Ever felt stupid and glad no one was around?

This is just a quickie as I thought it was sooo funny!

Came to take my blood pressure pill this morning, This particular blister pack was marked with the days, not all of them do.

I had started in the middle on a Thursday, so I was wondering which end to go and so was reading the days.  I was astounded to find it said NOW

How the hell can it know that ? I thought for an instant

Then I realised it was upside down. It really said MON

Hmmmm

REACH - The New Black Death or terminator 4?

In the 14th century the Bubonic plague spread through Europe killing up to 60 % of the population. It was spread by the fleas that infested rats.

In 1984 we had Terminator. If you remember the story, - the machines were taking over the earth and they sent Terminator back in time to ensure their takeover was successful.

Today we have REACH!

REACH stands for Regulation, Evaluation, Authorisation & restriction of CHemicals.

It is a new set of rules dreampt up by the European Union Bureaucrat late one morning after he unexpectedly finished his crossword early. It has now been taken up by the great European  Bureaucratic Machine and is set to destroy life as we know it here in Europe.

The regulations apply to anything made in Europe or imported into Europe. So don't worry rest of the world, you are safe.

It started as a simple idea. Anything that is sold because of its shape is outside of the regulations but anything that is sold because of its chemical composition must be regulated.

So, for example. If I import a pair of scissors, or a knife, into Europe, I have no problem. But if I import an ingot of steel to make a knife or a pair of scissors, I have to pay tens of thousands of Euros as a contribution to the costs of testing the steel to ensure it is not harmful to humans.

If I want to make a piece of paper in Europe, that no problem either. BUT all the suppliers of all the chemicals that go into the paper have to pay tens of thousands of Euros to get each of their products approved, even those that have been used for 100 years or more.

These costs cannot be absorbed by the suppliers, so they have to be passed on to their European customers.

However, the rest of the world does not demand such approvals. So anyone outside of Europe can buy these very same chemicals, without the REACH 'levy', and then sell the paper into Europe because they are selling a shape and not a chemical!

Of course I have given paper as an example because it is my specialist subject, but it applies to tens of thousands of products.

It could be toothbrushes, hair brushes or paint brushes. To make a toothbrush in Europe, the manufacturer will have to pay huge amounts of money to to have the polymer for the handle and the polymer for the bristles approved. But outside of Europe, anyone can make the same brush and import it as an 'object', used because of its shape and not its chemical composition.

THIS IS IN EFFECT A TAX ON ANYONE THAT WANTS TO MAKE ANYTHING IN EUROPE.

But it gets worse.

The 'approval' is called a 'Letter of Access'. If you make or import say 100 tonnes of a product that needs a Letter of Access, then you pay the same fee as someone else that makes or imports 100,000 tones. So, imagine a letter of access costs 100,000 Euros. A large manufacturer needs to add 1 Euro to the cost of each ton, to get his money back. A small manufacturer or importer needs to add 1,000 Euros per ton to get his money back.

So for a chemical that normally sells for say, 500 Euros per ton, the big player will have to charge 501 Euros now, and the small player will have to charge 1,500 per ton. Clearly no one will pay this price and so all the small manufacturers and importers will go out of business.

The common sense way was to apply a levy 'per ton' so that no one is disadvantaged. But when was common sense ever a requirement of state bureaucracy ?

SO NOW, ALL THE SMALL COMPANIES THAT DUTIFULLY PAY ALL THEIR LOCAL TAXES WILL BE ELIMINATED, AND ALL THE LARGE CORPORATIONS THAT HAVE THE SKILL AND THE LAWYERS AND THE ACCOUNTANTS TO AVOID PAYING LOCAL TAX, WILL MAKE EVEN MORE PROFITS AND PAY EVEN LESS TAX.

This of course means that the man in the street will have to pay more tax, to make up for the tax that the big companies are avoiding paying.

With all the small companies eliminated, the few remaining big companies will then be free to apply whatever price rises they wish. We will be at their mercy.

AND FINALLY

Think about new developments!
This testing regime is a huge financial barrier, and it only exists in Europe, not the rest of the world. Small inventors will be wiped out because they cannot afford to bring their inventions to market, or they will be at the mercy of those that already have mega millions! If a small inventor approaches a large corporation, what will happen? The large corporation will say - hey, we will give you a pittance for your idea, because we know you can't finance it yourself!

So where will all the new chemistry and inventions be made? - Outside Europe
Who will gain? - Everyone outside Europe

What will happen inside Europe?

All the chemicals we use will have this 'levy' so all our prices will increase
many of the chemicals we use will become financially nonviable so they will be withdrawn and our technology will slide backwards to the point before they were used.

So from May 1, Europe will start to slide backwards while the rest of the world will race ahead

Kyle Reese where are you?

You need to go back in time and stop REACH ever happening

Rest of the world - you are on a winner, just sit back and watch Europe destroy itself, then take over

time or conspiracy theory?

Sometimes I go off on one. But not in the sense that I go nuts, but my train of thought just wanders off in a weird and uncontrolled direction.

It happened today. I was taking the kids socks off the radiators and pairing up when my mind drifted back to the days where my mum and my grandma would iron everything that didn’t move. This included socks undies hankies tea towels as well as our everyday clothes. You this rarely happens these days and I suddenly thought, is this because we no longer have the time or because we realised we were wasting our time?

I remember grandma donkey stoning the front step!

That got me thinking about time and how people occupied themselves.

I remembered living in China. You would see one man painting a post, another holding the paint pot, another supervising them, and somebody watching him.

Chinese cooking; quick to cook, even quicker to eat, but a huge amount of preparation time.

Then I thought is this all about control?

Governments want to stay in power, in order to do that they need to control the people, and this can take many forms.

You can control their thinking so that they will vote for you.

You can keep them fully occupied so that they don’t have time to think what is wrong or to plot against you.

I wondered, is that what the Chinese government have done over the thousands of years? Encouraged a style of cooking that demands huge amount of personal time. With this style of cooking you know where most people are what they are doing.

In Western countries does the government control our minds by controlling our time but in a different way? How many man-hours spent watching and talking about football? Heavenly people are consumed with a passion for the game? Or any other sport for that matter but football is a good example. Why the vast majority are doing that their minds are not critically assessing the government’s performance, or thinking about what can be done to change it.

And it isn’t just sports. What about TV? I remember when TV started about 5 PM and finished at midnight with the national anthem on just two channels. That gave us all a lot of spare time and the freedom to look around, observe, comment, discuss, and plan.

The government the men working hard and the women fully occupied with such household chores with ironing socks. When people started coming to their senses other distractions were introduced, 24 hour TV, 190 channels, video recorders and now a myriad of variations on catch up TV.

Now that we've all got computers and open access to the Internet and a worldwide knowledge base what have they done? They've introduced Facebook, YouTube and streaming videos so that we use these wonderful machines to numb our minds rather than to use them.

Well I feel better after that, nothing like a good bit of conspiracy theory to wipe the cobwebs from the corners of our minds

Well, lets hope they undo these buckles and let me out of this straight jacket soon, I'm ready for lunch!

USA bring out new $100 bill

I don't now how many of you read my daily newspaper PAPER LEADS, but for those of you that dont, there is an interesting article today about all the new security features in America's new $100 bill.

For those that have not yet fallen asleep, you can view this article by clicking HERE

Happy Friday to you all

Steve

FTA SERVICES LIMITED STILL OWE ME MONEY

People often ask me why I am no longer involved in the Paper Industry Training Association (PITA)

Well I can assure you all that it has nothing to do with the organisation. I wish things were different and that I felt I could rejoin and do more of the free work I used to do.

Keeping the whole thing private has not solved the problem, so maybe now is the time to 'come out' and tell the full story

I may not get my money, but I will feel a lot better when I have told my side of the story. I think the psychologists call this externalisation, ( a form of stress relief). Of course FTA SERVICES LIMITED are welcome to comment

It is all to do with this unpaid invoice - now coming up to FIVE YEARS

I had a verbal agreement with FTA SERVICES. The Carbon Trust would pay £30,000 for the work we would do. Myself and FTA SERVICES would split the money 50-50 after expenses

Now the story begins

This was for work funded by the Carbon Trust

The Carbon Trust paid the money to PITA

PITA paid the money to FTA SERVICES LIMITED

FTA SERVICES LIMITED paid me, for the first part of the contract

When it came to the second part of the contract, things worked out a little different


The Carbon Trust paid the money to PITA

PITA paid the money to FTA SERVICES LIMITED

and there it stopped

There are many websites where you can find out about UK listed companies

HERE for example you can access information about FTA, some of it is free, and some of it you must buy

FTA SERVICES LIMITED have not replied to letters and emails from me, or from my solicitor

As you can all see, the company address is a post office box in Bury Post office, so we could not really send in the bailiffs, or talk to anyone that belonged to FTA SERVICES LIMITED.

For those that want to know more about this

I am going to post all the emails relating to this work, as I still have them all, and you can judge for yourselves  should I have been paid or not

Well more soon folks

Another full week

Good morning world it’s a brand-new day and a brand-new week.

It’s another very full training week. Last week I was in Hampshire giving an intense revision course for apprentices about to take the level III Technical Certificate in Papermaking exam.

Today I have a one-day course, then tomorrow will be travelling there up to Scotland where I will be for the rest of the week doing my bit for Tim Watts’s Machineman Development Programme.

In the last days of March I change my computers to Windows 8. Horrendous! Can’t find what I want, when I do it doesn't do what I want or what I expect. I keep reverting to the old desktop mode but I know I shouldn't.

I think I need training desperately.

My guidelines

Over the years I've worked with a lot of people, heard a lot, and read a lot, and from some of these encounters I have taken just one thing that I classed as ‘golden’ I have used these to guide the way I think and do business.

Tom Nicholson, sometime in the 70’s – it’s not important to know, it’s only important to know where to find out

The World’s Fair, (market traders newspaper), in the mid 80’s – no matter how good your product, no matter how cheap your product, if no one knows it’s there, they cannot buy it

Eddie Felton, in the mid 80’s – timing is everything

BBC Radio Four, (the business program) in the early ‘90’s – packaging sells a product the first time, the quality of what is inside, gets the repeat business

And my guiding quote; Einstein - If you can't explain it to an 8 year old, you don't understand it yourself