You can't hide the truth (but you can obscure it)

Greenpeace is upset about Donald Trump after he pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accord and now says "Climate change is a hoax"

Who is right? - Neither of them.

Donald Trump is wrong - there is absolutely no doubt that the climate is changing. Average temperatures are creeping up, the jet-stream is not following it's 'normal' route and we are experiencing extremes of weather with violent storms, heavy rainfall and droughts becoming ever more common.

Greenpeace is wrong in blaming climate change entirely on the actions of man and suggesting that we can legislate to sort this out.

So what are the facts?

• The earth has been getting steadily warmer for the last 12,000 years
• Carbon dioxide is NOT the most powerful 'greenhouse gas'
• The amount of carbon dioxide in dry air is rising. It was 0.03% when the chemistry books I studied in the early 1970s were written. It's 0.04% now. Some of that is due to industrial emissions, some to vehicles, some to forestry, some to pollution of sea water, some to volcanoes. Global engineering projects could reduce it but we are scared of the impact that could have. It may make things much worse.
• Computer models of climate have been most unreliable so far with up to 400% variation. 
• Even if every bit of ice in the world melted there wouldn't be enough water to create a 'Waterworld'. Sorry Kevin.
• Our method of measuring average temperatures leaves a lot to be desired.
• Cities are warmer than the countryside but most of the temperature gauges are in cities. They apply a 'correction' to allow for this - largely guesswork.
• The places most prone to flooding in the world are also the places where the land is subsiding.
• It's easier to build on a flood plain than on a mountain
• Cow farts produce more greenhouse gases than cars do. So do termites.
• Volume for volume, water vapour produces four times the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide. There is on average 25 times as much of it in air as there is carbon dioxide. That means water vapour has 100 times the effect of carbon dioxide
• In the northern hemisphere if the jet stream is north of you it will be hotter. If it's south of you it will be colder and if it's over you it will be windier and stormy. Slight changes in average temperature can make the jet stream move like a rope being shaken.
• When sea ice in the arctic melts it has no effect on sea levels. Only ice and snow melting on land changes that.
• In the antarctic, when it gets warmer you get more snow. This increases the amount of ice there as it packs down. The antarctic is normally very dry - an ice desert. Wind does blow existing snow about there though.
• Sea levels are rising. They've been doing that since the last ice age by about the same amount each year. We have great difficulty in measuring this since land levels change up and down too. You never hear of that though.

Global temperatures follow patterns of long cool spells - ice ages followed by rapid temperature rises. We've been on a temperature rise for the last 12,000 years and are approaching a peak.

At the peaks climate becomes very unstable for a while before plummeting into the next ice age. We have a record of this available in antarctic ice cores.

Click the graph to see it more clearly.

The ice cores also provide a record of carbon dioxide in the air. In the past there was a much greater amount of it in the air but life survived.

We still can't say with certainty what caused ice ages but suspect variation in solar output and interstellar dust clouds.

Carbon trading won't reduce the amount of carbon dioxide we emit but will make some rich people richer.

If we take care of the environment we'll get:

• Clean water
• Clean air
• More jobs
• Better food
• Healthier
• Fewer extinctions
• Lower cost of living
• A nicer place to live

Have you heard about aerogel insulation? You can put an ice cube over a blowtorch and separate the two with a quarter inch of aerogel. The ice won't melt.

In hot areas we can use air conditioning to cool us down and get higher fuel bills and more pollution OR we can insulate our houses, pay less for cooling and reduce emissions.

In cold areas we can use heating to warm us up and get higher fuel bills and more pollution OR we can insulate our houses, pay less for heating and reduce emissions.

Which do you think the fuel producers want you to do? If governments really want to take action against global warming why don't they help people insulate their homes? Instead of researching new power stations it would make sense to invest in new insulation methods to reduce our power requirements.

The Ultimate Minecraft Survival cheat

How would you like to go into Minecraft in survival or even hard mode and be able to survive attacks, collect resources easily and never run out of food? Oh - and you can breath underwater!

Here's how to do this.

1. Create or have available a world. Before you enter it you'll need to allow cheats to be used in it. To do that choose that 'More World Options…' button when you create the world
   
   and in the next screen turn 'Allow Cheats: ON'
   If you've already created the world in single player mode, press ESC, Open the game to LAN and you can then turn cheats on.
   
   
2. Before you create the new world  copy the following lines of text into your paste buffer:
   give @p diamond_pickaxe 1 0 {ench:[{id:32,lvl:8},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:35,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}
3. Enter the world and immediately press '/' then Ctrl V then press Enter. You'll get an enchanted diamond pickaxe.
4. If you've spawned into the world on top of a hill or side of a mountain use the pickaxe to work your way to a low lying area. If you are attacked you'll find it's pretty effective as a weapon of defense too. Your pickaxe will dig through everything except bedrock and a few other blocks. I spawned in on the side of a hill and I'm going to move to that low area.
   
5. Use the pickaxe to dig straight down four blocks deep. You should now be safe from attacks.
6. Hollow out an area around you three high, five wide, five long.
7. It will start to get dark so give yourself some torches by using this command in the same way as you got that pickaxe by typing in:
   /give @p torch 64
8. Off one side of your area create a tunnel three high and three wide. It needs to be 13 blocks long. Light it with torches as needed. Obviously - dig it away from any cliff. Place a single row of twelve blocks down the middle of this tunnel. There'll be a gap at the far end.They will be removed later so can be any material. That green block at the top of the picture is where I started digging down.
   
9. We now need some command blocks. Command blocks can only be placed in Creative mode so you'll need to switch to that mode by typing in /gamemode c
10. You'll need to type in a command to get the command blocks:
    /give @p minecraft:command_block 1
    
11. Jump onto that row of blocks and turn round place a row of command blocks on the top of the row. Because you are in creative mode they won't be used up. When you place them make sure you are pointing down and not at the previous command block you placed.
    
12. You can now remove the row of blocks under the command blocks
    

    

    
    
    
13. Next we have to configure each of the blocks in turn. This is done in creative mode by right clicking the block. You'll need to change each command block.
    
14. Change each block as in the table below. You'll find it easiest to rightclick the command block then copy the command from here, change to the minecraft window and paste the commands in that.

Block:  1
Type: Impulse
Power: Needs Redstone
Command: /give @p diamond_helmet 1 0 {ench:[{id:0,lvl:1000},{id:1,lvl:1000},{id:3,lvl:1000},{id:4,lvl:1000},{id:5,lvl:9},{id:6,lvl:1000},{id:7,lvl:1000},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

The id:5 value can go up to 1000 but unless you have a clarity mod or something similar all you will see is a white blur. A value of 9 will greatly increase the time you can spend underwater though.


Block:  2
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p diamond_chestplate 1 0 {ench:[{id:0,lvl:1000},{id:1,lvl:1000},{id:3,lvl:1000},{id:4,lvl:1000},{id:7,lvl:1000},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

Block:  3
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p diamond_leggings 1 0 {ench:[{id:0,lvl:1000},{id:1,lvl:1000},{id:3,lvl:1000},{id:4,lvl:1000},{id:7,lvl:1000},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

Block:  4
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p diamond_boots 1 0 {ench:[{id:0,lvl:1000},{id:1,lvl:1000},{id:2,lvl:1000},{id:3,lvl:1000},{id:4,lvl:1000},{id:7,lvl:1000},{id:8,lvl:1000},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

Block:  5
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p diamond_sword 1 0 {ench:[{id:16,lvl:1000},{id:17,lvl:1000},{id:18,lvl:1000},{id:19,lvl:1000},{id:21,lvl:1000},{id:22,lvl:1000},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

Block:  6
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p diamond_pickaxe 1 0 {ench:[{id:32,lvl:7},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:35,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

The id:32 value can go up to 1000 but it becomes difficult to mine a single block at 8 or higher. If you wish, set this value to 10 and get an un-enchanted pickaxe for mining single blocks (/give @p diamond_pickaxe 1 0).


Block:  7
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p diamond_axe 1 0 {ench:[{id:16,lvl:1000},{id:17,lvl:1000},{id:18,lvl:1000},{id:32,lvl:1000},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:35,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

Block:  8
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p diamond_shovel 1 0 {ench:[{id:32,lvl:1000},{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:35,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

Block:  9
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p golden_apple 64 1 

Block: 10
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p arrow 64 0 

Block: 11
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p bow 1 0 {ench:[{id:34,lvl:1000},{id:48,lvl:1000},{id:49,lvl:1000},{id:50,lvl:1000},{id:51,lvl:1000},{id:70,lvl:1000}]}

Block: 12
Type: Chain
Power: Always Active
Command: /give @p torch 64

15. While you are still in creative mode I suggest you make a small area with a 2 x 2 pool of lava, also place a bed in your 5 x 5 area and add a button to your inventory.

16. You are now ready to go back to survival mode. Do that by typing:
    /gamemode s
17. Now place that button on the first command block and right click it to press it.

Wow - Look what you get! And that doesn't show it all…

Pressing E will show your inventory. Hold down Shift and click on each of the armor items to wear them.

The armor you are wearing is extra strong and has the same effect as touching a cactus. You can breath under water. Anything attacking you will be repelled. Even if a creeper blows up next to you you should survive.

Eating one of the golden apples you have quickly restores your health if it drops

Your sword, pickaxe, axe and shovel are extra strong and deadly. Hit any food animal and you'll get LOTS of cooked food! Hit a spider and you'll be inundated with spider eyes and string. It's the same for any mob. If a mob does attack you they'll be killed by the thorns applies to your armor.

Your bow and the arrows are extra powerful. Even hitting something with the bow itself is deadly.

Your problem will now be, not getting killed, starving or drowning but having too many items. That's why I suggested making that lava pool to get rid of the excess. Oh - and if you accidentally fall into it, you'll have plenty of time to get out. The same is true if you accidentally embed yourself in sand or gravel.

By now it's probably night so use the bed and you'll reset your spawning point. If you should manage to get yourself killed by forgetting to eat apples when your health is low, you can quickly restore your equipment by pressing the button.

Over time your tools, armor and weapons will wear out but when that happens, just press the button to get a new set. Dispose of the old set in that lava pool

Of course you can now make yourself a storage area and an exit staircase to go explore your world.

If there are problems they will be having tools and weapons which work too quickly and collect too many resources but you can fix that by editing the enchantments in the command blocks. To do that requires another blog to show you how.

If this post has helped you find free ebooks will you help us? Download a FREE copy of our books 'Immortality Gene' from http://smarturl.it/avi or/and Raging Storm http://smarturl.it/botr Even if you never read them (but we hope you will) - it will help our rankings.

Grrr Twitter. You've made things much harder and less useful.

Twitter has stopped sending out individual notifications of replies, favorites, new followers, mentions and retweets. Instead they send a daily email 'Check out the notifications you have on Twitter.'
Their idea was to stop email accounts being flooded with Twitter messages. For some people that may help but for those who use mail filters to sort the former messages and keep a record of who followed you on which date the new daily email is useless because it simply opens the notification area of Twitter where you'll find the notifications unsorted.

• Before I could quickly get a list of who had replied to my tweets and determine if action should be taken. Now I have to sort through the notification area.
• Before I could see who retweeted something and retweet something of theirs. (Much more difficult since Twitter's last change when they stopped including a link to the tweep's page.)
• Before I could quickly get an idea of which tweets were popular (OK I can use Twitter analytics to do that too)
• Most importantly, before I could see who followed me and on what date. A week later I could visit their page and see if they still follow me. Those who unfollow within that week seldom make useful Twitter contacts. The previous emails from Twitter had a button 'Following' or 'Follow'. I could use email filters to mark 'read' those who I already follow and concentrate on new followers who I don't follow. Now I can't do that.

Thanks Twitter, in trying to be helpful, you've made things much harder which means I'll use Twitter less. 

Here's a suggestion for Twitter—give people the option of choosing the old individual emails OR the new daily notification in Twitter's settings. Default to the new settings and let the people who read instructions either choose no messages or detailed messages.

Here's a work around for recording your followers—Each day Twitter will send you that useless 'Check out the notifications you have on Twitter' You'll find it says something useless such as '@joebloggs and 48 others followed you on Twitter' If you are lucky you'll see icons for 14 of these people with no clue about the remaining 34.

I've found that I can create a 'Following' filter in ManageFlitter's Power mode to keep tabs on new followers. ManageFlitter costs $12 per month but I find it's worth it. It's possible the same sort of process could be set up with Crowdfire.

Here's what I set up with ManageFlitter power mode:

ManageFlitter now not only records who follows me but tells me how many hours/days/years ago someone followed me and also filters out a lot of those I wouldn't follow anyway. Since I never follow back until at least a week later it filters out all thos who follow and within days unfollow thosewho don't follow back. That means I now spend less time sifting through followers and Twitter's change might have done me a favour by forcing me to come up with a better method.

Maybe I'll withdraw that Grrr then Twitter.

Are there alien species in the Universe?

On earth there are many species of animals with varying degrees of intelligence. In the past there were several species of intelligent anthropoids. All evolved from a common source. The animals and plants too, evolved from a common source.

Experiments have shown that given the earth’s original atmosphere of carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide  and a source of energy such as lightning, solar radiation, hot rocks or maybe even radiation from other stars then complex molecules such as amino acids will be created and interact.

Given enough time and enough interactions simple forms of life may be created. The first would find conditions very hostile today and would quickly be consumed. In their time, however, there was no competition and a soup of food they could feed on. Here was your common source.

The sun and our solar system are probably very ordinary. Probably very common in the Universe which has an uncountable number of such similar systems. If a planet is the right distance from it’s sun for water vapor to condense to liquid water and is big enough to retain an atmosphere then it’s almost inevitable that life may be produced. Such life will evolve. Life may also evolve on planets which are very different to our own. It may even evolve using liquid ammonia instead of water. Perhaps life may even evolve in the atmosphere of some stars!

Wherever life evolves it will face multiple challenges. Extinction Level Events (ELE) such as impacts, solar flares, nearby supernovas, and now we've detected black hole collisions which are even more violent. All may kill life off but the process will start again. In some cases intelligent life may evolve and be lucky enough to survive long enough to ask this same question. 

“Are there alien species in the Universe?”

Are people over 60 cheapskates when it comes to digital products?

Take a look at this chart:
You will find more statistics at Statista

Looks like those over 60 are reluctant to buy digital media doesn't it? I remain unconvinced, especially where magazines are concerned.

I live in the UK and fall in that age bracket. I would choose the digital version in preference to a paper version. For me, it's far more convenient BUT in many cases I can't buy the digital version on it's own. I have to subscribe to the paper version and then pay extra for the digital version. In the few cases where I can buy a digital version on it's own, I get to pay VAT on my purchase which makes the digital version more expensive.

I would love to buy digital magazines but if I'm

• not paying for the felling of trees, 
• not paying for transport to pulp mills
• not paying for making paper
• not paying to transport paper to printers
• not paying for magazines to be printed
• not paying for the shipping cost of delivering the paper magazine
• not paying for the eventual disposal of the magazine

then I'm damn sure I'm not going to pay extra for the digital version!

The answer to - "Where can I download free ebooks from?"

Strangely, the best place is where you buy ebooks from. All of the big retailers who sell ebooks also offer free ebooks. Of course they don't make money on those so you are unlikely to find them advertising them or even making them easy to find. For years I found doing a search on Amazon for 'free ebooks' produced an impressive list of books with prices. The same was true for Apple, Barnes and Noble (Nook), Kobo and others. They've got a little better now and you can find some freebies with that search but not many among the millions which are there.

Amazon is the biggest ebook retailer and it has a free app which allows you to get books on non-Kindle devices. PCs, iOS computers, Android tablets and SmartPhones. You can even read on Linux and Ubantu using the Cloud Reader and read offline by using the Cloud Reader's 'Download and pin book' option.

Where can you find free ebooks at Amazon?

Try going to one of these links which will take you to the lists of the top 100 free ebooks:

• Best Sellers in Action & Adventure Fiction
• Best Sellers in Action Thriller Fiction
• Best Sellers in Crime Action Fiction
• Best Sellers in Fantasy Adventure Fiction
• Best Sellers in Fantasy
• Best Sellers in Genetic Engineering Science Fiction
• Best Sellers in Historical Fiction
• Best Sellers in Horror
• Best Sellers in Humor & Satire Fiction
• Best Sellers in Men's Adventure Fiction
• Best Sellers in Mystery Action Fiction 
• Best Sellers in Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Action Fiction
• Best Sellers in Paranormal Romance
• Best Sellers in Romance
• Best Sellers in Romantic Suspense
• Best Sellers in Science Fiction
• Best Sellers in Science Fiction Adventure
• Best Sellers in Science Fiction & Fantasy
• Best Sellers in Suspense Action Fiction
• Best Sellers in Technothrillers

If this list doesn't include the genre you want use the links at the left of the page to select the genre you want but make sure you select the 'Top 100 free' tab.

Of course if a book isn't in the top 100, it won't be shown. In that case you'll have to get a link from one of the many book promotion websites. The best known is Bookbub. My personal favorite is Book Barbarian because I like Science Fiction books. Both of these sites will send you a daily email of the genres you like. There are many others. Try a Google search for 'book promotion sites'.

Kindle books are in MOBI or AZW3 format.

What about free ebooks at iBooks?

On a Mac, launch iBooks (if you don’t have it, it's a free download). Click on iBooks Store. On the right, you’ll see a list of 'Quick Links'. Click on 'Free Books'.

On an iOS device, tap 'iBooks', tap 'Featured'. The ones marked 'GET' where the price is normally shown are free. Again, if a book is not 'Featured' you'll need a link or the name of the book to search for it. Here's two of our free ebooks at iBooks - Immortality Gene (a technothriller) and Raging Storm (a paranormal romance).

iBooks are in EPUB format.

Other free ebook sources

Barnes and Noble and Kobo also have free ebooks. Kobo supply ebooks to many other retailers. In the UK that includes Tesco, Sainsburys and WH Smith. 

Smashwords is a great site for ebooks. 

Find Smashwords at smashwords.com

Its advantages are that:

• You can pay via PayPal and for free ebooks you don't have to provide any financial details. 
• It has a price section which includes a prominent FREE area. 
• It's ebooks are available in multiple formats. MOBI, EPUB and others.
• It's also often a fraction cheaper than other retailers for paid books.
• You can actually earn money by promoting ebooks there.
• You may find an author will give away coupons which let you have free or reduced price ebooks there.
• Unlike other retailers Smashwords ebooks don't have DRM copy protection built in so you can move your ebooks onto other devices.

What about Google Play ebooks?

That one's easy - go to Google Play Books and search for 'Free ebooks'. 

Project Gutenberg offers out of copyright books

Find it at gutenberg.org. It offers more than 53,000 free, out-of-copyright books in multiple formats.

What if I have a Kindle Fire and want to read an EPUB ebook?

It's not surprising that Amazon don't offer an EPUB reading app in their store but that doesn't mean you can't install one. You'll need to 'sideload' the app. Get instructions here.

What if I have an e-ink Kindle and want to read an EPUB ebook?

You can't do that. You'll have to convert the ebook to MOBI format then email the ebook to your Kindle device email address. An open source (free) program called 'calibre' can do that if the file is not protected with DRM (get it at Smashwords).

What if I want a PDF ebook?

Yes, it's possible BUT you need to be aware of the risks.

• PDF files are designed for printing not for e-reading. Although most e-reading devices will read them, it's a clumsy process involving lots of scrolling since the text won't flow as it's enlarged.
• PDF files are frequently infected with malware. Why do you think so many pirate sites are out there offering free ebooks? They want to infect your computer. If you MUST have a PDF file, get it from a non-pirate site which won't infect you such as Smashwords.
• PDF pirate copies of ebooks are stealing from the author. 

If this post has helped you find free ebooks will you help us? Download a FREE copy of our books 'Immortality Gene' from http://smarturl.it/avi or/and Raging Storm http://smarturl.it/botr Even if you never read them (but we hope you will) - it will help our rankings.

An open letter to Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble and Kobo (Reductio ad absurdum 4)

Dear sirs,
During the course of an investigation into VAT on ebooks for a UK petition it has come to my attention that you owe me money. Apparently you have been overcharging myself and millions of other customers in 25 of the 28 EU countries.

The problem is your VAT charge. The EU states that ebooks are 'a digital delivery service' and that countries in the EU must charge standard VAT rates for this service. I have no problem with that. However you have charged VAT on the full ebook price rather than on the 'digital delivery' part of the ebook. This charge varies from book to book dependant on the file size. To simplify I suggest you apply a standard 10¢ US charge for delivery. In my own country, the UK, this would have a 20% standard VAT rate applied and would cost £0.02 per ebook.

Naturally calculating the refund due to all customers in the EU, (apart from Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Denmark which do not have a reduced VAT charge for books,) would be a tremendously complex task. Getting a refund from VAT paid to the EU might also prove an overly complex task also. As a result I, and I presume the rest of the EU, am prepared to waive any refund due on the understanding that in future you apply no more than £0.02 for digital delivery VAT on each future ebook purchased.

No doubt the EU will query the reduced VAT payable. However I believe you have the means to meet any necessary challenges in court and in doing so will earn the eternal gratitude of your customers. I suspect that the reduced VAT charge will lead to increased sales of ebooks and increased profits for the authors and yourselves. The move to ebooks, in turn, will do wonders for the environment.

You might also warn the proprietors of e-zines and e-newspapers that a similar reduced VAT charge will apply to them.

Yours faithfully

John Chapman

I have seen the truth and it still doesn't make sense!

The EU changed the VAT regulations which apply to digital products on 1st January 2015. To those of us in the UK it meant a 17% VAT increase.

Previously we paid 3% on many Amazon digital products because Amazon shipped them to us via Luxembourg which applied their VAT rate of 3% - the lowest in the EU. From 1st Jan 2015 we were charged the VAT rate of the destination EU state rather than the supplier EU state. The UK therefore have to pay 20% VAT on digital products. (Ireland - 23%)

Does that seem bad? Instead of paying 3% to Luxembourg, we in the UK now pay 20% to the UK. That means we pay more but at least it will be to our own country. Perhaps it means we pay less in some other tax. Perhaps this makes some sense for music and video but there's one area where it makes no sense at all.

From January 1st 2015 the VAT rate on e-books changed too. The change affected all member states. The table at the right shows how the new rates affected e-book buyers in the rest of Europe. As you can see of the 28 countries in the EU five give e-books a special VAT rate. Ireland and the UK zero rate paper books.

In the UK the new rates meant a price rise of at least 17%. That doesn't seem a lot on an e-book which cost 77p formerly. They now cost a minimum of 99p from Amazon (a 29% price rise) but it's far more than inflation was, and a sharp contrast with the zero VAT rate on paper books.

Ask politicians and they'll tell you "Here in the UK, VAT is charged on e-books because they are a service."
They've also said "The EU doesn't allow us to charge a reduced rate."

Let's compare e-books with paper books and see how they compare:

Which of these is a service?

Paper books	E-books
Requires an author	Requires an author
Requires an editor	Requires an editor
Requires formatting	Requires formatting
Trees need to be felled (requires oil)	Not required
Timber needs to be transported to papermill (requires oil)	Not required
Papermill manufactures paper with some waste sludge (requires some oil)	Not required
Sludge needs to be disposed of (requires oil)	Not required
Paper needs transporting to printer (requires oil)	Not required
Ink needs manufacturing (requires oil)	Not required
Books need to be printed (requires oil)	Not required
Books need to be transported to distribution depot (requires oil)	Not required
Sales team need to visit retail outlets (requires oil)	Not required
Books need to be transported to retail outlets (requires oil)	Not required
Customer needs transport to bookstore and back (requires oil)	E-books are delivered direct to reader electronically.
Surplus unsold books need transport back to printer (requires oil)	Not required
Surplus requires storage or redistribution or pulping (requires oil)	Not required
Book pulp requires cleaning of toxic ink and disposal of the toxins (requires oil)	Not required

As you can see far more 'services' are required in the production of paper books than in the production of e-books. 

So:

• The EU and the UK have a declared aim of reducing carbon emissions, yet favour paper books which produce carbon emissions, at the expense of ebooks. It's been estimated that 95% of the carbon dioxide emissions could be eliminated by switching to e-books. Despite that, Reuters reported on 7th March 2017:
  

  The European Court of Justice was called to interpret EU rules on value-added tax (VAT) after Poland's commissioner for civic rights questioned whether the system of allowing lower rates only for printed publications was fair.

  The court said the rules allowed EU countries to apply reduced VAT rates to printed but not digital publications even though both met the European Parliament's objective when passing the VAT directive - the promotion of reading.

• The sludge produced by recycling books contains some particularly nasty toxins which are expensive to dispose of safely. A Danish report found some of these products were being introduced into food via recycled paper.

As for the reasons we are given for the 20% VAT charge in the UK -

I have seen the truth and it still doesn't make sense!

Is there hope that VAT will be reduced for e-books? It seems that the EU is happy to support the printing industry but feels it can ignore the wishes of content providers and readers. It sets goals and then ignores them.

So what can be done?

In the UK we are now facing BREXIT. Once that has gone through it will be up to the UK government to set the VAT rate charged for e-books.

I know what makes sense.

You know what makes sense.

It's up to our politicians to prove that to them, content is of more value than the printing press.

• If they fail to do this they are slapping the face of every author, whether that be the author of books, magazines or newspapers because their content is not as valuable as the printing presses.
• It means they don't care about reducing carbon emissions. 
• It means they don't care about pollution. 
• It means that they don't see e-literature as a way of saving schools money.

Once the UK is not bound by EU legislation, Parliament should remove the 20% VAT on e-literature

Ebooks and paid e-literature (electronic newspaper/magazine subscriptions) carry 20% VAT but paper books, newspapers and magazines are zero rated for VAT. In the past we have been told that EU legislation prevents a 0% VAT rate and that e-literature is a 'service'.

Can I steal Windows 10 lock screen images to use as screen background?

Yes you can

Because they are stored on your computer. The windows lock screen images are held in a folder:
%userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState\Assets
If you open this folder you'll find a number of files with no file extension. Some of them are .jpg files and others not. You'll need to copy the folder contents and rename them to find the files you want.
The easiest way to do this is to copy the entire folder 'assets' and paste it to a new, easy-to-find location. Your desktop for example.

• Either back up one level or open %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Windows.ContentDeliveryManager_cw5n1h2txyewy\LocalState
• Right click the folder Assets and choose Copy. Then right click on a blank area of your desktop and choose Paste.
• Go into the folder you just created and shift right click a blank area. Select the option 'Open a command window here'.
• In the command window type ren *.* *.jpg this will change all the files to a jpg extension.

You can now look at all the files and see the contents in a preview pane. (If you don't have a preview pane you can find it under the View tab of the file window). Those files which don't show an image - delete. You'll find two types of image. Full screen landscape ones suitable for laptops and portrait images suitable for mobile phones and tablets.

Downloaded Office files - Removing Microsoft's safety pin

Periodically I download from my bank a spreadsheet of my transactions. Recently though an update to Excel (version 16.0 as in Office 365) stopped these .XLS files from opening. Instead I see a blank page. To view the contents I must now right click the downloaded file, select 'Properties' and in the General tab check the 'Unblock' at the bottom.  It's a pain, especially since Excel will still warn me that the file came from an external source and still ask me if I want to enable editing. It seems Microsoft use belt, braces (that's 'suspenders' in the US) and now a safety pin also.

I looked for a way round this and in an answer to an apparently unrelated question about slow saving of large Word files, I found a possible solution using a registry tweak. It worked and I now no longer have to unblock Excel files from an external source. Obviously, you should only do this with files from sources you trust (can I trust my bank?).

Note: The method to fix the issue will modify the Registry. Before you do this, make sure to back it up and understand how to restore the registry if a problem occurs. Please refer to this link: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/322756 How to back up and restore the registry in Windows.

Using Regedit, go to this registry key address:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Excel\Security\FileValidation
If this doesn't appear to be present, you can create it. If your version of Excel is 15.0 or earlier - just change that to the appropriate number.
Double click the REG_DWORD: EnableOnLoad, set its value to 0 (zero) and restart the PC.

You'll now find you only get two warnings about external files instead of three.

Incidentally this same registry tweak will also help with slow loading and saving of large Office files.

What is LESS dangerous than a terrorist?

Have you ever wondered what is LESS dangerous than a terrorist? 

After considerable research I can tell you. The information is compiled from National Vital Statistics on deaths

Trivial death risks

• Killed as a passenger on a train - odds 1 in 10,300,000
• Killed by explosion of pressurised vessels such as a pressure cooker or tire - odds 1 in 10,700,000
• Killed by being struck by a person - that's being fallen on or bumping into them not fistfights - odds 1 in 11,000,000
• Killed by being bitten by a dog - odds 1 in 16,000,000
• Killed by being bitten or stung by a bug other than bees,wasps or spiders - 1 in 22,150,000
• Killed by ignition of nightwear - odds 1 in 22,150,000
• Killed by excessive  man-made heat or cold e.g. trapped in a freezer - odds 1 in 28,800,000
• Killed by venomous spiders - odds 1 in 28,800,000
• Killed by a flood - odds 1 in 32,000,000
• Killed by unintentional firearms discharge (You intended to fire a blank) - odds 1 in 57,600,000
• Killed by explosion of fireworks - odds 1 in 57,600,000
• Killed while occupant of street car - odds 1 in 72,000,000
• Killed by contact with venomous snakes - odds 1 in 96,000,000
• Killed by a vending machine - odds 1 in 112,000,000
• Killed by shark attack - odds 1 in 264,100,000
• Killed by rabies in USA - odds 1 in 880,000,000
• Killed by a meteor - odds 1 in 765,000,000,000,000,000

Terrorism with a risk of 1 in 9,300,000 is more dangerous than all of these but terrorism is LESS dangerous than this list:

• Earthquakes - odds 1 in 9,290,000
• Scalding by hot water - odds 1 in 8,200,000
• Riding on a bus - odds 1 in 7,200,000
• Stung by hornets, wasps and bees - odds 1 in 5,300,00
• Cave-ins or falling earth - odds 1 in 5,000,000
• Storms - odds 1 in 4,500,000
• Lightning - odds 1 in 4,300,000
• Legal execution in the USA - odds 1 in 4,300,000
• Bitten by mammals other than dogs - odds 1 in 3,800,000
• Falling from high place - odds 1 in 2,800,000
• Overexertion, travel and privation - odds 1 in 2,250,000
• Accidental firearm discharge - odds 1 in 1,200,000
• Drowning in bath tub - odds 1 in 800,000
• Alcohol - odds 1 in 800,000
• Falling from a ladder - odds 1 in 700,000
• Falling from a building - odds 1 in 520,000
• Drowning in a swimming pool - odds 1 in 450,000
• Tripping/slipping at same level - odds 1 in 450,000
• Falling off a bycycle - odds 1 in 375,000
• Falling out of bed! - odds 1 in 370,000
• Death at your office desk - odds 1 in 140,000
• Riding a motor cycle - odds 1 in 90,000
• Accidental poisoning - odds 1 in 86,000
• Assault by firearm USA - odds 1 in 24,000

The real risks to your life

All of these pale into insignificance when compared with the real risks to your life:

• Heart disease - odds 1 in 3
• Cancer - odds 1 in 5 (and falling)
• Strokes - odds 1 in 20
• Respiratory disease - odds 1 in 20 (more if you smoke) 
• Diabetes - odds 1 in 30
• Alzheimer's disease - odds 1 in 31 (and rising)

Despite spending billions on a trivial risk - remember falling out of bed is 25 times more dangerous than terrorism - we seem unable to stop it. We could easily cut the risk of heart disease though by just educating people to eat less and exercise more often. The cost in terms of health education advertisements would be trivial compared with the arms budget.

Why doesn't this happen? Why are we so concerned about terrorism?

I suspect the real answer is greed. Not from people overeating but the greed of people who make fortunes persuading people to fight each other. Those who finance, make and supply arms and munitions. For their profit:

• They need to persuade people that terrorism is a serious threat to their lives. 
• They need religious leaders to be at odds with each other. 
• They need preachers of hate to stir up fear in the weak willed, easily led people. 
• They need the media to focus on trivialities and stir up the paranoia which sells their stories.
• They need politicians to be coerced by lobbyist enticements and forced into stupid actions by ill-informed electorates.

We are fighting the wrong people!
Our target should not be the morons but the men in suits ultimately behind them.

An Atheist responds to a Christian

Recently a Christian declared their faith by posting this image on Facebook:

They probably didn't expect much in the way of atheist comments but an atheist did respond with a similar format picture:

One thing I would like to ask Christians (or any other religion) "If there is a god/gods why would they want us to worship them?"

A Home-made Cold Remedy

We all hate getting a cold and no-matter what the advertisements tell you, no tablet or liquid will cure them. Eventually your body will destroy the virus and with it a few of your cells, making you a little bit older.

There is no cure for the common cold (yet) but you can get some relief from the symptoms. Here's a remedy which works well at doing that.

A home remedy

In a tall glass:

• add 2 fingers depth whiskey (use cheap stuff - not the 12 year old malt)
• add 2 fingers depth honey
• add 2 fingers depth lemon juice
• Fill the glass with hot water, stir well and drink.
• Snuggle up in bed with a good book and relax.

If you find your symptoms are not better after an hour or so repeat.

Now I know what some of you are going to say. "I don't like whiskey," but believe me - this tastes nothing like it. It tastes good, relieves a sore throat, relieves congestion and after three of them you won't care about the cold!

As to the good book - download 'Immortality Gene'. It's FREE and you can read about staying young and never getting another cold.

iBook 
Amazon
Nook
Smashwords

I Have Seen The Truth And It Doesn't Make Sense!

The EU changed the VAT regulations which apply to digital products on 1st January 2015. To those of us in the UK it meant a 17% VAT increase.

Previously we paid 3% on many Amazon digital products because Amazon shipped them to us via Luxembourg which applied their VAT rate of 3% - the lowest in the EU. From 1st Jan 2015 we were charged the VAT rate of the destination EU state rather than the supplier EU state. The UK therefore have to pay 20% VAT on digital products. (Ireland - 23%)

Does that seem bad? Instead of paying 3% to Luxembourg, we in the UK will be paying 20% to the UK. That means we pay more but at least it will be to our own country and perhaps it will mean we pay less in some other tax. Perhaps that makes some sense for music and video but there's one area where it makes no sense at all.

On January 1st 2015 the VAT rate on e-books changed too. The change affected all member states. The table at the right shows how the new rates affected e-book buyers in the rest of Europe. As you can see of the 28 countries in the EU five give e-books a special VAT rate. Ireland and the UK zero rate paper books.

In the UK the new rates mean a price rise of at least 17%. That doesn't seem a lot on an e-book which cost 77p formerly. They now cost 99p (a 29% price rise) but it's far more than inflation and a sharp contrast with the zero VAT rate on paper books.

Ask politicians and they'll tell you "Here in the UK, VAT is charged on e-books because they are a service."

Let's compare e-books with paper books and see how they compare:

Which of these is a service?

Paper books	E-books
Requires an author	Requires an author
Requires an editor	Requires an editor
Requires formatting	Requires formatting
Trees need to be felled (requires oil)	Not required
Timber needs to be transported to papermill (requires oil)	Not required
Papermill manufactures paper with some waste sludge (requires some oil)	Not required
Sludge needs to be disposed of (requires oil)	Not required
Paper needs transporting to printer (requires oil)	Not required
Ink needs manufacturing (requires oil)	Not required
Books need to be printed (requires oil)	Not required
Books need to be transported to distribution depot (requires oil)	Not required
Sales team need to visit retail outlets (requires oil)	Not required
Books need to be transported to retail outlets (requires oil)	Not required
Customer needs transport to bookstore and back (requires oil)	E-books are delivered direct to reader electronically.
Surplus unsold books need transport back to printer (requires oil)	Not required
Surplus requires storage or redistribution or pulping (requires oil)	Not required
Book pulp requires cleaning of toxic ink and disposal of the toxins (requires oil)	Not required

As you can see far more 'services' are required in the production of paper books than in the production of e-books. 

So:

• The EU and the UK have a declared aim of reducing carbon emissions, yet favour paper books which produce them at the expense of ebooks. It's been estimated that 95% of the carbon dioxide emissions could be eliminated by switching to e-books.
• The sludge produced by recycling books contains some particularly nasty toxins which are expensive to dispose of safely.

As for the reasons we are given for the 20% VAT charge in the UK -

I have seen the truth and it doesn't make sense!

Is there hope that VAT will be reduced for e-books? EC president Jean-Claude Juncker told the German newspaper association that the commission will next year consider the introduction of a reduced VAT rate for online books and digital newspapers. So - they consider this in 2016 and implement any change in 2017? Do you think that's soon enough?

So what can be done?

Know about iBeacon technology? Possibly open to abuse?

iBeacon technology is something you may not be familiar with now but you will be seeing it very soon. It may help you but it may also be open to abuse.

What is an iBeacon?

iBeacons are small devices which transmit a signal to smartphones nearby. Imagine you're in a department store. You plan on getting a new pair of shoes and you're going to browse for a book also. You examine some shoes but don't find what you want. As you walk away your phone beeps and a text message tells you:

 'There are more shoes round the next corner  on the left. We have some special offers there.'

Wonderful - you find exactly what you want and it's on offer. You buy them and walk towards the books and magazines section. As you leave the checkout you get another message:

'Do you need a sports bag to keep your shoes in? They are on the next floor up. You can get a 10% discount today.'

You ignore that message.

How it works

The shoes you first looked at carried a small tag like the security tags fitted to some products. The tag detected your phone and triggered the first message as you walked away without going to the payment desk. Had you tried to steal shoes it would have reacted as a normal security tag. There was a second iBeacon near the shoe department entrance. It recognised your phone as belonging to someone who had just made a purchase of shoes and triggered the second message.

iBeacons can be placed anywhere. They are low cost devices, programmable and potentially useful to a shopper.

• As you walk past a coffee shop you could be offered a free coffee 'today only - just show this message'. You get one but the friend you are with has to pay for theirs. It's detected both your phones.
• As you walk past a cinema you are told what is now playing.
• As you pass a newsagent you are told there's an update available on a story you've been following.
• When you are near a clothes shop you are told there's a sale of jackets now on.
• iBeacons can be set to only act if it's target has been near it for some time, you won't be bothered with messages about vacuum cleaners if you are just passing by them but may be messaged if you've been in that area for a while.

 Obviously it's highly targeted advertising which may get irritating after a while. It may draw your attention to things you might otherwise have missed though.

The actual iBeacons are small. They run for years from a button cell. They are self adhesive and cost little - about $10 at the moment but that price will drop. To pick up their signals a shopper would have to have a free app installed on their phone. They will try it out and if they find it benefits them, it will stay on their phone.

How it can be abused

There's nothing to stop someone hiding their own iBeacon in a store which uses the system. The iBeacon could quickly be hidden under a shelf.

• As you browse the books you might get a message telling you it would be much more convenient and cost less to get the book in e-book format at Amazon. Just click this link to download it now to your phone. The link is of course an affiliate link which earns the iBeacon owner a small commission.
• While you wait for a bus outside the store you may get an advert for a game to pass the time.
• A hidden iBeacon may direct shoppers to a competitor's store.

If you want to know more about the technology try this video from Estimote Beacons.

Finally, perhaps I have a devious mind but as soon as I found out about iBeacons, I saw the potential they have. Maybe I could use an iBeacon in a location where people are browsing for books or waiting to direct people to the free ebook I have? I'm sure you can think up some other possible ways to use/misuse the technology. Let us all know in the comments.

If this post has helped or entertained, will you help us? Download a FREE copy of our book 'Immortality Gene' from http://smarturl.it/avi Even if you never read it (but we hope you will) - it will help our rankings.

For those in the UK - How to view the sites the BBC won't let you see

Did you know the BBC has a number of websites which they don't make available to those of us in the UK?

Launched in February 2012 BBC Future was heralded as the new international technology, science, environment and health site from the British Broadcasting Corporation. If you try to access it in the UK (Link http://bbc.com/future ) you'll get this message:

It's not the only BBC site like this, you can't visit http://www.bbc.com/travel or http://www.bbcentertainment.com/ either.

Since the BBC is mostly funded by licence fees paid in the UK many people in the UK feel there's something not right about a BBC site which can't be viewed in the UK. As  the Chief Executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said, "Those in Britain unable to access these services available to the rest of the world have every right to feel cheated."

The BBC are caught between a rock and a hard place though. It's a commercial website which earns money for the BBC through advertising; something the BBC is not allowed to do in the UK.
"Under the BBC’s Fair Trading rules commercial websites are not allowed to receive unfair promotion from the BBC’s public services.  This prevents us from being able to provide Future content on BBC.co.uk," they say.

So how do we in the UK view these BBC websites? 

I'm going to show you two methods. I'll use BBC Future as an example.

Method 1 - using the Internet Wayback Archive

There's a very useful site on Internet which keeps a a record of web pages. It's called the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and is available at http://archive.org/web/ . The Wayback Machine archives all BBC pages and you can view their latest 'BBC Future' pages at http://web.archive.org/web/*/www.bbc.com/future This page lists all the days an archive has been made and you can usually click the latest one and interact with it just as someone outside the UK would. It's an easy method where you won't be bothered by adverts - they are not archived, but does have disadvantages. You seldom get today's pages; if you are lucky you will see yesterday's pages. Not all pages are archived and it's poor at viewing the multimedia.

Method 2 - using a proxy server plugin

I use the ZenMate Chrome plugin. It's free and available from https://zenmate.io/home Instructions on the site will tell you how to install and use it. To view the BBC Future site Click the plugin icon and set your location to New York. Then turn ZenMate on and go to the BBC Future website (http://bbc.com/future) It's as simple as that. Everything, including multimedia and adverts will work. Just remember to turn ZenMate off when you are finished. Zenmate can cause some problems with some websites which detect proxy servers, so to get round that I also use another plugin for Chrome - One Click Extensions Manager . Using that you can instantly disable and enable ZenMate as required. A word of warning though - be careful to decline the other items offered with it.

Enjoy those 'hidden' BBC websites but before you leave - let me tell you about two offers (OK - two shameless plugs):
1. Until July 2014 Shelia Chapman's book 'Blood of the Rainbow' is just £1.87. (US$2.99) This is an awesome paranormal suspense e-book with five star ratings.

2. Download a free copy of the book I co-author 'Immortality Gene'. It's a technothriller, romance, medical thriller, science fiction... a bit of everything. Even if you don't read it, it will help our ratings. Available at Amazon, iTunes, B&N and others FREE!

'Sideloading' apps not available from Amazon on a Kindle Fire HDX

If you get a Kindle Fire HDX then by now you'll probably have found its limitation - you are tied to those apps which Amazon has decided you need. DON'T PANIC! There is a way round this - sideloading.

The Problem

The Nook reader on a Kindle Fire HD!

Amazon's Appstore for Android contained 50,000 apps back in early September 2012 but that was nowhere near the 700,000 offered by Google Play and Apple App Store then. The obvious solution would be for Kindle Fire owners to download Android apps from Google Play - except you can't. The Kindle Fire HDX simply won't allow you to connect to the Google Play store and download the app you want - you have to get it from Amazon. That's very understandable. Amazon tell us they are not making a lot of profit from sales of their Kindle Fire. Instead they expect to make their profit from sales of books, video, music and apps. To do that they make it easy to obtain these from the Amazon site and difficult, but not impossible, to get apps from elsewhere.

The Solution

Android is an open source operating system and the Kindle Fire HDX has version 4.2 of it. So most of the apps in the Google Play store should work just fine. In fact most of them do work, you just have to get them on your Kindle. Here's how to do that using a technique known as sideloading.

You are going to need some equipment, most of which you probably already have:

• An Android device (we'll call this 'device 2') such as a mobile phone or tablet which you can connect to the Google Store
• A USB to micro USB lead which fits your computer and Kindle Fire/device 2
• A computer 
• Your Kindle Fire
• An app - ES File Explorer installed on the Kindle Fire HD/HDX and device 2. (yes this is available from the Amazon Appstore and on Google Play. It's free!)

Now you need to know what to do. As an example I'm going to show you how I installed the Nook ebook reading app on my Kindle Fire HD and my Kindle Fire HDX. Naturally this competitor app is not an app available on the Amazon Appstore for Android but it's very useful to have if you earlier purchased a Nook ereader and want to read your Nook books or epub books on your Kindle Fire.

How to sideload an Android app to a Kindle Fire HD / HDX

The Kindle Fire HDX is even better. Ours took just one day
to arrive from Amazon at http://smarturl.it/KindleHDX

This method also works for the Kindle Fire HD with some minor modifications. I used it to install the Firefox android browser (Sorry Amazon but your browser Silk is rubbish), the Nook e-reader software and some games not available in Amazon's store. Here's the method for the Kindle Fire HDX. I've used the Nook app as an example:

1. Install ES file explorer on your Kindle HDX. It's available free in the Amazon store.
2. Install ES file explorer on your other Android device. It's a free app available at Google Play
3. Install the Nook reader software on your other Android device from the Google Store. Again it's a free app from Google Store.
4. On the Kindle HDX use go to  Settings > Applications and set 'Applications from unknown sources' to 'On'. Accept the warning.
5. On the other Android device use ES File Explorer. Choose Tools >'app manager' from settings. Long press on 'Nook' and choose backup.
6. Connect the other Android device to your computer using the USB cable. You should see it appears in an explorer window as an extra drive under 'Computer'. 
7. Navigate to the Nook.apk file you just backed up. In my case, since I was using a Nexus 7 as my 'other Android device' it appeared as Computer\Nexus 7\Internal storage\backups\apps\NOOK_3.3.0.26.apk Copy this file to your PC. On a Samsung Galaxy S4 the files appeared in Computer\Galaxy S4\Phone\backups\apps
8. Connect the Kindle fire to your PC and transfer the Nook.apk file to it. The root folder will do.
9. Load ES File Explorer on the Kindle Fire and find the file you just placed there. Once you select it you'll get the option to install it. Do that and try it out.
10. On the Kindle use Settings > Applications and set 'Applications from unknown sources' to 'Off' again. 

It's a little involved but really quite simple.

Of course the same technique can be used to install almost any Android application which isn't available on the Amazon Appstore. There are a few which don't work, Sky Go for one. It installs and you can see what programs are available but it won't let you play them.

You can also download apps to your PC from other sources and install them BUT - a word of caution. Although the apps available from Amazon and Google are generally safe, the same can't be said for all app sources. It's unwise to download and install apps you are not certain of. You might install a rogue app which could cause a lot of problems.

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If my blog has helped you - can you do me a favour?

Download a free copy of the book I co-author 'Immortality Gene'. It's a technothriller, romance, medical thriller, science fiction... a bit of everything. Even if you don't read it, it will help our ratings. Available at Amazon, iTunes, B&N and others FREE!