Tim Worstall

But technology has changed over the past few years. The infrastructure is now built on Microsoft’s Windows operating system, and the cash machines themselves can be remotely diagnosed and repaired online. Unfortunately, this means that PIN codes have started to “leak” along the way — suggesting that industry guidelines on encryption are not always being [...]

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THE House of Commons has shredded more than 1m documents detailing expenses claims by MPs that were due to be revealed to the public. The Commons authorities said last week they had destroyed all documents for MPs up to April 2004, even though official guidelines state that such records should be kept for six years. [...]

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I’m always a sucker for responding to get rich quick ads. I’m always wondering whether anyone ever comes up with anything new, or whether it’s just the same old, same old, tricked out with a few new words. So when a man who claims to be Bernard Eley emails me with an introduction to the [...]

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No, really: Popular vitamin supplements taken by millions of people in the hope of improving their health may do no good and could increase the risk of a premature death, researchers report today. So, Linus Pauling was wrong then. But Patrick Holford, a nutritionist who has formulated supplements for the company Biocare, said: "Antioxidants are [...]

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The EU is being urged to take action to stop a biofuel trading scam that exploits US agricultural subsidies and undermines the fight against global warming. Up to 10% of biofuel exports from the US to Europe are believed to be part of the rogue scheme reaping big profits for agricultural trading firms. The "splash [...]

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Check the date. Flying pengiums indeed.

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Here. Most amusing.

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The country really is upside down, you know? A town planner has become embroiled in scandal after she allegedly demanded sex in exchange for approving millions of dollars of unlawful developments. So, you’re a developer, needing planning permission. 32 year old Aussie blonde female (not a bad looker, certainly not a munt) says, well, you [...]

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Just a short note to boost my post over at the other blog on the subject of Pay-Ads.com. Anyone who would care to help get out the message about said Pay-Ads.com please do so by linking with Pay-Ads.com as your anchor text and linking to the post on the other blog.  

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American Elements has launched something called AE Bullion. This post should be considered as a warning not to actually buy any of their products. Los Angeles based American Elements announced today the launch of AE Bullion™. The new product group will mint certified high purity coins and bars from approximately sixty advanced, rare and less [...]

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There’s two things to be said about this idea: Aromatherapy, homoeopathy and other popular complementary therapies are to be regulated for the first time under a government-backed scheme to be established this year. Is the regulation going to be evidence backed? If so, does that mean we’ll see Deepak Chopra struck off (ooooh, we can [...]

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From a US judgement: For the Q-Ray Ionized Bracelet, by contrast, all statements about how the product works—Q-Rays, ionization, enhancing the flow of bio-energy, and the like—are blather. Defendants might as well have said: “Beneficent creatures from the 17th Dimension use this bracelet as a beacon to locate people who need pain relief, and whisk [...]

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What is shocking about the rigged poll is not the fact of electoral manipulation, but its blatancy. President Kibaki’s partisans barely troubled to cover their tracks. So another African politician stole an election. And? Deepak Lal’s view of governments, that they are simply robber barons leeching off the populace, is seen as somewhat extreme. However, [...]

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Well, yes, I think we’ve all rather been waiting for the other shoe to drop, haven’t we? Tommy Sheridan, the flamboyant Scottish politician, was yesterday charged with perjury in relation to a £200,000 libel trial. It’s over the libel trial of course: During the case the judge, Lord Turnbull, warned that a criminal investigation into [...]

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This is interesting: Supermarket giant J Sainsbury has agreed to pay £26m to the Office of Fair Trading to settle a long-running investigation into the price fixing of milk, cheese and butter. The OFT concluded in September that supermarkets including Sainsbury, Tesco and Asda has colluded to fix the prices of milk and cheese, costing [...]

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…I think we might actually have evidence that someone, somewhere, in the Labour Party actually has a brain. I know, hard to believe, but here’s the story. As Guido points out, the Abrahams donations were not permissible. They’ve also not been declared for 30 days. Thus, under the rules brought in by the current bunch [...]

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Within the law but not within the spirit of it perhaps? Labour officials helped lawyers acting for David Abrahams to draw up complex covenants that allowed the millionaire businessman to pay up to £650,000 indirectly to the party, the Guardian has learned. The arrangement, which was set up four years ago, was regarded as a [...]

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Now isn’t this interesting? The Electoral Commission has asked Labour to explain how David Abrahams was able to give almost £400,000 to the party without his name appearing on its register of donors as the law requires. Mr Abrahams, a property developer, has admitted covertly donating money to Labour by giving it to two of [...]

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Right now, though, a fierce debate is raging between those, like me, who trust homeopathy because it works for them, and those who call it shamanistic claptrap, without clinical proof or any scientific base. Err, Jeanette, it’s possible for both to be true. That it is shamanistic claptrap andthat it works for you. Because you [...]

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Identified?

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