Investing in Indulgences

Paraguay expects over US$1 billion in Singapore carbon credit investments

Paraguay's government expects investments from Singapore in carbon credit projects to exceed $1 billion, Environment and Sustainable Development Minister Rolando De Barros said on Wednesday, as a delegation from the Asian nation visited Asunción led by Sustainability and Environment Minister Grace Fu Hai Yen, accompanied by 20 business executives.

De Barros said President Santiago Peña received the delegation and expressed confidence that if “all processes of interest with Singapore are completed, more than $1 billion can be generated between both governments,” without specifying a timeline for the investments, EFE reported.

A chap is bound to wonder if Ed Miliband has looked into this. Would it be cheaper and less destructive to replace the entire UK Net Zero policy with bits of paper purchased from Paraguay?

Starmer faces calls to quit not quitting and just quit

Starmer faces calls to quit after revelation Lord Mandelson failed vetting for US ambassador role

Security concerns about appointing Lord Mandelson as UK’s chief diplomat in Washington were overruled

Sir Keir Starmer is facing calls to resign after it was revealed Lord Mandelson failed security vetting but still became ambassador to the US.

The Prime Minister has been accused of misleading parliament after repeatedly insisting due process was followed in the appointment of the disgraced peer and that he had been vetted in the normal way.


Maybe someone is counting the number of times Keir Starmer has faced calls to quit, but this security vetting malarky does miss the starting point of the whole debacle, the starting point which everyone knows anyway -

How the blue blazes did anyone in government, including Sir Keir Rodney Starmer, how did they ever imagine for one millisecond that Lord Mandelson was a suitable candidate for British ambassador to the United States?

Lens Making in the 1600s

Interesting video on how Antoni van Leeuwenhoek might have made the tiny lenses he used to make hundreds of simple, single lens microscopes using techniques he kept secret.

EU Raises Price of Indulgences

Brussels sets new CO2 price – EU drives up import costs in the middle of the crisis


In the midst of the tense situation surrounding the Iran war, the EU Commission in Brussels has set the first fixed CO2 price for its new border tariff, thus creating an additional cost risk for importers, industry and agriculture. For the first quarter, the reference value is 75.36 euros per certificate of the CO2 border adjustment mechanism CBAM. Imports of steel, aluminum, cement and fertilizers are affected. The fees will apply to imports from January 2026, while the necessary certificates will not have to be purchased until 2027. The critical point, however, lies in the timing of this decision, because supply problems and rising costs are already massively burdening the markets due to the Iran war. The main consequence is therefore clear: companies have to plan for new additional costs, farmers continue to come under price pressure and Europe's dependence on sensitive supply chains remains.


Meanwhile -

Million-dollar fraud with invented wind farms

The German case is so destructive because it hits the core of the business. According to reports on the ARD documentary, Hendrik Holt is said to have obtained around ten million euros with accomplices and relatives. Alleged wind farms were sold to foreign energy companies, although these projects did not actually exist. In addition, according to reports, there were forged documents, bogus structures and bribery. The judiciary sentenced Holt to almost nine years in prison. So the damage did not occur in spite of formal processes, but in the middle of them.

Eco-Dentistry

 

Something Zack Polanski and the Green Party could pursue is dentistry without links to the hated oil industry via local anaesthetics such as lidocaine. 

Unfortunately for eco-zealotry, this is produced via various chemical pathways beginning with such oil-derived compounds as xylene. 

Maybe the Green Party could promote eco-dentistry without anaesthetics at all? 

As an alternative to oil industry pain relief they could promote dentists' chairs with straining bars attached. Eco-patients would take a firm grip of the bars during the more painful eco-procedures.

Alternatively and with Zack's background, hypno-anaesthesia could be promoted as a way to enhance the efficacy of the straining bars.

Beefed-up Becomes Beefed-down

'Corrosive complacency' - Lord Robertson tears into Starmer and Reeves in extraordinary intervention on defence spending 

Labour's ex-defence secretary accuses the prime minister of risking the country's security by dragging his heels on how the government will fund a beefed-up military in the face of the growing threat from Russia.

UK military chiefs asked to find £3.5bn in savings - and get ready for war

Insiders told Sky News that military top brass are meeting to discuss funding pressures - at a time the government also wants to carry out a programme of re-armament.

Okay - but at what age do they grow out of it?

The age at which children begin to exhibit deceptive behaviour

• A new study has explored the age at which children begin to exhibit deceptive behaviour, with some parents reporting recognition of the concept as early as eight months old.
• Published in the Cognitive Development journal, the research involved surveying parents of more than 750 children aged up to 47 months across the UK, US, Canada, and Australia.
• Findings indicate that about a quarter of children understand deception by 10 months, and half by 16 months, becoming more adept fibbers by the age of three.
• Elena Hoicka, the study's lead author from the University of Bristol, highlighted how children's understanding and use of deception evolves significantly in their early years.
• Researchers identified 16 types of deception, noting that younger children's deceit is often action-based, while older children employ more complex tactics like exaggeration, fabrication, or withholding information.