The house of cards collapsed in 2009 when a new government calculated the real numbers and discovered the budget deficit was 14% and the total government debt exceeded one trillion dollars. Greece was financially fucked, and had been for some time; and the underlying reason was not the banks or a financial crisis; it was the Greek people.

For a start, nobody pays taxes unless they have to. It’s standard practice to cheat, and as tax inspectors are demoted if they investigate too thoroughly, and can be bribed if things get sticky; there is no pressure to pay tax, so nobody does (including government ministers). And for a little extra help, the government suspends tax collection during election years; which probably doesn’t make much of a difference to revenues.

So, government revenues are not up to much; how about expenditure?

The average public sector salary has doubled in the past twelve years and the average public sector job pays three times an average private sector job. The state railway has an income of 100 million Euros and a salary cost of 400 million Euros (thanks to an average salary of 65,000 Euros a year), plus 300 million Euros in other costs. It would be cheaper to put everyone in taxis than to run the railways. The school system is one of the lowest ranked in Europe, but employs four times as many teachers as the highest ranked. The retirement age is 55 for people who work in what are classified as “arduous” jobs; people like hairdressers and waiters, at which time they can enjoy a generous state pension.

The Greek people currently out on the street protesting against austerity measures, are protesting to protect their lifestyle that involves cheating on their taxes and the routine bribery of officials, whilst receiving salaries and pensions way above the ability of their government to pay them.

Is there any hope for Greece? No there isn’t. Do I feel sorry for them? No I don’t.

Gosh Spike, how do you know all this stuff? Are you a secret economist, or what?

No, I have just read Boomerang: The Meltdown Tour by Michael Lewis, an informative, scary, hilarious book about the impact of the last few years on a variety of countries. If you want to know what really happened in Iceland, Ireland and Greece; and understand the German response; then there is no finer read than this. There are no charts or heavy financial explanations; just revealing conversations with key players and ordinary people, and many, many giggles.

And when you have read that, read The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by the same author; by far the best explanation of the sub-prime crisis. It is also informative, scary and hilarious; and reveals the monumental stupidity of some banks; and how some very smart people made a shitload of money out of the crisis.

And once you have consumed those two most excellent books, you can finish off with Liar’s Poker, Lewis’s story of how be became a “big swinging dick” at Salomon Brothers in the 1980s.

Here ends the Pattaya Days book selection for today 2012 this century.

Courtesy of @pundamentalism

But it turned out that my current condition is caused by an excess of thyroid hormones, rather than an absence. In spite of the fact that I am shovelling down double the dosage of thyroid suppressants that I used to take before I zapped my thyroid, all the indicators of my thyroid condition were reading higher than they have ever been. What’s going on Doc?

Apparently, a thyroid does not go quietly after being poisoned with radiation (the inconsiderate bastard). Instead, as the radiation does its work, the thyroid chucks out vast quantities of hormones out into the blood stream; like a supernova or a sulky (or poisoned) child throwing its toys out of the pram.

My doctor was rather surprised to see just how much hormone was being generated, and placed me on double the current double dose of suppressant for the next two weeks. This will bring me close to the end of the three month thyroid death cycle, and will hopefully make me feel a little better.

What a load of buggering about.

Today I will try and stay conscious long enough to drive to Bangkok.

Tomorrow I see my doctor and hopefully he can do something to start improving my condition. Update on Monday evening when I get back, if I can activate the necessary brain cells.

Weeks passed, but it finally arrived yesterday, and he did what he usually does with his new gear; he gives it to me for twenty four hours to play with. Unfortunately, in my current condition, I spent most of that twenty four hours asleep or staring at the wall in a dazed, drooling state; but I did play with it enough to gain an impression.

Isn’t it pretty?:

Looks even more gorgeous in the flesh than it does in the photographs. It’s also much smaller than you expect it to be. Dwarfed by a Canon DSLR:

Similar in size to she who must be obeyed’s Pen:

It may be small in size, but it has a heft to it, is well-constructed and is waterproof to the extent you could take in the shower should you feel the urge. I didn’t, but I did spend some time playing with it.

The obvious comparison for me is with my Panasonic GX1, and in terms of handling the GX1 is the better camera. The customisation options on the E-M5 are extensive; but they are buried in a mess of menus and inadequately supported by a crap user manual. There is a “super control panel” on the E-M5 which displays the most used options; but is not customisable and selecting and modifying an option requires the pressing of buttons as well as the touch screen. The Panasonic Quick Menu is user defined and much quicker to operate.

The button array on each camera is similar:

But the Panasonic buttons are more accessible, and the Olympus buttons inevitably suffer from the impact of the weatherproofing which makes the button response a little rubbery and indistinct. The Olympus has two wheels, used to adjust aperture and exposure compensation when in Aperture mode, for example. The Panasonic offers a single wheel which you push to change options. If find the latter easier to use and the Olympus wheels not so easy to access.

So the Panasonic wins on handling, and I have rather got used to opening up the viewfinder by ninety degrees so I can look down when lining up a shot. On the other hand, the E-M5 scores points for it’s bright, clear rear panel which can be folded out, and it has a slightly better viewfinder. Oh, and it has a beautiful, quiet shutter sound.

I dragged myself outside and took a few shots with it. Fast, accurate auto-focus; just like the Panasonic. Unlike the Panasonic, it produces wonderful JPEGs straight out of the camera. I believe that the tests indicate that overall RAW image quality would be slightly better than the GX1; but not something you would notice unless you indulged in extensive pixel peeping.

So, a beautiful little camera, but not significantly better than the Panasonic GX1.

And what about the much-heralded (by Olympus) five axis stabilisation system? The little hump on top of the camera house not only the viewfinder, but devices which detect five different planes of movement. These devices then interact with the sensor which is floating in a magnetic field and keep everything steady. There is even a stabiliser in the viewfinder.

Sounds very clever, literally, because if you stick the camera next to your ear you can hear it humming away, doing its stabilisation thing.

This is the first camera to use such a system, and I wondered whether it was really an innovation or just marketing bullshit. I am an ideal subject to test a stabilisation system. Being ancient, I already have slightly shaky hands, and whatever my thyroid is doing to my body has resulted in even more spectacular tremors. Stabilise that, Olympus.

With a 25mm lens I would never normally shoot below 1/60th second. At 1/60th I would probably get a bit of shake and 1/125th would be a better bet. So I pointed the camera at a painting in a dark hallway and took a shot handheld at 1/10th second. Sharp!

Experimented with some other subjects and got down to 1/8second with some of them, which is just ridiculous.

I handed back the E-M5 and picked up my GX1. In most respects I am happy to keep on shooting with the Panasonic; but I would really love to have that image stabilisation system.

If you are in the market for a micro-four thirds camera, then the OMD E-M5 is clearly the best of the bunch at the moment. I’ll carry on with my GX1 for now; but I can see an E-M5 (or E-M6) in my future.

I know what you’re thinking; just another bloody flower photo, and not a particularly special one at that.

And you’d be correct; but there is something about this photo that’s a little different. Suggestions on a postcard in the comment box. Answer tomorrow, or whenever I can drag myself in front of the computer.

Panasonic GX1 with Yashica 55mm macro lens.

Panasonic GX1 with Lensbaby.

I can sum up my condition in one word: listless. If you want two words: worryingly listless.

I have always been someone with considerable enthusiasm for anything mildly interesting that passes my way. This can end up being expensive (radio controlled aircraft, windsurfing, photography) as I embrace a new passion and throw money and time at it; but at least it is better than having no interests at all and just spending my life slumped in a chair watching mindless entertainment.

So it is of some concern (to me) that all I have felt like doing over the past two weeks is to be slumped in a chair watching mindless entertainment.

Haven’t picked up my camera, haven’t been near the water, no interest in maintaining this site. Just feeling crap and wishing I wasn’t. Wake up feeling reasonable, if not exactly enthused; but by early afternoon I am reduced to a shaky, exhausted blob; searching for the nearest horizontal surface to have a nap. This is not living.

I am hoping that this condition is somehow related to my ongoing thyroid treatment and it will pass. If it’s something else then I hope it will pass. If it doesn’t pass, then I am fucked; and so is this site.

Time will tell; meantime I apologise for the lack of updates.

The last week it has just been getting hotter by the day, and now we are experiencing something in the region of forty degrees of Mr. Celsius.

No, I don’t want to go out and take photos. I don’t want to sit and type on a computer. I just want a small air-conned room and a bed to doze on until the rains come and temperatures decline.

Which means you are not going to see many updates until normal service is resumed.

Now, if you excuse me, I’m going for a little lie down.

But the racing was rather pushed into the background last weekend when the circus went to Bahrain. Last year’s race was cancelled due to social upheaval, and there was much debate prior to the event as to whether this year’s Grand Prix would/should take place.

Like most of the countries in the region, Bahrain has problems. A ruling family from a sect that believes an imaginary friend should be worshipped in a particular manner, lording it over a population, the majority of whom believe that the same imaginary friend deserves a different kind of devotion. Cue riots, tear gas, detentions and stories of bad things happening. Not as bad as Syria or Libya, so generally ignored by the Western press; until this weekend.

The most prominent soundbite came from Ed Miliband, a sock puppet who also happens to be the “leader” of the Labour Party. Ed waited until the thousands of tons of equipment and hundreds of people that are needed to run a Grand Prix had been sent to Bahrain before announcing that the race should be cancelled. Nice timing Ed. Still, he only made the comment once, unlike a previous interview which revealed his true intellect:

Not to be outdone, Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, waded in with the suggestion that Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton should withdraw from the race; presumably an attempt to implement foreign policy using selected British sportsmen. Paul Di Resta was excluded from her demand, either because she had never heard of him or because he is Scottish and therefore not sufficiently British.

George Galloway decided he better say something and came up with: “There is blood on the tracks and anyone who drives over then will never be forgiven.” Bonus points for referencing a Dylan album George, but minus a million for confusing rail tracks with a race track. Plus one point for your rather tasty new wife.

Should the Grand Prix have gone ahead? On the one hand it could be seen to be supporting a repressive regime; on the other hand it gave the opposition several days of publicity which it would not otherwise have received. It also gave journalists a chance to go and meet ordinary Bahrainis, and I found this from Joe Saward to be particularly enlightening.

On balance, Formula One has not enhanced its image by going to Bahrain; but it is a shining star of wonderfulness compared to hypocritical politicians in search of a shallow soundbite.

Here’s some facts for you Ed, Yvette and George:

In 2010, the British government sold tear gas and crowd control ammunition, assault rifles, shotguns, sniper rifles and sub-machine guns to Bahrain. In February 2011, when the protests kicked off, 44 export licences were revoked as a token gesture (although many remained in place). By the third quarter 2011 it was back to business as usual with all arms export licences being approved. In February of this year, Amnesty International criticised the continuing sale of tear gas to Bahrain by UK firms, sanctioned by the British government.

Feeble quotes about a motor race over one weekend; check. Sustained criticism regarding the UK government’s continuing sanction of arms sales to odious regimes; not a fucking whisper. Grand pricks.

Panasonic GX1 and positively the last lens I am going to buy this year month week.