.

Shangri-Las

The insurance giant Aviva changed its name from "Norwich Union" four years ago after branding consultants convinced the board of directors that calling a company after a town which possibly did not even exist would make it look lightweight.

Sector analysts confirmed that a return to the old company name was thought likely. "But if they dropped 'Norwich' so that people took them seriously, why did they go for 'Aviva'? It sounds like some sort of women's product."

'Atomic' by Blondie

The Ministry of Defence refused to comment on rumours that a top-secret nuclear bunker had been built there in the 1950s on the basis that the Russians were hardly likely to bomb a place which they could not locate and were not even sure existed.

Their spokesman would only confirm that the 12" version was really good, because the B-side is a live version of 'Heroes' with Robert Fripp on guitar.

Highway to Hell

Printing salesman Martin Kirkby, 50, of Huddersfield reminisced:

"When I was younger and felt suicidal, I talked myself out of it by asking whether I wouldn't rather move to Norwich. Firstly because I'd be able to change my mind and move back home again.

"And secondly, because wherever I was and however bad things seemed, remaining alive seemed preferable.

"As to where Norwich is? I have Norfolking idea."

It would have been fun if this had happened a few miles further east

i.e. if this had happened here.

River Uck

There was a reader's letter in VIZ a while ago (or maybe it was a Top Tip) which pointed out that people would regularly deface the signs saying "River Uck" by adding one or two letters - it wasn't clear which letters, or what the joke was - and that the council could save a lot of money by just changing the name of the river.

I crossed that bridge today, when I came to it, and note that there has been an outbreak of commonsense. The sign is no longer a rectangle, but is shaped so that there is simply no room for extra letters, here's my artist's impression (the double line denotes the edge of the sign):

Short Lists

It's a very short one, I suspect there is only one item on it: "US soap operas called after a hill in south east Essex"

The end of a fine Eurovision tradition

I don't mean that Terry Wogan doesn't do the sarky comments any more, this is more fundamental!

When I was a lad, only proper European countries entered the Eurovision song contest, but then they went a bit mad and allowed Israel to enter.

Cue much heated debate at school about whether Israel was actually a European country or not, primarily done to wind up Collins (who was Jewish). Then the same all over again when Turkey was allowed to enter, much muttering and spluttering about whether it's a European country or not (quite clearly it isn't - it's not on the continent of Europe, and unlike Israel, doesn't even have any European inhabitants).

And so on and so forth. Every time they allowed yet another even-less-European country enter, there was much Righteous Indignation (especially if such a country won).

In the smart arse corner, then there is usually somebody who points that Eurovision is merely the name of an international television distribution network, which happens to have named the song contest after itself, and this does not imply that it is restricted to European competitors only (in the same way as the British Grand Prix is not restricted to British Formula One drivers).

But it seems that nobody can be bothered to do the curmudgeonly thing and point out that Azerbaijan is not, repeat not, a European country. It has borders with Chechnia, Georgia, Armenia and Iran, FFS. So I'll have to do it myself.
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Geek points for the first person to point out that Eurovision is the name of a television distribution network and is not meant to imply that the competition is restricted to entrants from European countries etc.
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UPDATE. Here's my personal opinion of which countries are European and which aren't. There are a few countries which I'd consider to be 'Not really Europe', the fact that they aren't Arab or Asian either is not my problem. Romania just scrapes in because it uses the Latin alphabet and is predominantly Christian. Plus, it gives us access to those strategic Black Sea ports.

UPDATE UPDATE: In the original version of my map I wrote 'Europe' rather than 'European' which led to some confusion, so I have amended it for clarity:

Epic Fails

Hartlepool is not in Northern Ireland.

Tandridge is nowhere near Swindon.

Unusual Drug Smuggling Route Of The Week

I'd always assumed that Mexican drug smugglers used boats to ferry the stuff to the UK.

Apparently not. According to the News of the World, Mexican smugglers take the difficult overland route across at least a dozen US states and Canada, and then load it onto boats in Newfoundland:

NIMBY Of The Week - Update Update

Welshblogger has found another map which shows that the edge of the cutting through which the proposed Birmingham to London high speed rail line will pass will just clip the schools at the north east corner of Chipping Warden (and not run a mile or two to the south west, as we had assumed).

Luckily, that map (click link for full version) also has a vertical scale at the bottom showing that the cutting will be over ten metres deep (the scale on the bottom right is metres above sea level, not feet - I've checked and the village is reported to be 152 metres above sea level, not 152 feet). Therefore, the high speed train will be virtually inaudible in the village itself and nothing to worry about.

NIMBY Of The Week - update

Bayard has uncovered what appears to be yet more NIMBY untruthinesse in that article:

... the Labour government announced that the proposed £30 billion high-speed rail link between London and Birmingham would cut through a stretch of land 200 yards from her house in the village of Chipping Warden, Oxfordshire.

Nope.

According to Google Maps, Chipping Warden (red marker) is about half way between Banbury and Daventry:
Here's the map of the route (from Wiki), which shows the line a mile or two to the south west of Chipping Warden:

It's a conspiracy, maan!

From that article again:

"Conspiracy theorists have suggested that the route of the proposed rail line ploughed through rock-solid Tory constituencies on purpose given that the constituents were unlikely to vote Labour anyway."

It's high speed rail! They go in straight lines! The article helpfully includes a map of the planned route, looks like a straight line to me:

And as the General Election results map shows, you'd be hard pushed to draw a straight line - or any sort of line, come to that matter - starting from London (the little red patch in the south east corner) that doesn't go through 'rock solid Tory constituencies' (i.e. the blue bits):

GPS or ESP?

Pavlov's Cat has the details.

Monday funnies

An article in today's City AM raises two issues:

1. That a vague grasp of geography is useful when relocating your head office:


2. The article also refers to this fascinating bit of research:

UK tax refugees stoke offshore property prices

Most offshore tax jurisdictions within easy reach of Britain are bucking the European property market slump as wealthy Britons prepare for an exodus from harsh UK tax rises, according to a survey by The Sovereign Group.

Property values in Monte Carlo and Gibraltar, two of the most prominent European destinations for "ex-pat" money, are holding firm or increasing while prices around them on the Cote d'Azur and the Costa del Sol have plunged by up to 50%. Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle of Man and Geneva are also enjoying trend-bucking strength in their housing markets.

"The facts speak for themselves here," said Howard Bilton, Chairman of The Sovereign Group. "Property prices in the south of France and southern Spain are languishing in the worst slump they’ve seen in many years but on their outskirts are two little areas – Monaco and Gibraltar -- where the market is extraordinarily resilient. We believe, and all our local sources are telling us, that much of this disparity is because of interest from a new breed of British tax refugee as the UK government's tax-and-spend folly begins to bite."

Yup, this phenomenon is exactly as I predicted here. To cut a long story short, it is a government's job to make a country the nicest possible place to live; if it does this properly, rental values go up.

One of the things a government can do to make a country more attractive is to cut income tax rates, or as is illustrated by the research, keep your tax rates stable while surrounding countries increase theirs. The net present value of the tax saving that a tax-exile expects flows straight through into higher property prices in the tax haven, hence the slogan "All taxes come out of rent", or, in terms of Ricardo's Law of Rent, a £1 income tax cut just leads to an increase in rents of nearly £1, and, depending on the discount rate you apply, a jump in property values of well over £10.

So although I am a rabid tax cutter, I'd like to see taxes cut for the benefit of present and future generations of everybody in general and the productive economy in particular, rather than the narrow and static class of "people who happen to own UK land and property at the time that tax rates are cut", hence why it is important to have some sort of tax on property or land values in place before you start slashing taxes on incomes and output, to prevent the tax cuts just leading to another property price bubble (albeit a semi-permanent one).