Paris Motor Show

Electric and eco friendly cars were the real focus of the Paris motor show.

After you jostle through the crowds massing at the Mondial de l’Automobile, you’ll see that everyone seems to be crowding round the new Ferrari California or queuing to get a close up look at the Lotus Elise, the Porches and even the Bentleys are being mobbed. But what the organisers would like you to believe is that everyone is getting excited about electric cars.

A lot of media coverage in France has been drooling over this sexy looking Renault concept, run purely off batteries called the DeZir (or Desire to you and me) it partners the more practical Zoe concept which is supposed to answer the planet’s prayers for cleaner cars. The DeZir’s selling points are that it’s got “10kW (147.5bhp) and 226Nm of torque. That, says Renault, is sufficient for a 0-60mph time of 5 seconds, a top speed of 112mph and a range of 100 miles”. Wow. Great. Fantastic. But does it go brum?

It seems that most people who like cars, buy cars or just know what a car is, prefer it to make a sound that in an onomatopoeic way, goes brum. Or nneeeeeoooowwwwww. But never hummmmmm. If I wanted an electric vehicle I’ll get on the train. The way the Jubilee line sings as it pulls out of a station is just lovely. But when I put my foot down on the accelerator I want BRUM goddamnit. Even the tiny tin box of death Fiat Seicento (sporting) I used to have had a brum, and that practically had no engine at all. When I can one day, god-willing, afford to have a decent car, I want the car of my dreams. An Aston, a Ferrari that makes other car alarms go off due to the guttural grumblings of the engine. Not Tesla silent gliding nonsense, no matter how much they try to sex up a sub-station on wheels.

There were lots of little manufactures with stands like this one, with a small electric concept city transport excuse for a car, that actually might be quite good if you lived in a huge metropolis and you couldn’t man up and cycle or get a motorbike. But otherwise what’s the point? No-one wants this. There were no crowds around this, other than a passing “ooh that looks interesting” mumble.

Eventually all cars will be electric, and it’s probably a very good ida to help save the environment and stop our lungs being choked up. I really hope that all the cars one day will be; in the I, Robot world where we only keep the odd sports car or motorbike in the garage that still runs on petrol for cool robot ass-kicking police officers, kind of way. I just wish all whole electric gimmick wasn’t forced down my throat for huge companies wanting a bit of greenwash bullshit publicity, when all I really want is to have a car that goes brum brum!

New Website

I’ve made a new website at www.clemsilverman.com in a piece of shameless self-promotion.

Secret Filming

Interesting article on the justification of using secret filming in investigative journalism.

http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/in-practice/practice-points/secret-filming-and-case-law-subsequently-arises

EU poll

Your chance to vote on the Lisbon treaty!

Polls on the EU – HAVE YOUR SAY

Students in Need

News addiction on the rise after an exhausting monitoring exercise fails to provide a big enough fix.

Students are turning to desperate measures to get their news today after a news monitoring exercise failed to give them the ‘hit’ that they required. One could only beg “need some news…” in broken English through the medium of Facebook.

“bulletin” – the slang word describing how much they want pumped into their vein riddled eyes

One of the side effects of overdosing on news, other than becoming resistant to higher and higher concentrations of “bulletin”, is to blog onto the keyboard. Some have been so completely smacked up that they will often listen to Radio 4 until the shipping forecast bids them goodnight, and sob dejectedly into their pillows over the national anthem, before blogging all over their keyboard.

So please, help a poor journalist student. Donate a news story today. Pledge just one story or press release a month and feed a journalist.

Simchat Torah

Today was Simchat Torah. The Jewish festival celebrating reaching the end of the Torah scrolls and starting all over again. Aside from the (questionable) dancing, our studiousness is what defines us.

Picture this: 50 odd men, women and children, line dancing (in a circle), singing, clapping and laughing; whilst two heavy reams of parchment are paraded up and down the room. Not my usual Friday night. It does say a lot about why I believe that religion still has relevance today, without needing to answer any spiritual questions that we might have.

Jews like to read. Each week in the Jewish calendar we read a different chapter from the Torah scrolls, the traditional 5 books of Moses. The Torah is at the centre of the religion, and the thousands of years old writings are the basis upon which many customs and traditions are there to protect. Last night they were at the centre of the room, being bounced about in a great big scroll hugging-dance-off.

Jews like to argue. Each week, on Shabbat, we read discussions and arguments hundreds of years old, that examine what the 5 books say, and ask how we should interpret them – rather than take it literally. Much of Judaism comes out of the interpretations and ideological fist-fights of these old Rabbis. The arguments roll on today between Orthodox, and Reform readings and opinions. Each tolerate and understands the other’s point of view, but a healthy amount fluid discussion creates a vibrant, modern religion which protects its values but doesn’t have to be rooted in the past. At Sunday school at an early age, we are taught to question our own customs and beliefs.

If all texts were debated over in such depth rather than taken on blind faith, such as those we were throwing about the room last night, the world might be a better place. Clearly there are fundamentalists within all religions, Judaism amongst them, however these people have lost sight on what it really means to be Jewish. Community, family and study. God often doesn’t even come into it. Israel is at a deadlock because of the inability of either side to have decent parlance with each other, resorting all to often to blind circular violence.

I believe that learning, study and debate can be enlightening, along with freedom of expression and poor dancing, is probably the answer to everything.

Clouds over Moscow

A video doing the rounds at the moment of some rather strange looking cloud formations over Moscow. It looks like a weather phenomenon , but people have suggested that it is a viral marketing stunt.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=086_1254935636

What's this then

Welcome to Clem Silverman’s blog. I will be writing about a broad range of subjects, but feel free to comment and tell me if where I’m going wrong!