Who will go where in the F1 paddock next year ? we already know about the Ferrari and Williams line-ups and with BMW no longer in the equation Kubica and Heidfeld are free agents, Raikkonen is also up for grabs and a move back to Mclaren to partner Hamilton has been mooted as well as a seat at Toyota, although his [Kimi] stay at McLaren last time wasn't as much fun or productive as he thought it would be, so who knows.......Jenson is likely to stay at Brawn if a financial deal can be reached, but who will partner him ? Kimi, Kubica, Heidfeld ? now there's a thought.....or maybe they'll go for a young gun. Whatever the line-up is, it looks to be an interesting season next year, especially with the new teams on the grid. But will there be a British GP on the calendar ?

Well, I hate to say I told you so, but the news of Donnington Park's failure to secure the funds to renovate/upgrade the circuit ready for the 2010 GP comes as no surprise; however what is surprising is that Bernie allowed his animosity toward the BRDC and Silverstone to go for a deal that even a moronic imbecile could see was never going to fly. I was watching a programme on the History channel last night about Enzio Ferrari in which the Silverstone GP was called  the most prestigious GP more than once (it was an American production, so no bias) and yet good old Bernie wants to see it off the calendar because of his arrogance and stupidity using words such as it isn't important. What planet is he living on, it ain't the one that most of us inhabit that's for sure.

I feel sorry for Rubens Barrichello, who started from pole but lost it all due to a puncture (he's never won on his home track, usually through no fault of his own). But, we do have a new champion in Jenson Button as it's now mathematically impossible for any other driver to overtake his points lead in the final race of the season. Well done Jenson, he drove well today even though his pit stop strategy was somewhat puzzling as he started on a one stop fuel load and changed to a two stop strategy during the race........BrawnGP also tied up the constructor's championship today, so it'll be party time in the Brawn camp tonight.....

Two races to go and 15 points difference between Jenson and Vettel; and 13 between Jenson and Barrichello (his nearest rivals, and the only two drivers with a mathematical chance of the championship). If Jenson keeps going the way he has for the past few races, he's going to lose the championship to either Barrichello or Vettel, and it won't really be because they've won, it will be more down to the fact that he's lost it. When he's at the front his driving is superb, but when he's in amongst other drivers in the midfield he seems unable to keep pace, it's as though he gives up. So far, only the fuel strategies have come to his aid and keeping him in the points (albeit only minor ones); if he wants to be the 2009 champion driver, he must up his game, both in qualifying and racing.

Whistle blowers quite often do not do well from their exposure of wrong doing. Nelson Piquet Jnr is no exception to this, and although he was given immunity from prosecution by the FIA for revealing the race fixing by the Renault team, the result for him is likely to be the end of his F1 career. There are many drivers waiting in the side-lines for a seat in an F1 car, and Nelson, in revealing the scandal after 1 year and as a result of losing his Renault seat is unlikely to be picked up by another team. So although he avoided prosecution, he is likely to suffer an effective lifetime ban from the sport, joining Flavio Briatore in the wilderness. In this case, I see it as justice, after all, he was the driver and without his collusion the incident could never have occurred, so he was the pivotal point for the whole concept and could easily (and should) have said NO.

Since hearing the FIA decision about Renault and the race fixing that occurred last year I've been puzzling over it. I can understand the decision about Flavio and Pat (although it got a thorn from the side of Max Mosely) but what I can't get my head round is the lack of penalty for Renault. Lets face it a suspended sentence for something they are highly unlikely to repeat, what sort of sentence is that, and what message does it send out. Well, as far as I can see it sends out the message that Constructors can get away with pretty much anything as long as they get rid of those directly involved. Mind, management at McLaren must be a bit peeved given the sentence they got and that was just for lying; what the Renault team did was far worse in that the crash involved safety and could have been horrendous (as Massa knows to his cost).. So, the only conclusion I can come up with is that this was politically motivated, Max got rid of someone who was a thorn in his side (yes I know Flavio did it to himself), but chose not to send the right message to teams by this pathetic attempt at justice. The door is now wide open for other teams (should they choose) to go the same route as Renault with the sure assurance that should they be caught, and as long as the team gets rid of the directly involved persons, they will get a slap on the wrist (and not with a ruler). What a message to send out, thankfully the old order may be on the way out, but not if Jean Todt gets in.........

Industrial lobbyists (and industrialists themselves) are persuading governments to set ridiculously poor targets for lessening/reducing/halting the planetary greenhouse effect; Japan has recently set targets which environmentalists and a number of scientists have deemed to be worse than useless or, in some cases, appalling (8% reduction of emissions from the 1990 figure). Mind, the Japanese aren't alone in doing this, a number of countries (America, Australia to name but two) have also set targets which will do little, if anything, to stem industries' pollution of the atmosphere and thus the greenhouse effect. There's not much point in turning a profit whilst killing everyone on the planet. Our weak and pathetic leaders, and uncaring industrialists, need to get this idea firmly in mind and act on it. Someone once told me that there are no shops in heaven or hell, similarly, there won't be much voting done in either of those places; so both groups will lose out eventually. When it's far too late (and it's getting close now), the electorates of the world's countries will wake up and start voting for people (note: I didn't say politicians) who actually have principles (few, if any, politicians have principles), and a desire to save the planet, instead of voting for politicians who listen to lobbyists and act in industries' profit-margin favour. But then if politicians were to do the right thing, they wouldn't land lucrative board positions when they eventually retired from political life, would they?????

The Arctic is presently the warmest it's been for 2,000 years and melting at an alarming rate, so people with houses at or just above sea level can expect problems soon, and that will be just the beginning......

Scientists report that coral is dying across all oceans and seas as the pH levels in them become more acidic (Co2 being absorbed into water). They further state that the currently proposed emission levels will do nothing to stop this acidic increase and thus decline of coral, and suggest a much more rigorous (and lower) series of targets need to be implemented. Even keeping the pH levels as they are now will not stop the decline of coral reef growth in many areas.

Given that the presently proposed levels have hit many stumbling blocks from various nations with little agreement reached, these proposed lower levels look doomed to failure and the demise of coral seems assured. Apart from the beauty of coral, coral reefs perform a vital function in the oceans as a part of the food chain habitat, so there would inevitably be a knock on effect across the board if coral were to become extinct.

IT'S LONG PAST TIME THAT ALL POLITICIANS STOPPED THINKING NATIONALLY AND BEGIN THINKING GLOBALLY IF THE PLANET AND IT'S INHABITANTS ARE TO BE ASSURED SOME FUTURE STANDARD OF LIFE THAT DOESN'T INCLUDE A DEATH WARRANT FOR MANY SPECIES ALIVE TODAY. I'M ALRIGHT JACK DOESN'T CUT IT ANYMORE.

Diving the other day, I saw for the first time in the Aegean a Puffer fish Puffer fish (admittedly a small one), in the 16 or so years I've dived here I've never seen one of these guys before in these waters; they are normally to be found in somewhat warmer waters. It made me wonder what sort of fish I'm likely to see over the coming months and years of diving here. Could we find ourselves swimming amongst fish normally found around the Red Sea resorts ? if this little fellow is anything to go by, then it looks likely........

How many Mass Murderer's do you know ? I know thousands, I see some every day.....no, I'm not  a prison guard or anything like that; these are everyday people just like you and me (in fact, they are you and me).

We all abhor the killings caused/ordered by people like the Nazis during WWII and latterly the regime of Sadam Hussein; but, each of us alive now is creating the situation which will probably result in the deaths of our own grandchildren or great-grandchildren. I don't know about you, but that doesn't instill me with any pride at all, in fact it's pretty sickening to consider.

Unless we all press our governments to take firm action to minimise greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere, whilst we ourselves do what we can to minimise our personal impact on the climatic changes, we are in distinct danger of killing our own offspring through a runaway climate change which is likely to see significant temperature increases, sea level increases; as well as sea temperature increases. The last of which would lead to the release of the huge quantities of Methane Hydrate from the world's oceans, which in turn would fuel the greenhouse effect and speed it up dramatically.

Many areas where crops are presently struggling to grow will no longer support any crop growth; areas where temperate crops grow will soon begin to be less and less productive as annual rainfall and thus water for irrigation decreases. What the increase in temperature and decrease in rainfall doesn't halt, the increasing and more violent winds will destroy.........and of course mother earth won't stand by idly watching all this, the likelihood of increased volcanic activity because of the increase in global temperature is also hightened. Volcanoes of course will add their bit by pumping greenhouse gasses (and dust to block the sun) into the atmosphere and again adding to the speed-up of the climate change.......

Anyone scared yet ? YOU SHOULD BE......it's started happening now, the clock is ticking and the countdown has started.............

During my delving into the family history it came out that my maternal Great Grandfather had served a term in prison; thinking it was for something simple and fairly innocuous, I delved further with the able assistance of one of my cousins into this piece of history. We recently discovered what the crime was, it wasn't as innocuous as we thought, in fact it was a whole heap worse than we could have thought. Ever had the feeling you should never have opened Pandora's box.......well, that's the feeling now, the revelation has upset more than one family member, and has prompted a lack of interest in delving any further back into our history (who knows, we may find Jack the Ripper [or worse] in there somewhere....) that kind of infamy is something we can all do without. It does however pose the thought that somewhere in someone's history there must be a Jack the Ripper (or worse), and what would their feelings be on finding such a thing out? That ancestor's genes have, after all, been passed down through the ages and various intervening generations to the person researching their family history.......The crime my ancestor committed was bad enough and has engendered some not insignificant revulsion amongst family members (my mother for one), but it did explain why none of my mother's family ever talked about her grandfather, the wall of silence was huge........

Well, it's been a while since a previous panic incident, but today I had to deal with a pretty dangerous situation caused by a novice diver in full panic mode. Would they listen to my calming words, did they stop fighting me as I was trying to keep them on the surface, would they let me get them back to shore safely, were they a tiny bit interested in not killing me ? nope,.......I had to fight them every step of the way........

The first thing that happened was straight forward, the signal to go up from the diver, which we immediately did.......that's when it all went pear shaped, as we floated on the surface I told the diver to relax, lay on their back and let me tow them into shore (about 10 metres away); the next thing I know is I'm going downwards at a high rate of knots as the diver climbed on my shoulders; so I dove down and came back up behind them so as to grab their BCD strap and tow them in.......got it solved thought I, wrong, the twit somehow managed to release all the air from their BCD and sank (with no regulator in mouth, despite my advice to keep it in), my BCD was quickly inflated to it's maximum and was just sufficient to get the diver's head above the surface. I was then able to re-inflate the diver's BCD; however, calming words from me had no effect, again, so I tried firmness by saying that if they kept fighting me I wouldn't be able to help them to safety, and that they must relax and lay on their back so as to let me get them to shore. Hooray, it worked(ish), I still had to fight the diver most of the way back to shore, but at least I got them there alive and kicking (I have the bruises to prove it)............moral of the story.....you may have dealt with paniced divers before, but every such event is different and presents different problems which have to be dealt with if both rescuer and victim of panic are to get back to shore safely, (I'll take a mallet with me for future dives, render the panic victim unconscious and have an easy time of it......pity the mallet's only a dream of mine!).

The various governments around the world are, with their prevarication, political agendas and fear of losing power, condemning us and our children to a life of hardship and lack of resources. The spaceship we call Earth is our only means of support, but it has limited and finite resources which are being used as though they are infinite. The mind set which says "let the next government deal with the issues" just shows how petty and shallow politicians really are, they must STOP PREVARICATING and get on with dealing with the most important issue in front of them or else our resources such as drinking water and foodstuffs will soon become more valuable than the metals and jewels currently thought of as valuable. Scientists have long warned that the whole planet faces hard times in the not too distant future,  our respective governments act as the commissaries on this spaceship and must listen and act on what the experts tell them as well as having a duty to ensure the resources available to maintain life are sustainable and controlled properly. "It won't happen in my life-time" is simply not good enough, we bring children into the world, nurture them and hope they grow to be good passengers on our spaceship; what is the use of that care if we condemn them to a life of hardship through a lack of the basics of life (food and water).

With 8 student divers (6 novices and 2 upgrades to advanced diver) plus the usual show dives and boat divers, life is a little hectic down at the dive centre at present, but we don't complain; it does keep us off the street corners (not that we'd earn much there !)......
Painting is slow but progressing, I'm in the midst of a Jensen Button painting, as well as doing three cartoons for a competition the local council (Belediye) has running. The toons should be finished tomorrow (I had to re-do two of them due to a mini-accident which resulted in ink being spilled over them, DOH), never mind, nearly finished........

I'm guessing that the next FIA President will be Jean Todt seeing as how Mad Max has openly recommended him for the position (is there a smell of favoritism in the air), it does however make one wonder how democratic the FIA really is. Under Max it has long been a dictatorship (wouldn't his dad have been proud) and under Jean Todt it looks as though it will be very much business as usual. Ari Vartinen may have changed things, but I fear his chances of winning the vote are slim in the extreme (possibly because the FIA are scared of internal change, although happy to impose unneccesary changes on motor sport); plus he dared to criticise the way Max proposed Jean Todt as his replacement; a case of the puppet and it's master perhaps, with Max continuing to pull the strings after the election.........

The Brawn team have some heavy and lateral thinking to do over the next few weeks if they are to solve the tyre loading problem the car currently has. It appears the car is too easy on the tyres and therefore doesn't load them enough to get the optimum working temperature in them (around 100 deg), which means the tyres grain and lose grip thus slowing the car down. Unless they can find and resolve the problem soon there is a very distinct probability that the team (and Jensen) will rapidly be overtaken in the points race over the next 7 GP races. The problem is one of their own making (through "improvement" add-ons), but is made worse by the improvements the other teams have made; so now they have to find out what "improvement" it is that causes the problem and solve it. Frustrating and head scratching times ahead.......

The two serious, and similar, accidents within motor sport within a week which resulted in the death of Henry Surtees (F2) and the injury and subsequent hospitalisation of Felipe Massa (F1) have brought forth calls for greater driver safety. Given that motor sport is inherently dangerous (there are large signs saying so at all venues) what is NOT needed is a knee jerk solution. As a H&S professional I know that knee jerk solutions frequently may appear to solve the initial problem, but they usually introduce unthought of hazards elsewhere.
Much research and improvement has, over the past few years, gone into the current helmets drivers wear, and these two accidents were both freakish in nature. Yes, things can come off cars traveling at speed, but the likelihood of them hitting a target as small as the human head (given the amount of track the cars are on) remains equally small, so to have two similar accidents within one week is extraordinary to say the least. Yes, by all means investigate the accidents,and see what (if any) lessons can be learned from them but don't go willy nilly rushing into solutions before serious thought into why and how they occurred. Knee jerk is NOT the way to go, investigate, report, recommend and implement (if needed) is far, far better and safer for all concerned. The teams and the FIA therefore need to listen carefully to their in-house H&S teams and let them get on with the job of investigation and report for the two disparate accidents.

A wireless power supply has been shown at the TED conference which reportedly means that no wires would be required to connect devices to the mains http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8165928.stm. I can see one fundamental problem to this system, in that the transmitter coil has to be permanently connected to the mains, thereby making a circuit and thus consuming electrical power 24/7 (even when no devices are using its transmitted power), that is obviously an inefficient use of available electricity, the electricity suppliers will love the device as it means consumer bills would increase. The conservationists will not like it as it wastes electrical power and thus increases Co2 emissions from power generating plants. Maybe the designers have a very smart switching device to switch the transmitting unit off when no devices are in range and switched on, but even that would require some power to operate the circuit. The balancing act therefore is, do we want to waste power and increase power generation Co2 emissions in order to have the dubious advantage of no power cables to our electrical devices ????

Henry Surtees, son of John Surtees died in a troubled (multiple red flags throughout) F2 race at Brands Hatch yesterday afternoon. He got caught up by Clarke's accident, with one of the wheels from Clarke's car bouncing and hitting him on the head (from the view I had) as he drove past, Henry's car then subsequently (because he was not conscious) careered into the barriers and the race was red flagged whilst he was removed from the car. He was initially taken to the Brands medical centre and then shortly thereafter taken by air ambulance to hospital where he was subsequently pronounced dead. As an 18 year old, he had much to live for, having gained his first F2 podium (3rd) the previous day. His father John (the only man to win championships on both two and four wheels) would obviously have known the risks, but the whole family and his team must be devastated by his tragic and somewhat freak death.

RIP Henry 1991 - 2009.

Oh dear, Jean Todt has thrown his hat into the ring by submitting his name for the October election of the replacement (for Max Mosley) FIA presidency. Just what FOTA members said they didn't want [someone with links to F1].......does this mean the row will re-energise ?; does it mean Ferarri will get preferential treatment if he wins ?; will the other teams feel they won't get fair treatment if he wins ? only time will tell.