Wait, Arriva is long gone although its colours are still being used on our streets (ignored agreement and promise perhaps?) and instead we have the Malta Public Transport. Tghid biex taparsi Maltin ma nghidulhomx ALESA?

Will the flexibility requested by Arriva become a good thing now that it is being requested by the company visited by Minister Mizzi even before the tender was announced as chosen?

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20150831/local/bus-company-seeking-unions-backing-for-changes-to-improve-efficiency.582685

I agree. My comments were about the production and presentation of the video, certainly not about the content of the speech.

Muscat is supposed to be a democratically elected prime minister of a 21st century European Union state.

It has always irked me to see toddlers sitting on the edge of the back seat of a car, in the middle.

Today I saw one in the back of a police car. Why was he there in the first place anyway? Are we arresting toddlers now?

Mattei’s legacy, 60 years of ongoing cooperation between ENI and Egypt.

Very conveniently follows talks in Vienna where Federica Mogherini blatantly followed Renzi’s brief to keep insisting on an agreement; Iran too possesses major gas reserves and had been one of Italy’s largest clients for its petrochemical industry, read ENIchem.

The Shah was Ferrari’s most quixotic client and Soraya one of Via Veneto’s stars, but I digress; Renzi was in Israel end of July and Netanyahu just finished a four day visit to Italy three days ago. Israel has its gas export plans but has still not settled to an agreement with Edison for the pipeline outside its shores with Iran’s leg passing through its territory. When that happens, which now seems highly feasible, the Middle East won’t be recognizable.

The thing with gas is that infrastructure builders and operators matter so much more than driller rednecks. Those who still think its some national geo-strategy have it all wrong with The Guardian showing its true colours this morning, gloating at Israels plans possibly up in smoke.

In practical terms Egypt’s ‘discovery’ may serve to make the case for the regasifier East of Hurds’ Bank, a third leg attenuating the cost, but that will depend on El Sisi’s decision, who will definitely make some demands on Libya.

I expect Lagarde to visit Egypt next. Azerbaijan to get in line, if it’s to spite Putin, so be it.

Muscat, that’s the capital of Oman.

Tajjeb hekk?

Does the EU have over-riding principles and regulations to prevent the rise of fascism in Europe, considering how dangerous it was for its whole territory and how many people suffered?

There is also the aspect of the direct population suffering the results of that manipulation, which are present before the full curve of damage is experienced.

If it doesn’t, it would be overdue. This goes beyond matters of sovereignty.

It is known that people tend to bend their opinions toward those of the majority. In 2011, Jamil Zaki, a psychologist at Stanford University in California, and colleagues discovered why.

It involves the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain’s reward centre that lights up when we encounter things we want, like a chocolate bar. Zaki’s team found that it also activates when people are told what others think.

And the more this part of the brain responds to information about group opinion, the more someone will adjust their opinion towards the consensus.

Conformity can be useful in our day-to-day lives, letting others serve as a guide in unfamiliar situations, says Lisa Knoll, a neuroscientist at University College London. But it can also lead us into danger [e.g. Joseph Muscat’s government].

That dynamic may have been at work in February 2012 [and certainly here in Malta in March 2013], when three members of a skiing group, including pros, sports reporters and industry executives, died in an avalanche on a backcountry slope in Washington state.

Keith Carlsen, a ski photographer on the trip, told The New York Times that he’d had doubts about the outing but dismissed them: “There’s no way this entire group can make a decision that isn’t smart.”

How can group errors be avoided? The solution is similar to that proposed for confirmation bias: find ways to spark debate. When Zaki meets with members of his lab, he encourages people to voice conflicting views [which is why outlets such as this blog are essential].

He also says it can be useful to have people vote on big decisions privately rather than voice opposition publicly. “It’s important to encourage dissent more than anything,” he says.

Because I have listened to so many recordings of historic fascist speeches, I was thoroughly disturbed when the original was broadcast before the election and I happened to be watching television. I felt literally sick.

So yes, it was a well-delivered speech in terms of results for the Labour Party, but it was not a well-delivered speech in terms of 21st-century European democratic norms.

If this is real then it signifies the start of the biggest power shift in the Middle East for decades.

It explains why the CIA were so keen to get rid of Mohammed Morsi.

US intelligence must have been aware of this ginormous natural gas deposit and operated accordingly.

The US could not afford to have yet another Muslim extremist sitting on top of one trillion dollars’ worth of natural gas.