* Kirsty Walker in the Daily Mail says David Cameron will be his own bespoke iPad app to keep him up to date with government information. (Although he could, of course, save money just be reading this blog.)

At a glance, Mr Cameron will be able to keep up to date with all the latest information from across Government on his 'management dashboard'.

The application - tailor made for the PM - will produce data on polling, unemployment figures, NHS waiting lists and movements in the markets with just the touch of an iPad screen.

It will also give 'real time' news feeds from Google, Twitter and other outlets so the Prime Minister can keep up to date with events in the UK and around the world. Computer programmers inside the Cabinet Office have been working for the past few months on developing the personalised application.

According to reports, the cost of producing the software is estimated to have hit £20,000.

Or instead, we could offer him a subscription to ET for... say, half that amount.

_{It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II}

We still have to decide, like during the First Council of Nicaea, if they are made of the same substance (homoousios), of a similar substance (homoiousios), or of a different substance (anomoios). Maybe a referendum...

By the way, Le Pen was born in La Trinité sur Mer...

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

Of course, Jon was 20 years after the great Bill Hicks dropped a load on Limbaugh. That crater is still smoking.

keep to the Fen Causeway

And now, the conclusion of the exiting tale of the changing of the oven lightbulb.

After mailing the manufacturer and getting the recomendation to use tongue-and-groove pliers (which I had already tried, but without result) I realised that I live in a rental. So before I did something that destroyed the glass and got glass shards all over the oven I decided to give the landlord a chance to fix it. Ta-da! The super was here today and used his pliers and, well, superior muscle strenght and now the light shines again in my oven.

A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!

PORT TOWNSEND, Wash. (MarketWatch) -- Will Iceland get loonie? asked one major Canadian business publication last week. Is that troubled, isolated nation about to shun the European Union and the euro and adopt the Canadian dollar as its currency?

Iceland's fear of the euro collapsing has caused one of Iceland's political parties to openly suggest the idea of going Canadian and dropping the idea of EU membership and currency. (And besides, the just-released see-through Canadian plastic bank notes are waycool.)

Ever since Canadian Business magazine broke the story of Iceland possibly adopting the loonie, the Canadian media has been having a field day with the story. It probably won't happen, but a stable economy (the kind Iceland wants again) needs a stable currency. Like Canada's.

The Bank of Canada, for its part, says it will be glad to sell Iceland all the Canadian notes and coins it wants. And that's all it'll say; it doesn't comment on other countries' monetary policies.

Iceland's krona has taken a battering since the collapse of the country's three major banks in 2007. The country is still struggling to recover from that speculative disaster, and the krona is still being called a glorified poker chip. Iceland's economy may be off life support, but it's still in serious condition.

The krona is roughly 40% from its 2007 peak. Capital controls put in place after the crisis restrict the flow of money into and out of Iceland and keep the currency stable. But if the controls are removed too soon, the krona could crash again, while keeping them for too long discourages foreign investment. Not a good situation.

Joining the EU, which Iceland saw as a way to attain a stable currency, doesn't look like much of a lifeboat these days. Fellow northerner Canada looks like a viable Plan B to some in Iceland these days.

Aside from worries about EU stability, many Icelanders are concerned about the loss of autonomy that comes with joining, particularly if it means less control over their prized fishing industry.

Mirta and I were in Kaua'i for my oldest nephew's wedding. The first 3 days there were very pleasant, then it rained buckets for 2 days. My brother and his family all live in central Texas. One report said that we had 14 inches of rain, which is about what Austin had last year in total. Of course, Mirta and I are used to it in the Pacific NW, but the Texans were not. Funny thing was that the temperature varied little - 16 to 21, night or day, rain or sun.

Now we're in Honolulu. Had a deluge and a nice lightning show last night. Looking OK for some sight-seeing today and tomorrow.

As to turbodiesels (yesterday's OT), we have a Jetta TDI wagon. We average 44 mpg on the road, but we drive the speed limit. Town driving is probably mid-30s mpg, but, since we're rural, highway driving dominates. We'd get higher mileage, but my wife wants automatic trans only. Also, the wagon shape creates turbulent airflow - you can tell by the amount of crap that builds up on the rear window.

They solved the particulate problem (no diesel smell either) with some sort of capture system apparently. It passes California standards easily.

We like our car, except that they 'powered it up' - probably to increase their U.S. market share. The older TDIs here get 55 mpg. The more recent models have way too much horsepower. I can hit 80 mph from 55 in less than 2 seconds, but it's not needed in the least. (I just do it for fun occasionally when I'm passing someone.)

As to speeding in the Pacific NW, the rule is 5 mph more than the highway limit to avoid police problems. Interestingly, most people drive closer to the limit than that. I'm fairly mainstream at about 1 mph over.

paul spencer

Is small business a Good Thing? | Flip Chart Fairy Tales

Small business is, apparently, the Backbone of Britain. And the Backbone of Europe. And the Backbone of America. And the Backbone of Australia. If I could speak another language, I could probably find lots of other places that small business is the backbone of.

We like small businesses. They are much less stuffy than the boring old corporates. They are swift and nimble, unlike the lumbering bureaucracies which take ages to make simple decisions. Small businesses are efficient and decisive because they can't afford to carry fat. Who'd want to `work for the man' in a big dinosaur company when they could be working for a swashbuckling dynamic micro business?

The reality is a bit more complex, though. Small and medium-sized firms, defined by the EU as those with fewer than 250 employees, are actually not that efficient at all. They tend to have lower levels of productivity than larger firms. As the Economist explains:

Fifty years ago on Tuesday, a key report was published that marked the beginning of a change in our relationship with smoking.

Although there had been previous warnings linking smoking and lung cancer, it was the 1962 study by the Royal College of Physicians, Smoking and Health, that really broke through to the public and politicians.

Attitudes in the intervening 50 years have changed enormously.

But in 1962, very few people took the dangers posed by smoking cigarettes seriously.

The Montgomery County (Texas) Sheriff's Office had a big day planned. After becoming the first department in the country with its own aerial drone ($300,000!), they were ready for a nice photo op. And then the drone crashed into a SWAT team.

The Examiner reports a painfully contrived police action-athon: