Robots test their own world wide web

Robots have started to test their own world wide web for learning and communicating together. a "global brain" for robots is being developed by Philips and five European universities.

According to the BBC

"The eventual aim is that both robots and humans will be able to upload information to the cloud-based database, which would act as a kind of common brain for machines."

I can only assume that Terminator 2 or iRobot are not very often watched around the continent. 

President Hollande has an affair

Speaking to a French colleague it would appear that in the UK we are as obsessed  (if not more so) about Hollande's affair than they are in France, The general feedback from the French has been that they are not really surprised, not sure if this is because of him, or because they don't see anything unusual about someone having an affair, but it certainly seems to be of more curious interest than the shock we are treating it with.

Still I have at least learnt a new phrase gauche caviar (The Caviar left) basically this is the french equivalent of our own champagne socialist, which just goes to show that wherever you live socialism exists to take money from the poor and give it to the rich.

Unfortunate Penalty Kick

Whilst searching youtube for the Penalty by Jason Puncheon I came across this video of open goal misses. I'm sure there will be sympathy from anyone who has missed an open goal.

Unfortunately Jason Puncheon's missed penalty isn't on here as it is from 2013, but I am pretty sure he will get a role on next years video.

Goodbye Jermain, Thanks for the Memories

So news has come out today that Jermain Defoe has agreed to join Toronto (And former Spurs player Ryan Nelson) at MLS side Toronto, He doesn't straight away so will still play out a few Spurs games (not often you get football players working their notice period) and I am sure will get a great send off at the Lane.

For me Defoe was the highlight of the Spurs team for many years, in recent years he was occasionally sidelined but was always there ready to be called upon, there has been talk of him joining other teams (And he did join Portsmouth for 1 year.) but he has never seemed to be getting stroppy if he was carrying the whole team or sat on the sidelines I always felt that when needed Defoe would be there and would give his all - funnily enough I remember speaking to a West Ham fan after we signed him who said that he had no Loyalty and he would be off if the going ever got tough, Looks like he proved them wrong.

So farewell Jermaine Defoe, good luck in Canada\America and know that you will always be a Spurs Legend.

Years	Club	Played	Goals
2004–2008	Tottenham Hotspur	139	(43)
2009–	Tottenham Hotspur	135	(47)

Goodbye to the tax Disc

 

So we are going to see the end of the Tax disc in October. Personally I have thought it outdated for quite a while now and in fact when I ride a motorbike I very rarely rode with my tax disc on show and in all the years I rode I never once was asked for it. (And in fact to be honest even in the car it was normally a month or so before I managed to get the disc into the car.)

I think perhaps the more interesting announcement by George Osborne was that you can now pay your road tax (I know - Vehicle Excise Duty) by monthly direct debit, surely this is great news for people on a lower income as I always remember the stress of trying to come up with the money to pay my 6 month road tax which quite often amounted to a couple of weeks wages and so was not exactly easy to come by.

Gambling in the High Street is already controlled

I read an article on the Guardian this morning by journalist Greg Wood, in it he is urging the BHA (British Horse Racing Authority) to fight against the "Toxic" influence of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (Basically machines with casino style games) It was funny as the link I followed on twitter said "Greg Woods has a reasoned look at FOBTs" I did find it very funny therefore when the sub headline read

"British Horseracing Authority must end shameful policy towards toxic presence of betting terminals on high streets"

Obviously my formatting but hardly what I would call  reasoned. more prejudiced and biased would be how I would describe it. essentially the gist of the article is that governments need to do more to protect people from these insidious machines, what they have not taken into account is that like all businesses these machines are already controlled, like all commercial ventures they are controlled by Supply and Demand, if there was no Demand for the machines then no one would use them and they would close down. It really is that simple, they exist because people want them. I can never understand why this fact escapes certain people, I can only assume it is because certain areas of the country believe that they know what is best for people and can do a much better job of controlling them than if they had free choice.

Another one of the elements that is discussed is that as they can only have 4 of these machines you are starting to get multiple betting shops on each high street, well the answer to this is obvious, cancel the limit of 4 per shop, this is a problem that is caused by government regulation, not because of a lack of it!

I do have one solution that would have an effect on the number of betting shops on the high street but I highly doubt it will prove popular, Stop paying benefits in Cash! If you remove cash benefits and replace them with vouchers that can not be used to gamble you will essentially be stopping a state subsidy to betting shops and market forces will be able to balance up the supply and demand so we only have the number of betting shops that are wanted.

Is Immigration Good or Bad for the UK?

With the opening of the EU to Bulgarian and Romanians there is a great deal of talk over immigration and the argument always seems to fall on the question of "Is immigration good or bad for the UK?" 

Personally my answer to this would be Yes, of course immigration is both good and bad for the UK, after all just about everything that happens will have a positive and negative effect depending on who you are and what you are looking at. Immigration brings many wonderful things with it it terms of diversity and bringing in hard working people that are able to contribute to our society. However there is also potential for it to have negative effects especially for people who are out of work and now have a wider pool of competition and there will obviously be strains on a local economy if we have a situation where there are not enough houses being built for the demand, it is obvious increasing demand would have a negative effect if supply is not also increased.

I do think it is quite funny however when I read articles like this one from Left foot forward and they make the claim that immigration is not a bad thing as

2) Migrants from Eastern Europe are less likely to claim benefits than indigenous Britons
*Not a direct quote as I spell checked it first

Now this "fact" doesn't surprise me at all as I have never believed that people will travel halfway across the world just to live on benefits as after all being an Immigrant takes guts and determination and these are not the qualities of people who want a life on benefits, I think it is much more likely that the migrants who are on benefits came here looking for a better life but instead were sucked into our welfare poverty trap.

My issue with the fact is that if they are saying migrants are less likely to claim benefits than indigenous Britons then are they saying that those indigenous Britons are claiming benefits instead of working, as a life choice? Surely if we are to look at the fact that migrants are in work and not claiming benefits as a success then we should surely recognize that the swing side of this is that indigenous Brits are choosing not to work.
After all if British people are being forced onto benefits due to immigration then this benefit bill needs to be offset against the tax revenues paid by migrants (If the unemployed British were working then the tax revenues would be the same.)

To be honest this backs up what I have found from my own experience so I am not surprised however I have often read from Left Wing commentators that nobody wants to be on benefits but there aren't enough jobs to go round - surely this would therefore create a direct negative to having migration.

Unfortunately I think the truth is that many people who hold both of these incompatible opinions is that:

Migration is good as migrants tend to vote for left wing parties and unemployment is good as the unemployed tend to vote for left wing parties.

For my two-pence worth, I think migration is a great thing and should be encouraged and the answer to the concerns of overcrowding is that we should be getting out there ourselves and understanding a bit of the world outside our own borders.