Shared Interest celebrates 25-year anniversary

Shared Interest celebrates 25-year anniversary, and the new secure online area for members/investors is impressive.

£120 bn industry ignored by the UK election campaign

Doug Parr, policy director at Greenpeace, hit the nail on the head when he said "politicians are stuck in the past and failing to see the future potential of green businesses". No doubt there are a few exceptions, but generally it is a lamentable state of affairs.

 A technician raises maintenance equipment on to a wind turbine at the Scroby Sands facility near Great Yarmouth. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

Tiredness can kill – or get you a £100 fine

Drove back from Germany over night again recently, and this time I managed to avoid a £100 fine for 'oversleeping' at South Mimms Services. In any case, it looks like common sense and/or reasonableness prevailed in the end, as evidenced by the fact that they cashed the £11 cheque I sent them in lieu of the unreasonable £100 fine. See text of cover letter below for your entertainment. Further details of this saga on request.

Dear Sir / Madam,

Reference: ….

When I first came to Britain in 1988 I was glad to leave behind the proverbial German bureaucracy, although somewhat alarmingly I sometimes feel that Britain is well on the way of overtaking Germany in this respect, and the attractive concept of ‘reasonableness’ seems to have been lost in many cases.

This parking fine saga is another example, and I have to say that I find it rather depressing.

One of the pieces of the very comprehensive ‘evidence’ sent to POPLA by ParkingEye indicates that that parking fee for staying more than two hours would have been £11. As indicated previously, I did not see any signs at the car park, so I was unaware of this. I now enclose a cheque for £11, and I sincerely hope that this will be the end of the matter.

Yours sincerely,

A Filbert Way of life

I'm not really into football, but the "10 decades of photos of Leicester City fans" slideshow put together by the Leicester Mercury is superb.

Google and the Loch Ness monster

Article in today's Guardian:
Loch Ness monster: iconic photograph commemorated in Google doodle 

And you can now explore Loch Ness with underwater Street View!

Happy Easter

One of the German terms for daffodil is "Osterglocke", which seems highly appropriate.

Hyperbolic towers

Bought this waste paper basket from a charity shop yesterday:

Spot the difference (or not?) with the hyperbolic tower concept - see Google images here.