Of course, one only has enough time in december to squeeze everything in. Too many parties and too many events. However, I am having a quiet christmas this year: with family and some friends....and lots of food. My mum has always told me to put on weight - so there you go. I hope she is satisfied!

UK news: looks like the EU has capitulated to the fishermen's lobby and cod fishing has started once more. I know that the British fisherman has followed most of the EU directives but the other European ones haven't. THe British fisherman has had his livelhood seriously affected and now are not in a mood to bow down to the EU any longer. Fishing has restarted again and I fear that the fish stocks will plummet to levels where they are unsustainable.

We don't learn do we?

Interestingly, the online game I play, EVE-ONLINE, has me mining resources with little care for conservation. Me and mine friends are quite happily strip mining entire systems of their resources and conservation be damned. This attitude is interesting and I can see that one of the reasons is that I don't own the resource that I am mining, I have no interest in its preservation. If I had to pay for the field or had one field in perpetuity - then things may be different and conservation would be a factor. I find this game and the economical side of things fascinating as I am an active player in this.