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Romantic pub-crawl for two

G & I made the train journey to Birmingham yesterday, to celebrate Valentine's Day in style.

( The beers and ciders and pubs )

Then we had an accident in Waterstones, and came home to eat home-made chickpea curry and watch Crusade on DVD :-)
(All done from memory :-)

UK smoking laws

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4714992.stm

"Smoking will be banned in all pubs, clubs and restaurants in England from the summer of 2007."

I support the so-called 'smoking carriage' option as a fair balance between freedoms: a properly isolated room, where customers can take their food and drinks, but the staff do not go during working hours. This also protects small businesses.

I wish I knew...

... whether these adverstising-supported 'click to trigger a donation from our sponsors' Website actually are any net benefit to the causes they're supposed to advance:

http://bigcats.care2.com/

We're not running out of oil!

But there is a high chance that the mis-match between global energy demand, and the rate of production of conventional oil, will cause significant economic shocks in the coming decade. The situation could be somewhat analogous to the Depression of 1929, and could require measures on the order taken by Britain during World War II to survive. However, the best available model so far could be Cuba:

http://www.beyondpeak.com/cuba-beyondpeak.html

"Cuba has already been through economic collapse as a result of the shortage of energy resources. That happened after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989 and Cuba lost its primary sugar market and the source of almost all its petroleum. The Cubans rose to the occasion, and today are a model of sustainability for the rest of the world."

Statement for debate

'Smoking carriages' give smokers the proper freedom to find their own balance of rights and responsibilities.

Edit: This is a touchy issue - please stay civil, and I'll be back as soon as I can be...