DEC 03
faster faster !
Since it’s the last day of 2003, it might be a good time to set your computer clock. Because, this is the day when the ‘leapsecond’ comes into operation. An error of a second in a year might not seem a big deal – and it wasn’t – until GPS came along. The GPS satellites rely absolutely on a critically accurate ‘master clock signal’ . The system works by comparing the tiny time-differences which occur when signals are sent from the variously placed satellites to the receiver. So, your car ( and your mobile ) can work out where it is on the earth’s surface down to an accuracy of a few tens of centimetres.
Bearing in mind that the signals from the satellites travel at the speed of light, the time difference from one or the other is going to be very small – in the order of nanoseconds in fact. But to modern day electronics it’s no problem to detect such a small discrepancy and make the necessary calculations. But if the ‘master clock signal’ which is sent to all the satellites were to drift off-sync, even by a spectacularly small amount, that could mean disastrous errors in the positional info.
Left to its own devices, the errors would creep in over a year – not because the global sync clock runs erratically – it’s fiendishly accurate – but because planet Earth slows down ! If you set any object to spin on its axis, it will eventually slow down and stop due to friction. In space of course, there isn’t much in the way of friction, but there is gravitational drag, so, the Earth normally slows down - by a second or so every year. This slowing shows up quite dramatically when the ‘Earth’s time’ is compared to modern-day atomic clocks. Hence the need to add-in these leapseconds.
Only one problem – in the last four years or so, the Earth didn’t slow down as expected ! There is no explanation for this. There are theories , and here are some of them.
1) The massive inner-core of the Earth ( guessed to be made of molten iron ) has ‘contracted’ for some reason. This would speed up the Earth’s rotation in the same way that a ballet dancer speeds up their spin by pulling their arms in.
2) The Earth has somehow become lighter. This would speed up the rotation because the ‘conserved momentum’ of the spin would have less mass to rotate – nett result , a speed up. Perhaps the oceans have been evaporating ? If so, we’d sea-level drop – which isn’t apparent.
3) The Earth is somehow gaining energy – and imagine how much you’d need to ‘speed up’ the rotation of the entire planet – from some enigmatic source. There are plenty of theories flying about at the moment about the mysterious ‘dark energy’ which is making the Universe expand . Perhaps some of this is giving us an extra spin?
4) Lastly, the Earth’s magnetic field is allegedly caused by the rotation of the molten iron inner core ( this is only a theory of course ) , so it could be that changes in the magnetic field of the planet – which have been detected recently - are acting as some kind of motor-force on the inner core . . .
No one has any theory of any kind which can be proven – as yet. But the speed-up ( or rather, lack of expected slow-down ) is a fact. So this year, there will be *no* leapsecond. That’s official.
Any trainspotters who feel the need to set their computer clock to the exact time can download special software which will do the job, Goto.
http://tf.nist.gov/service/acts.htm
Personally, I can’t even be a***d to set the hour right.
Marshall Wade
The time has come around to name the UK ‘ Governmental Plonker of the Year ‘ For any non-UK readers an explanation of the term ‘plonker’ might be in order. It’s a fairly specific word which implies ‘a blundering half-baked slightly overweight ( possibly well-meaning ) buffoon with a penchant to shoot themselves, and anyone nearby, in the foot whenever the chance arises.’ So it’s not that easy to find someone who exactly fits the category. ( If we were looking for ‘Governmental hypocritical self-aggrandising smug bellicose lying poodle-jingoist of the year‘ then, of course, we’d have an easier task. )
But there is a clear winner in the plonker stakes:
Home Secretary , David Plonker-Blunkett.
Why ? He’s demonstrated his ability to scale the vertiginous heights
of plonkerdom on many occasions in the past, but recently he’s topped
all his previous efforts . I am, of course, referring to the National Anthem
Requirement . . .
According to the Plonker-General’s new plans ( trials will run from Jan 2004 ), when a non-Brit applies for UK citizenship and is lucky enough to get to the final stages, they will have to go through a rite of initiation called the ‘citizenship ceremony’.
Whereby they will be required to:-
‘ swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen.’
‘ make a pledge of loyalty to the UK's rights, freedoms and democratic values’
and, most importantly,
*sing God Save the Queen*
OK David , let’s hear *you* sing it, and we’ll all tag along . ( note: It is a requirement of this challenge that you sing *all* the verses , including verse six – without errors. )
In a generous gesture of assistance, here are the lyrics to verse six.
Lord grant that Marshal Wade
May by thy mighty aid
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush.
God save the King!
I once heard a superb compilation of world-famous national anthems in which the composer had edited together a few bars of each, to form a new song ! It was superb ! A perfectly distilled-down essence of outdated jingoistic puerile nonsense . . . suitable for plonkers of all ages.
If you’d like to spend a few minutes wallowing in 100% pure mouldy cheese from all over the world, no better place than the decidedly spooky :
http://www.copcity.com/anthems/anthems.html
where you can listen to dozens of anthems from Albania to Zaire ( midi format )
See also
and the plonker’s ideas at
dish watching
The radio telescopes at Stanford in the US, and Jodrell Bank in the UK are going to try to detect signals from the beleaguered Beagle2. Not from the transmitter on board – but from the probe’s microprocessor ! To me, this idea is at least as astonishing , if not more so, then the fact that a human-built spacecraft got to Mars in the first place ! The electrons flowing round the electronic circuitry on board radiate energy – interference if you like – to the rest of the universe, just as any other electronic device does. But this ‘signal’ will be very weak, perhaps in the order of a few thousandths of a Watt.
Imagine that this ‘interference’ signal – which is in fact low energy photons – was in the light waveband, instead of the 2GHz or so of a modern CPU. The ‘glow’ would be equivalent perhaps to an LED of the kind found on your home HiFi. So what the Stanford scientists are talking about is using a ‘telescope’ to ‘see’ an LED glowing on Mars ! The sensitivity of these telescopes is utterly amazing. The dishes themselves are not-so-pretty primitive metal brutes – but the sensors and electronics coupled to them is awesome. Add in a bit of year 2004 Digital Signal Processing, and it might even be possible to gather some meaningful data from the signal – high-tech snooping from 157 million Km away ! I’m impressed. Even if they don’t manage to pick up anything, the fact that it’s possible is staggering.
(p.s. Presumably , the implication is that ‘listening-in’ to a CPU from say 1Km away , is 157Million times easier . . . )
Comment ; They never did pick up a signal. On top of that, the whole Beagle2 issue has now de-generated into a mud-slinging / blame assigning scrap - none too dignified really. see "Beagle secrecy smells like a cover-up"
http://archive.newscientist.com/secure
( suscribers only )
CRS
I love the BBC, I really do. The TV side of the business ( BBC1 & 2 ) has, without doubt, been deliberately dumbed-down over the past few years, but the BBC as a whole is still one of the best sources of info and entertainment on the planet.
The taxpayer-funded, Foreign-Office overseen part, the World Service, is still going strong too, although rapidly moving away from the old ‘short-wave’ broadcasts towards FM, and it’s now providing much more local-language web-based content. And, of course, the mainstream BBC website is accessed globally on a 24Hr basis by huge numbers of people – and needless to say, all the other news providers. In a word, it’s a ‘flagship’ site.
Unfortunately, the ‘flagship’ seems to be steering an embarrassingly erratic course at the moment. Jack Schofield, one of the Guardian’s chief tech gurus, recently wrote a couple of pieces - which could well be classified as ‘rants’ – and very sensible and reasonable rants they were too. He was speculating that “most commercial websites seem to be designed by children”
So what’s up ?
The BBC’s ‘News’ website recently filed London’s biggest weekday demo in the history of the country under the ‘US’ section of their site. Two days back, a story about Lebanon was filed under ‘South Asia’. Early yesterday, the Pope’s address in St. Peter’s Sq. Rome, was filed under the ‘Americas’ section !
Purleese !
OK, I may only have Gee Dubya’s grip on geography – but at least I know the Vatican ain’t in the US.
I did wonder if perhaps they have some kind of automated keyword indexing system which blunders about shovelling news stories into the wrong places – but I’m told that they don’t. Perhaps these small slips are not considered a big deal by the website’s editors. But the BBC itself is suffering from a tech-based version of ‘the Cheap Receptionist Syndrome’
CRS works like this. Large corporation decides that in order to maintain their hard-earned, blue-chip, world-renowned position it’s essential that they present a good ‘first impression’ to visiting clients. They decide to hire the services of this year’s wunderkind design-guru to modernise their reception area. No expense will be spared. Everything goes well, and the spectacular foyer is finished on time. Then they have to hire a receptionist or two. This is where the management will spit blood rather than cough up a really good wage for a top class receptionist. They have no problem at all spending fortunes on infrastructure and consultants – but wages ? Ha! forget it !
When the corporation’s important clients come in for meetings, they will be mightily wowed by the water feature, the ultra-widescreen plasma display, and the reception desk carved by hand from a block of solid vanadium. They might be less impressed when they find a teabag in their coffee, and are then sent to the wrong floor by a receptionist who makes Mr. Bean look well sharp. They might start wondering what kind of company they’re visiting – perhaps it’s all front - perhaps it’s actually dumb from the top down . . That kind of speculation can cost the corporation - dearly . . .
I can assure readers that that middle echelons of the BBC are about as far away as you can get from being dumbed-down.
As for the ‘front desk’ ( website ) - and the penthouse offices – couldn’t say . . .
p.s Yesterday, I tried to register and vote on the BBC’s ‘Listener’s Law’ page – a great idea really – essentially a ‘reader survey’ . You have to register to vote. Only one problem . . . Doh !
Perhaps they’ve managed to get it to work by now , check it out -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/vote/vote.shtml
Moore and Darwin
Shame about the ‘Beagle2’. What went wrong ? Perhaps the airbags burst ( they had done several times in trials ). Perhaps its electronics are just being stubborn ( cold ? ) and will eventually wake up. Perhaps it’s been cannibalized for electronic components and made into a hifi by Martians. As Patrick Moore, the wonderful monocled UK astronomer is fond of saying “ Well, quite frankly, we just don’t know “ ( if you’re not from the UK, then you have the only plausible excuse for not knowing who Patrick Moore is – cut’n’paste this link )
http://www.b3ta.co.uk/patrickmoore/
The Beagle2 was named after the British Gunship that took Charles Darwin to, amongst other places, Rio, Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, and of course, the Galapagos islands, where he found some hard evidence which he needed to start formally solidifying the ideas of ‘evolution’.
Any ‘creationists’ reading this please go to
http://www.creationresearch.org/
Meanwhile, back in the real world . . .
His book ‘The Voyage of the Beagle’ is
a wonderful and eye-opening account of his journey – most of which was
spent being seasick. As well as the scientific aspects, it’s a fantastic
glimpse into the 1830’s, and there are some *very* un-pc descriptions
which are, naturally, hilarious. Here’s what he thought of ‘Thatcher’s
Sceptered Isles’ in the South Atlantic . . .
“ After the possession of these miserable islands had been contested
by France, Spain, and England, they were left uninhabited. The government
of Buenos Ayres then sold them to a private individual, but likewise used
them, as old Spain had done before, for a penal settlement. England claimed
her right and seized them. The Englishman who was left in charge of the
flag was consequently murdered. A British officer was next sent, unsupported
by any power: and when we arrived, we found him in charge of a population,
of which rather more than half were runaway rebels and murderers.
The theatre is worthy of the scenes acted on it. An undulating land, with a
desolate and wretched aspect, is everywhere covered by a peaty soil and wiry
grass, of one monotonous brown colour. “
You can read the whole book on-line, and his other works too at
http://www.literature.org/authors/
Menu for cows
When ‘Mad Cow’ disease began to surface in the UK, it took quite a while for news to leak out that a probable method of transmission from animal to animal, was the fact that farmers were in the habit of feeding their cattle ‘slaughterhouse waste’. There was a fairly widespread feeling of public disbelief and disgust at the news – how could it possibly be that the cattle farmers could be so, er, ‘imaginative’ with regard to their animal’s diet ? . . . But they were. Didn’t think twice about it. Not only that, but, the fact that scientists were drawing attention to a possible problem associated with turning cows into meat-eaters, ( cannibals in fact ) did nothing to stop the practice. It was only halted when the Government belatedly made it illegal.
So, you might think farmers across the globe, even for purely financial reasons, might have decided that perhaps the ‘let’s feed ‘em the slaughterhouse waste’ idea ought to be shelved – just to be on the safe side . . . Think again. In the US there’s no ban on the practice, so, guess what, the farmers have been carrying on as normal. The slaughterhouses blast the carcasses with a high pressure water-jet to remove any last pieces of remaining meat, collect the resulting slurry, and then mix it with cows feed. Here’s some more of the farmers’ choice cattle-rearing ingredients . . .
Today’s Menu : ( sorry, grass is off )
(main course)
De Oiled Cotton Cake
De Oiled Palm Kernel Cake
Dried Distillers Grain
Sugarcane Tops
Fishmeal
Chicken shed ‘waste’
Meat meal
Bone meal
Blood meal
Dried plasma and other blood products
Poultry meal ( i.e. chickens )
Offal
Dicalcium phosphate
Urea
Limestone
Hydrolyzed Hair
Feathers
(for desert : growth promoting antibiotics )
Oleandomycin
Lasolocid
Monensin
Narasin
Flavophospholipol
( finished off with some growth hormones)
Steer-oid
Compudose,
Synovex,
Ralgro
Melengestrol acetate
How’s the ‘cattle farmer sympathy rating’ doing ?
The official spokespersons are now confidently spinning the same line that that was used in the UK – ‘ it’s perfectly safe to eat the animals’ meat providing that all the nervous-system tissue has been removed’ . Here’s a question for the spokespersons . . .
How do you think you manage to move your jaw and tongue muscles when your do your TV interviews ?
That’s right , you manage it because animal muscle cells are connected to nerves. Duh! That’s how they work. In other words, every single chunk of ‘red meat’ ( muscle ) has thousands of nerve cells running through it. Separating the two is, for all practical purposes, impossible. Unfortunately, if you eat the meat of an animal that has had its nervous system ‘infected’ by the ‘rouge prions’ which apparently cause the disease – you may be eating some ‘rouge prion’ yourself. Maybe not much. Maybe not enough to cause any problems. Let’s hope so.
Perhaps it might be best to stick to turkey for xmas. Thinking about it, ‘mad turkey disease’ would be next to impossible to spot - judging from the way they behave when they’re healthy . . .
odd links
Time for some nothing-to-do-with-xmas links . . .
http://www.logorip.com/logograveyard.asp
An excellent idea, nicely carried out – Not sure about the copyright implications though . . Oh, who cares.
http://www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/eng/papercraft/
Japanese, as ever, lovers of paper-folding. It’s great the way a ‘blue-chip’ company like Yamaha isn’t embarrassed about putting lighthearted stuff up on their site. ( What would be the chances of say, IBM, doing that ? ) You might ride one of their motorbikes, but they started off making pianos – they still do - pretty damn good ones too.
Substantial weather forecast site . Gives five day forecasts. US based , but works globally ( even Antarctica ). A quick way to use it is to type a local three letter airport code in the search box at the top of the page. e.g. ams for Schiphol airport, Amsterdam.
http://www.mrpicassohead.com/create.html
Another great idea – which works. To encourage you to check the link, the name is a blend of ‘Picasso’ and ‘Mr. Potato Head™’ . That pretty well describes the site. Fab.
http://www.digitalsundial.com/product.html
A very clever product ( if it works ) . I can’t quite get my head round it, but it certainly looks like one hell of an improvement on the traditional design, from 1000 years B.C. and beyond.
http://entomophagy.by.ru/indeng.htm
All ( well a good start ) you need to know about entomophagy ( eating insects ). This site is nicely laid out, and has photos / recipes / links to other sites. An added fillip given by the quirky English , presumably translated from Russian. As the site says , ‘ Convince yourselves of it ! ‘
http://www.propagandacritic.com/
All one needs to know about circumventing the ever more prevalent wool being
pulled over ones eyes. Watch out for the ‘Glittering Generalities’ & ‘Name
Calling’
(see yesterday)
repeat repeat repeat repeat
There used to be a cynical old music-industry mantra ( in the old days – before it self destructed ) “If you throw enough **** against the wall, sooner or later some of it will stick” The origins of this phrase must be as old as the hills – but its application is very moderne. Let’s take an example, a word which we now hear every time we turn on a TV, dial up a radio prog, open a newspaper, magazine, or read the wrapper on packet of tea.
Today’s mud-slinger is ‘fundamentalist’
Half the time there’s a political problem of any kind which is caused by anyone who happens to live east of Cyprus, we are led to believe that it’s the work of ‘fundamentalists’ .
( Curiously, my ‘Oxford English Reference Dictionary’ cites that ‘fundament’ means , er . . buttocks, from the Latin ‘Fundamentum’- meaning ‘found’ . . . eh ? I think they may have lost the plot somewhere on that one. )
As far as I know, the prefix ‘fund----‘ means ‘deep’. In other words , a deeply held belief.
A deeply held belief, is normally regarded as a virtue isn’t it ? ( the author definitely does *not* necessarily subscribe to this view mind ! ) And it follows, of course, that the Pope is a fundamentalist. The Dalai Lama is a fundamentalist, and the supporters of Dagenham Hotspurs Football Team are fundamentalists. But when’s the last time you heard a news report which said ‘Tens of thousands of Catholic Fundamentalists held a mass demonstration of support in Rome yesterday’ ?
What are the chances of seeing a western TV prog talking about “Condi Rice, the fundamentalist National Security Advisor “ ?
See
http://www.christianitytoday.com/cr/2002/005/1.18.html
Surely, if the word is going to be used at all, it should apply in all directions, not just Eastwards.
It’s the old problem again – lazy journalism. More accurately, lazy editorship – because the editors of the newspapers and TV progs can stomp on this kind of rote bias anytime they want to – but they don’t.
Ask me, they need a good kick up the fundament.
we wish
Since the invention of the printing press, and probably before, there’s never been a shortage of stories circulating about ‘peripheral’ science. Peripheral is probably the polite word for most of it. Take for example the so-called ‘free energy’ machines. There’s hundreds to choose from – all of which claim to be ‘over unity’ devices – in other words, they claim to produce more energy than they consume – and would therefore be a free power source. As yet though, none has been successfully demo’ed for the scrutiny of the scientific community and public at large. That’s not to say that it will never happen – but as yet – er . . . nope.
There seem to be four basic reasons why these stories are always surfacing. Firstly – people want it to happen. Everyone would like a ‘free energy’ generator to power their gizmos, cars, fridges, personal-levitating devices etc etc.
Secondly, ( and dependent on the first reason ) it gives the opportunity for all kinds of con-persons and barking-mad inventors to get money out of the punters – ‘investments in future technology’ etc. So, if you fancy giving your life-savings to a dodgy geezer who claims to have a ‘working prototype’ of an engine which runs on water and consumes no energy – make sure you do see it working first ( check for hidden wires ).
Thirdly, the less-than-squeaky-clean patenting system will happily take the money from hopeful inventors ( tens of £thousands for a wide ranging patent ) , *without* seeing a working prototype, *or* endorsing the validity of the idea. ( see Memes/patents ) This allows the hopeful-inventor / dodgy-geezer to truthfully tell potential investors that s/he’s ‘has been granted a patent’ on the device – thereby upping the credibility quotient.
The fourth reason is that the very well tested realm of quantum physics – which most of these inventions predictably rely on for explanation - is so astonishingly bizarre, and so counter-intuitive to just everyone, ( geniuses included ) that almost any idea will seem quite feasible and run’o’the-mill alongside it.
A quick round–up.
The laws of physics don’t preclude ‘anti-gravity’ devices, teleportation, or ‘time-travel’ ( the last two, on absolutely miniscule scales, have already been demonstrated – kind of ) but the ‘free–energy’ inventions are definitely overstretching the boundaries of current understanding. ( That doesn’t stop respectable bodies such as NASA, the Russian government, and several of the Japanese electronics manufactures investigating the possibilities though. And why not ? )
All in all though, it looks like it’s going to be a long time before we can buy any practical applications of these ideas in Argos.
To see the shape of things to come - or to laugh yourself legless, depending on your viewpoint, see
http://www.americanantigravity.com/index.shtml
beer is good - good I tell you !
Strewth. Those Rusky’s certainly know how to put away the booze. According to the World Health Organisation, a nation is in danger of imminent collapse if the consumption of alcohol by its citizens gets above 8 Litres per person per year. They’re not mincing words here -what they are talking about is the entire breakdown and extinction of a whole country. Quite how they work out the exact figure, I’m not sure.
8 Litres may not seem all that much in a year, but that’s 8 Litres of 100% pure ethyl alcohol. Even the strongest Vodka is diluted by about 60% water. So let’s say it equates to 20 Litres of premium Vodka. Still doesn’t seem all that much, that’s only half a bottle or so per week. Surely not enough to bring down an entire country ? But the figures are ‘per-person’ - obviously, the very young, the sick and the abstemious aren’t included – let’s discount half the population, and say that the WHO’s figure boils down to a bottle of premium Vodka per week for the country’s boozers . . .
The current figure for Russia ? Nearly 2.5 bottles per week – remember, that’s for every second person in the entire country boozing mega-strength neat Vodka. There’s no doubt about it, the Russians know how to drink – they even had a recent president who publicly stood up for the cause ( not always unaided ). But it does sound like they have , er , a problem . . .
The government has become so concerned, that they’re possibly thinking about maybe doing something about it – sometime perhaps.
To give an example of their attitude to booze, beer isn’t even classified as an alcoholic beverage ! It can be sold to anyone. A five-year old can buy it if they want to. You can understand why Mr. Putin is reluctant to bring in anti-booze legislation - he knows it would be about as popular as banning pasta in Italy. He also might be bearing in mind that if half the population is semi-permanently plastered out of their wits, they’re probably not going to have the wherewithall to storm the Kremlin any time soon. (At least not very efficiently )
It seems to me that the cold facts about drinking should be taught in every school across the Russian Federation. Thinking about it, for all I know, it already is. One ice cube, or two ?
What does Big Brother eat ?
We’ve only had a hundred years of ( heavier than) air travel, and the technology of the system is still improving. The planes are getting quieter, more efficient, and faster. ( although the check-in queue may still be three hours long . Yes, you ! B.A. ! three hours . . . ) It’s so efficient in fact, that part of you can now travel at nearly the speed of light ! Not your corporal self obviously – but your personal information. It will arrive at your destination long before you do - probably via a trans-ocean fibre-optic cable.
The info in question is called your PNR. ( passenger name record ) and that includes some 34 different sets of info. Name, address, credit card info, luggage, party size, telephone, e-mail, favourite smell, etc etc. The EU has just agreed to ‘allow’ the data about every passenger to be sent directly ( and automatically) from airline databases straight to security services in the US. The story appeared in several newspapers, e.g. the UK’s Independent.
http://news.independent.co.uk ( requires registration )
As always, there are some details ‘behind’ the story, which maybe more interesting than the story itself. Thanks to Statewatch.org ( full link below ) a .pdf doc is available from the EU Commission which outlines the agreement in some detail.
Here’s a couple of interesting angles. The document mentions that they would like to see the *transfer* of data-collection from a ‘pull’ scenario to a ‘push’ scenario. ( ‘push’ meaning that the data is ‘sent’ from the airlines database as opposed to being ‘sucked-up’ by the other party ) The obvious inference is that the data is already flowing, and obviously has been for some time. A couple of years perhaps ? So, most of the newspaper headlines got it wrong. The flow of data is not *going to be* a new development - it’s already happening. ( The hard-nosed EU negotiators did manage to get an agreement whereby the data will be ‘filtered‘ before transmission though - That’s the new bit. )
The second important snippet in the document revolves around the word ‘reciprocity’ . It’s mentioned three times, but, again, none of the journals picked up on it. So, the other part of the deal is that data will shortly be flowing in *both* directions. In other words, the EU wants to do exactly the same as the US is already doing. The EU has some inconvenient ‘data-protection’ laws which will have to be circumvented, but we can safely assume this won’t be a problem – thanks to the ‘fat ginst terrism’.
Oh, the part of the personal data that those rock-hard EU negotiators wrested from the very hands of Big Bro’ himself ? They downright insisted that it be filtered from the data flow . . . The passenger’s meal choice.
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/dec/apis_en.pdf
Ichthyoid idiocy.
Those utterly committed EU fishing advisors working on our behalf had to stay up all night yesterday to come to an agreement on fishing quotas. Perseverance triumphed and they’ve all agreed - to do not much. Take cod fishing for example. They resolved to maintain the current levels of cod fishing in EU waters ( while other quotas have actually *increased*.) This is despite the fact that cod is, right now, facing total extinction.
It’s not as though they are making their half-hearted moves through ignorance of the scientific facts. They know perfectly well what’s going on – they just can’t bring themselves to make an unpopular decision ( thereby making themselves unpopular ). There is a glaringly obvious example as to how over-fished cod stocks revive ( in the fishing grounds off Newfoundland.) – They don’t.
In the early 1990’s the fish-brained authorities decided to belatedly call a halt to catches off the Newfoundland coast. What they didn’t know at the time was that when the numbers of cod get below a certain concentration – they refuse to breed. In fact, although fishing there was, in effect, completely stopped, the cod stocks have, to this day, *not* revived. And, of course, exactly the same thing is about to happen in the EU cod fishing grounds.
When anthropologists want to hurl a veiled insult at some past human civilisation – they call them ’hunter-gatherers’. According to the experts, the poor fools hadn’t evolved their thinking far enough to realise that, when the population becomes sufficiently large, farming is sustainable – hunter-gathering is not. I can’t think of any other commercial food enterprise ( apart perhaps from truffle-hunting ) which still relies on this Neolithic approach which the fishing industry still uses. They just grab the fish, and put back absolutely zilch. They make zero effort to help the fish stocks to grow – and then winge when there’s none left.
I think it’s time to throw an ‘F’ word in the general direction of the fishing industry . . . Farming ! It’s called ******* Farming guys ! Ever come across it ? The idea is that if you help nature – even in a small way – by ‘planting’, ‘rearing’, and ‘tending’ stocks, that does seem to help quite a bit in the long run. How difficult would it be to breed countless thousands of fry and then release them back into their natural habitat ? How difficult would it be to provide food for the growing fish in areas where it’s required ?
If the industry can afford to build gargantuan factory ships which hoover™ up every available life-form in the ocean for kilometers around ( most of which gets ground up to make fertilisers ) – it’s pretty obvious they could find the cash to fund a breeding programme. Nowadays, using in-vitrio fertilisation techniques, breeding countless zillions of fry of most species is a doddle.
For the time being, the only time the fishing industry bosses and their EU overlords use the word ‘fry’ – it’s around lunchtime.
Prudence’s conjuring set.
Last week Gordon(prudence)Brown announced two important things in his ‘pre-budget’ speech. The first, was that he was a running a little short of cash, so the government will have to borrow £37Billion ( and a projected similar amount for the next three years ) . Secondly, he’s not going to raise taxes – at least until after the next election.
I hope the reader won’t object if I go through an on-line train-of-thought exercise to try to understand what’s going on here – because there’s something wrong – I can smell it . . .
What’s the first question a person would ask him/herself it they were about to borrow a huge wedge of cash? – Where’s the cash coming from and how much is it going to cost. Seen any mention of that anywhere ? Anywhere at all - in all the plethora of press articles, TV reports etc etc ?
Maybe I missed it.
I may be wrong, but I’d guess that Gordon is going to get his £37B from a bank ( or banks ). I find that an interesting possibility, because it implies -
A) that some bank somewhere has got v a s t reserves of cash somewhere that
it’s aching to find a use for, and,
B) they are going to make a small fortune out of it. Let’s assume they charge a really low rate of interest , say 3% - they stand to make £1,110,000,000 in a year – which is nice.
So, where is Gordon going to get this extra £1.1Billion ? As far as I know, there’s only one place he can get it ( unless he borrows even more ) – that’s from government taxes. But he just announced that he wasn’t going to raise taxes ! So where’s it coming from?
Aha ! I know !
*perhaps he’s taking it from the taxes everyone is already paying*
To sum up. Rather than raise taxes, ( which Gordon reckons is unpopular with the electorate ) he’s decided instead to borrow money, and have the taxpayers cover the interest payments. In effect, forcing the taxpayers to take out a loan they never asked for. That £1.1B could be going towards, say, building a new squeaky-clean, year-2004, no-expense spared, flagship hospital, like the one being built on top of the old M-eye-5 site in London’s Gower St. In fact, it’s enough for *four* new ones like that one.
Instead, it’s going to consolidate a bank’s ( or banks’ ) profit sheet.
By the way, the German government must have had wind of Gordon’s conjuring trick, because they have just announced that they will be doing *exactly* the same ‘creative accounting’ ruse. Actually a slightly more exaggerated version, because they are borrowing cash so that they can reduce taxes, by €15Billion. The German electorate aren’t quite so daft as the government think they are though. A recent ‘Stern’ poll showed that 63% could see through the scam, and thought it wouldn’t help economic growth, and won’t create more jobs.
It seems to me that this sort of fiscal sleight-of-hand is an insult to the intelligence of the taxpayers. Perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps prudence is correct. One thing’s for sure though – at some stage this gigantic wedge will have to be paid back. Maybe Gordon’s got something up his sleeve – a new electromagnetic spectrum licence auction perhaps ? ( see 8th Dec ) . Or maybe some fat corporate tax cheques will be in the offing when all that Caspian oil and gas starts arriving.
The Information Commissioner’s Office. ( ‘out to lunch
- back soon’ )
The ICO, is, apparently the UK government body overseeing the implementation of the new anti-spam legislation. I’m not sure ‘overseeing’ is the right word, because, at the moment, their field of vision appears to be somewhat restricted . . .
According to a zd.net report, they have been inundated with enquiries regarding the new legislation which *can* fine spammers up to £5K. ( note, ‘can’ - as opposed to ‘will’ ). The zd report directs readers to the ICO’s website where they may fill in a form to complain about spammers . . .
The site ( curiously for a flagship governmental agency specialising in IT ), has all the design elegance and operability of a bag of coathangers. Blind links, pages which are 59 words wide ( I counted - on my monitor, that’s just under 1 metre across – just a touch tricky to scroll and read ). I couldn’t find any mention of ‘spam’ anywhere, but they do have a handy ‘search’ facility. Here are the results for the search for the word ‘spam’, reprinted exactly.
Search results
< Previous | Next >
Document search results
The phrase ‘About as useful as a chocolate teapot’ springs to mind. Maybe I just couldn’t find the form, perhaps it is there, hidden 59 layers deep in the submenu structure. In other words, an IT version of the tried and tested government department scam regarding public-access documents . . .
“ The plans for the new transcontinental airport runway were clearly displayed in the Orkney Islands sub Post Office between the hours of 2 and 3am on the morning of Sunday the 29th Feb. as required by law. If you didn’t go and inspect them, that’s your problem “
– or perhaps it’s been pulled. Anyway – marks out of ten
for helping in the war on spam - zero . Personally, at the moment, my problem
with spam is that it’s so boring. Why are all the e-mails the same
? Can’t they come up with anything other than Viagra ? How
come I don’t get spam about topiary, or hydraulic actuators, or Schönberg
?
–
– here’s the link to the story
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105-5123684.html
and here’s the government’s helpful contribution
http:www.informationcommissioner.gov.uk
sound of silence
The Performing Rights Society (PRS) is the UK ‘non profit making’ organisation which collects royalties for composers. Everytime a piece of music is played on UK radio or TV, they collect a royalty for the person who composed it ( if they’re still around. ) They also collect royalties for performances, and recorded music which is played in public places like restaurants, etc. They even collect on the jingles used by ice-cream-vans !
But recently, they’ve discovered a new seam to mine. Ringtones . (The PRS claims 5% of any revenue generated.) It’s rumoured that the royalties collected on ringtones nowadays often exceeds all the other income for a UK hit single. In the last four years they ( and the MCPS ) have collected £2.5M on tones. It is, as they say, ‘appnin’ . . .
The owner of a left-field dancemusic label was lately lamenting over the recent drop-off in sales ( 'not appnin’ ). He cited two contributing factors. One, the obvious reason that his customers now download’n’clone the music which they used to buy a couple of years back. The other reason, which came as a surprise to me, but makes perfect sense, is that “ The kids don’t have any cash to spend on vinyl and CDs anymore – all the money goes on their monthly mobile bill . . .”
So now we have the bizarre situation where the customers will willingly commit ‘illegal’ downloading ‘crimes’ so they can get their fav tracks for nothing - but will quite happily pay out £’s to get a cheesy midi file of the same track for their mobile . . . er . . . what ?
There’s even a ‘silent’ ringtone which has become a hit. Following in the tradition of ‘silent’ singles ( e.g. ‘Hearing Mud Dry’ by GX Jupitter-Larsen & The Haters ), and ‘silent’ classical compositions ( John Cage’s 4’33” ).
I’m all for it me. In fact, if there is demand, I will be happy to sponsor a ‘silent ringtone’ on this site for free download. In the pipeline - ‘silent car-alarms’, ‘silent country-music’, and ‘engine-less motorbikes’.
cut n pastes
A quick follow-up to the piece about the difference between Advertising and News. ( see 14th Dec )
A google search for “Enele Soponga” today came back with three hits. ( Mr. Soponga is acting as spokesperson for the low-lying island nation of Tuvalu, where they are very concerned about the possible sea-level rise due to Global Warming . . . )
Here is what the UK Guardian says
“ . . . Enele Soponga, chairman of the alliance and ambassador
to the UN of the Pacific island of Tuvalu, said his country and its 12,000
people would be the first to go under . . . “
Here is what the Tapei Times says,
“ . . . Enele Soponga, chairman of the alliance and ambassador
to the UN of the Pacific island of Tuvalu, said his country and its 12,000
people would be the first to go under . . . “
Here is what the Sydney Morning Herald says,
“ . . . Enele Soponga, chairman of the alliance and ambassador
to the UN of the Pacific island of Tuvalu, said his country and its 12,000
people would be the first to go under . . . “
( The SMH then goes on to say :
“ This material is subject to copyright and any unauthorised
use, copying or mirroring is prohibited.” )
Laugh ? I nearly ctrl/v’d myself. There are two tiny anomalies with this story . . .
The first, which none of the three mentioned, is that there has been a sea-level monitoring rig installed on Tuvalu for a decade now – *it has registered no rise in sea level*. Don’t you think that might be worth a mention ? Possibly add a little frisson to the story ?
The second unfortunate glitch is that the gentleman in question is actually called ‘Enele Sopoaga ‘ according to the UN , where he is ambassador. I think we can safely assume that at least two, possibly all three articles were snaffled-up in a lazy cut’n’paste job don’t you ? OK, all three articles were published in ‘journals’ – but this isn’t journalism, it’s just recycling.
If you’d like to help the Tuvalese, register a domain name with the suffix .tv ( as in http://www.harry-hill.tv ) The island’s Ministry of Finance and Tourism gets a yearly royalty, and it’s now the largest source of income for the country ( at least that’s what I read in the paper ).
‘Cartoons about bacteriophages’.
That’s today’s bizarre search referral.
I think even the Guardian’s Steve Bell would have trouble
creating a funny picture about them. The spell-checker I’m using doesn’t
even recognise the word. But I would like to mention them because they have
enormous potential. The potential to save our skins in fact. There are countless
thousands of different types of bacteriophage, ( viruses which attack bacteria – literally ‘bacteria
eaters’ ) , we can be sure that there are more countless thousands
totally unknown to science. As Steve Jones recently pointed out – we
don’t even know most of the bacteria yet, let alone the viruses which
infect them ( “ If you squash a fly, there will be a thousand bacteria
inside it unknown to science” he said recently ).
Their uses ? Many western hospitals are now facing huge problems with so-called ‘superbugs’ These
are bacteria which, though natural selection, have become immune to the commonly
used antibiotics used to combat infections. Helped along by indiscriminate
over-use of the antibiotics, there are now some strains of bacteria ( until
now, mainly inhabiting hospital wards ) which are immune to *all* the currently
known antibiotics.
If ( i.e. when ) these bugs leak into the environment at large, we are all, potentially, in big trouble. But this is where the ‘phages come in. Some hospitals in Russia have been undertaking pioneering research into their use to combat infection. Bacteria can’t become ‘immune’ to a ‘phage, it just eats them and that’s that.
The scheme works like this – and it’s not for the squeamish . . . The hospitals send teams to far-off sewage outlets which have their source in the hospitals drainage system. They collect the sewage. They filter it, and then sterilise the soup in such a way as that all the bacteria are killed – but *not* the ‘phages. They are then in possession of a liquid which contains phages which are specific to their very own hospital. And cleaned-up solutions containing the phages are used to inject patients with chronic and life threatening bacterial infections. It works. Lives are saved – without causing any superbug problems.
The doctors don’t know which particular phages are present, or exactly how they work – they just know they are there, and they do.
Try making a cartoon out of that !
comment: There are now medical trials going on in the UK which are using 'phages to clear up infections ( at present only in animals - dog's ears to be precise ). Human treatments are expected to begin in 2005.
Unfair and unbalanced.
Time to repeat the old quote : “ News is when somebody, somewhere, doesn’t want the public to know ; the rest is advertising “
A good example is the film-industry press junket system . . .
Film studio hires PR agency to promote their product.
PR agency contacts publications, i.e. newspapers, magazines, TV etc , and invites the companies to send along an ‘accredited’ reporter to the ‘exclusive’ opportunity with the ‘filmstar’.
Journos arrive, and are given 10 minutes each with the star ( who ,by the way, hates the whole thing “ I’m an a c t o r dammit, not a sales rep !” – but they’re contracted to do it ) If the interview is for a TV station , they don’t even have to take along a camera crew, there’ll be a static camera set up already for them. The PR company even provides them with a blank videotape.
In effect, all the media is doing is providing a free production and distribution service for the film-company’s advertising product. If a journo were to ask an even slightly ‘difficult’ question, that’s the last time that particular company will get invited to the junkets. They will be cut out of the loop, and, from their readers / viewers point of view, will appear to be losing their handle on up-to-the-minute-hot-news.
Exactly the same syndrome operates in political / government arena. Journos from the top TV networks and newspapers are invited to ‘informal’ ‘off-the-record’ briefings by “sources close to the _____” ( insert President, Prime Minister, Ambassador, etc etc ) That way, the media get their story a day or so before the other publications who weren’t invited. Only problem – if they criticise the powers-that-be, they’ll not get invited again.
Lately, similar media-manipulation techniques have emerged whereby journos are ‘embedded’ ( a.k.a. in-bed ) with army units when there’s a war ( officially ) in progress. They are bused around in groups and carefully herded to not-too-disturbing sites to make their reports. If they step out of line ( in either sense ) – they’ll get disembedded PDQ , or worse – become collaterally damaged.
The ultimate effect of all this, is that the two distinct types of news report seem to be rapidly diverging. The first is up-to-the-minute hot news – and is very heavily manipulated – in other words ‘Advertising’.
The second type is not so hot in the temporal sense, but may get a little nearer the truth. Needless to say, the second type is much harder work to produce, and much more time consuming – viz. expensive. So it’s always going to be much more scarce than the first type.
So. Do we want ‘Advertising’ served up really hot, and lots
of it ?
Or tidbits of real ‘News’ which arrive after our appetite has moved
on . . .
hot news
It seems that all the major Japanese electronics companies are rushing to develop miniature fuel-cells to power their electronic gizmos. A couple of days back, another one, Hitachi issued a press release about their new cell, which is scheduled for launch in 2005, and will be the same size as a standard AA battery. Several tech-news websites featured details of the release.
When the same story appears reprinted in various publications using *exactly* the same words and phrases, I can’t help thinking of the words ‘cut’ and ‘paste’. I guess the tech-journos involved just don’t have the time to think about the stuff they regurgitate without question – which is a shame.
To me, the interesting part of this story is now what’s in the press release - it’s what is *not* in the release. For instance, not one of the sites which I checked mentioned the ‘H’ word – heat. ( The clue is in the name guys . . . )
As yet, I haven’t got my hands on a miniature fuel cell – and I’m not sure I’d want to. Unless I’ve completely misunderstood how they work, aren’t they bound to get viciously hot ? ( perhaps it’s just a coincidence that Hitachi has teamed up with a cigarette-lighter manufacturer to produce their cell . . . ) Fine for powering an electric car, where you can hide the hot stuff under the bonnet (hood). Not so good to carry around in your pocket.
The second interesting point is that all the cells run on methanol. They can, of course, be built to run perfectly happily on methanol’s first cousin ethanol, which can be produced in vast quantities, very cheaply, by green tech ( whereas methanol is mainly made from fossil fuels ). In Brazil, which has a very large infrastructure to produce alcohol for car fuel, a litre of neat ethanol, enough to run one of the cells for days, currently costs around £0.25 - and that’s with the government’s hefty fuel tax on top! Of course, if the manufacturers had chosen ethanol, then they wouldn’t be able to sell their special ‘fuel-cell fuel’ which will undoubtedly accompany the product’s launch.
Worst of all - you won’t be able to drink ‘fuel-cell fuel’. Doh ! Bunch‘o’kill-joys.
comment : There's not a mention anywhere in the tech press ( unless we've missed it ) about the excess heat problems associated with fuel cells for mobiles / PDA's etc. All the major manufacturers are falling over themselves to create new versions - because even the most modern batteries just can't provide enough power. But where is all the excess heat going to go? Into your pocket / briefcase / hand ? . Really Magazine spots a fiasco on the horizon . . .
Lighter than air ideas.
As we know, oil is dirty. It stinks. It causes horrendous pollution, and multi-billionaires ( who have a penchant to create wars etc etc. ) . Largely because of the reinforcement of air-pollution laws, but also because of governmental pressure, all the major motor companies are currently testing prototype hydrogen powered vehicles. There are already vehicles available , and hydrogen filling-stations in various countries – following Iceland’s lead. Consumers like the idea because the exhaust from a hydrogen powered engine is mostly water. The manufacturers like the idea because the current engines can be easily modified to run on H2. ( The other method uses so called fuel-cells, which are essentially H2 > electricity converters.) So, all in all, the ‘hydrogen economy’ looks like a great idea. There are however, two problems. Two very big problems unfortunately.
Firstly. How do you generate the hydrogen in the first place ? The obvious way is to get it from water – but, because hydrogen is such a reactive element, it takes a lot of energy to separate it from it’s preferred partner, oxygen. The energy needed is usually supplied in the form of electricity, which of course has to be generated somehow. Most of the global electricity supply is currently coming from oil / gas fired power stations – and nuclear stations. There will have to be an awful lot more of these facilities in the world to supply the H2 for a global transport system. The pollution / security problems for these stations is of course very well known.
So, the idea that H2 vehicles won’t pollute is a myth. They just shift the very visible source ( your car’s exhaust pipe ) to a largely invisible one ( a giant power-station somewhere ). Of course, it would be possible to use ‘green’ electricity sources, such as wind power , wave power, solar panels etc. But at the moment, their contribution to global electricity supplies is pitiful.
( note * there are several other methods for producing H2, but all need very large energy input. The most common commercial method derives hydrogen from – guess what – fossil fuels, especially coal ! Hence the great interest from countries which have large coal reserves – but dwindling oil supplies. Any countries spring to mind ? )
The second problem also has to do with hydrogen’s chemical reactivity. It burns. The US's NFPA ( national fire protection association ) rating for hydrogen is 4, the highest danger-rating they’ve designated. In fact, in under normal conditions it burns so fast that, in effect, it explodes. A hydrogen fire is not like a petrol fire. It’s really, really, dangerous stuff. Also, because the H2 molecule is so small ( the smallest in the universe as far as I know ), it leaks out from just about any container. It’s been estimated that around 10% of the gas would leak out if a true ‘hydrogen economy’ was in operation. That means an awful lot of extremely nasty accidents. An overturned and leaking petrol tanker on a motorway would be a harmless inconvenience compare to a similar tanker full of hydrogen. Traffic accidents would shift from a crash>possible-fire scenario to a crash>guaranteed-explosion one.
It’s very hard to see how a solution to these problems will be found. If the H2 could be produced solely by ‘green’ electricity generation, that would help. But then, why not just store the electricity in batteries and run electric vehicles ? The safety issue might be solvable, say, with an H2 absorbing gel which only releases the gas on demand – but that hasn’t been invented yet. Oh well, back to the drawing board.
Fossil fuels, or fossilised thinking ?
George Monbiot recently wrote ( yet another ) interesting essay for the UK’s Guardian :
entitled ‘Scraping the Barrel ‘ His idea was to draw attention to the fact that oil reserves are rapidly being depleted, and may become ( even more of ) a cause for conflict. He points to the fact that many recent oil-discoveries have been very small compared to earlier finds.
There is however, one fundamental problem in determining if there are any more huge reserves waiting to be discovered. Viz. *We don’t actually know where it came from*. Nowadays, it’s more or less totally taken for granted that oil + gas + coal all came from decaying vegetable matter in past aeons. Open any encyclopedia, school textbook, etc and it will explain the origins in detail. What they don’t explain is that it’s just a theory – not a proven fact. Here’s some problems with the theory.
In the past couple of decades, there have been numerous ultra-deep ( 5Km plus ) drillings into the so-called ‘foundation rocks’ in various parts of the planet. The boreholes are basically going through solid quasi-volcanic rocks the whole way. Guess what ? They can pump oil from 5Km deep from the middle of a mass of solid granite. There is no possibility that decayed plant matter has ever been there, or anywhere nearby. There are no sedimentary rocks.
Ever cracked open a piece of coal and found a fossil leaf inside ? They’re pretty common. But, howcome the coal, which, we are told is the product of decayed organic matter and massive geological pressure and temperatures – has a preserved leaf in it ? Why didn’t that particular leaf get liquefied and turned to carbon just like the rest of the stuff ?
The carbon-based deposits, coal > oil > gas etc are usually found in that order. In other words, the deeper you drill the *lighter* the deposits get. Ultra-deep drillings tend to find very lightweight and highly purified compounds – they never come across coal. If the deposits all got there from the gradual deposition of plant and other biological remains, wouldn’t the lighter materials tend to be on top ?
Perhaps the most obvious hole in the theory is the absolutely mind-boggling amounts of the stuff which we’ve found so far. Especially coal. Even in the UK, where coal-mining has all but been abandoned, the *known* reserves could power the entire country for another 200 years ! ( not that that would be a good idea of course ) The quantity of coal / oil / gas / tars / bitumens which we already know about is far too gargantuan to have been the product of previous life-forms. Life-on-Earth simply hasn’t been around long enough.
Lastly, recent advances in remote sensing devices have made it possible to analyse the radiation reflected from objects in deep space. The ‘signatures’ of various chemical compounds show up unmistakably in the data. And so far, many of the objects analysed, especially comets, are shown to be carrying hydrocarbons. Many comets are now suspected to have cores which are essentially tar. In short, just about any direction in which the sensors are pointed, hydrocarbons, and other organic molecules, can be detected, ( as an aside, a vast intergalactic cloud, light years across, was recently discovered to be composed almost completely of ethanol - drink – drink ! ) If other spatial bodies have vast hydrocarbon reserves – why not Earth ? Perhaps it’s been there since the formation of the planet ?
One factor in the taught-in-schools version is however, indisputable. Most of the oil / gas / coal contains chemicals which are definitely – beyond doubt – the product of living cells. But, as with the previous example, recent research has popped this balloon as well. Until the discovery of the ‘Black Smokers’ - deep-sea volcanic vents - it was thought that life couldn’t possibly exist in ultra-caustic conditions. No light, very little oxygen, and temperatures which can melt plastic. But, in fact, as we now know, life is there in abundance. And the recent deep drillings into solid rock have found bacteria happily growing ( albeit very slowly ) 5Km inside solid granite. The bugs are everywhere, and of course, they inhabit the oil-rich rocks too . . .
The ‘Abiotic’ theory - that oil did *not* originate from a fossil source - is more than a hundred years old, but it seems to have completely vanished from the scientific horizon. You won’t hear many geology experts talking publicly about the above mentioned problems. If they were to ‘fess up, to the much more interesting scenario - that we ( and they ) have no idea where it all came from – then they wouldn’t be experts anymore would they ?
As the techniques for deeper drilling and surveying get ever more sophisticated, my guess is that we’ll find more and more hydrocarbon deposits. There may be temporary shortages, but we’ll still be finding it many, many, years into the future.
Planet Earth is basically swimming in the stuff.
Cash for Gas Rush.
Need extra cash? Let me show you how !
It’s easy ! Carbon Dioxide, that ubiquitous gas that bubbles out of your lager, is worth $4 a tonne ! And what’s more those carbon-suckers at the World Bank will buy it from you ! Well, actually, they don’t buy the gas as such, they buy ‘Negative CO2’ or ‘AntiCO2’. So you’ll have to find a way of ‘losing’ a few tonnes to get your hands on the cash. There’s $100M up for grabs ! Despite the Russian dithering over the Kyoto signing, the EU carbon market alone is expected to be worth $10Billion in three years time !
Here’s some ways to lose the gas which qualify for the cash.
1) “Revegetation of semi-arid and arid lands with shrubs or grasses” : Pretty straightforward ! Just find a bit of desert somewhere, or sand-dunes perhaps, and throw some grass-seed about.
2) “Use of biological residue to produce energy”: Hmmm, ‘biological residue’ presumably includes, erm, human-waste-products. You can quite easily build a fermenting tank which will generate methane, which is a very good energy source. During WW2, it was a common sight to see cars driving about London with gas-bags full of methane on the roof. ( Unfortunately , methane is an even more potent ‘greenhouse gas’ than CO2 - but don’t tell ‘em that )
3) “Improved fire management” : Wait till the summer, and see if you can catch an arsonist about to set fire to some woodlands. ( Last year there were plenty in Europe, US, and Australia ) Catch ‘em and claim your reward !
There maybe could possibly perhaps be a touch of bureaucracy involved, so here’s some helpful jargon that’s been culled from various official sites. And you might have to fill in a few forms too. ( you can download the first form at http://biocarbonfund.org )
(CDM) Clean Development Mechanism
(ERPA) Emission Reductions Purchase Agreement
(PCF) Prototype Carbon Fund
(ODA) Official Development Assistance
(IPCC) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(SBSTA) Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice
(GPG) Good Practice Guidance
(UNFF) United Nations Forum on Forests
(FAO) Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations
(CDCF) Community Development Carbon Fund
(ESSD) Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development
And lastly, but most importantly,
(LULUCF) Land-Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry
As pointed out elsewhere on this site ( see ‘memes’ ), the ideas behind the so-called ‘carbon sinks’ are, unfortunately, far from solid. In fact, even the planting of new forests, which you might think would be a good way of temporarily locking up some carbon, probably doesn’t work either
( see http://www.newscientist.com )
For the time being, it maybe best to keep the cap on your bottle of lager. ( that’s worth $0.00000008 already )
Hey , nice brick !
The U.K.’s auction of ‘3G’ bandwidth raised just under £35Billion for ‘Prudence’ Brown. That’s enough to knock 20p off income tax - for everyone UK taxpayer - for a year. The lottery was a complex affair, with some hundreds of bidding rounds, sent in by fax. Apparently, some of the ‘winners’ of the auction, like B.T. have been complaining recently that they paid too much ! Honestly ! What uncommonly bad-sports ! Normally when you buy something at an auction, you don’t go around complaining afterwards that you bid too high.
Perhaps they’re miffed at having to fork out for the right to use, what is, after all, just a part of the electromagnetic spectrum. If the argument was taken to it’s absurd extreme, and the frequencies in the bands keep increasing as they have been, the government could end up selling space in the nanometer waveband. In which case, I fully intend to bid for my favourite shade of blue / green. (specifically 26,189,137 RGB )
In the meantime, the actual implementation of the 3G ( also known as UMTS ) isn’t exactly going swimmingly. The agreed system protocol is, to say the least, unwieldy. The frequency bands are ( yet again ) different in the EU , US, and Japan. ( Duh ! )
Curiously, one of the main hurdles is the battery-life of the handsets. They rely so heavily on graphics, the LCD screens, like digital cameras, eat battery power – big time. Because of this, and the increased circuit complexity, the available ‘phones are much chunkier and heavier than the rinky-dinky ones which everybody is already used to . . . As time goes by, doubtless the problems will be ironed out and the phones will become more practical.
But for the time being, the words ‘exorbitant’ , ‘dog’s’ and ‘breakfast’ spring to mind.
share and share alike
UK readers may not have come across a bumper sticker which has become commonplace in the US. viz. “What kind of car would Jesus drive ?” As I understand it, the rhetoric is meant to draw attention to the fact that, if he were around today, he probably wouldn’t be the proud owner of a ‘gas-guzzling’ SUV. As far as I know, there is no official answer to the question as to his projected favourite mode of transport– perhaps it would be a hydrogen-powered smart vehicle – or maybe a Segway™.
But I’d like to propose a new sticker. viz “What kind of shares would Jesus buy” In other words, is it possible to be a ‘Committed Christian’ and yet support companies who make, for example, ultra-lethal weapons and torture devices ? Apparently the answer is ‘Yes, absolutely, no problem ‘
Trying to work how any sane person could hold such a view – I’ve come up with three possible scenarios to explain the phenomenon.
1) The person concerned is so fundamentally stupid that they don’t simply don’t see that there could be a conflict of moral views.
2) The person concerned has attained an advanced Zen-like mental state, whereby utterly opposing viewpoints can passively co-exist in their brain at the same time.
3) The person concerned actually doesn’t give a ****.
Well, I really don’t know the answer. There’s only on thing for
it. Ask an expert. Let’s go straight to the top and ask someone who might
be qualified to know. Well Tony, what do you reckon ?
See:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk
and:
Organ donation is in the headlines ( again ).
A leading ‘bioethics expert’ Prof. John Harris, has (again) managed to get newspaper headline space with the idea that there could be a ‘market’ for live organs in the EU. The debate is about as old as transplant surgery itself. There are obviously huge problems with the prof’s idea that people should be legally allowed to sell parts of their body. Most countries now have laws which prohibit the practice, but of course there is a thriving black market. Quite how the ‘bioethics experts’ hope to get round the problem of financially-challenged people reluctantly selling-off bits of their body – or even being forced to do so – isn’t at all clear . . .
There’s another factor here which isn’t at all clear either ( not to my mathematically-challenged brain anyway ) . There are currently around 10Million registered organ donors in the UK. On top of that, as I understand it, all residents in Greater London are automatically considered to be ‘opted-in’ to organ donation. That adds another 7Million or so. Let’s round down the figure and say that, in the UK, at any one time, around 15Million people are potential donors.
Without wanting to dwell on the macabre, a small percentage of those 15M will die in any given year. Assuming that the average lifespan of a UK resident is a generous 80 years, that means 1/80th of the donor-pool will become ‘available’ each year. That’s a stonking 187 thousand donors per year ! Each one of those will presumably have more or less the usual number of organs viz. 2 kidneys, 2 lungs, 2 corneas, one heart, some kilos of bone-marrow and several chunks of liver etc etc. In other words, the total number of organs available will run into millions. Many will, unfortunately, be aged and diseased, but a good proportion will be perfectly fit for transplants.
Of course, many will not die in circumstances which permit the speedy removal of their organs, but, again, a good number will. There are also tissue compatibility issues, but, every year, this becomes less of a problem due to advances in anti-rejection drugs. In short, there will definitely be tens of thousands of transplant opportunities every year. Now for the actual figures. As an example, let’s see the numbers of kidney transplants that took place from deceased donors in the UK in year 2002 . . .
According to http://www.uktransplant.org.uk the number was 1286.
If someone could please let me know why it’s so pitifully low I’d be very grateful. To make the overall picture even more peculiar – the figures have been going *down* more or less every year !
Looking for a plausible explanation, the words that spring to my mind would be ‘inefficiency’, and of course, ‘disorganised’ . Is it possible that, in fact, there is no lack of donors, but there’s a gross systemic failure of the NHS to get things sorted ? Could it possibly be that the health authorities haven’t got the time, the cash, or the wherewithall to get a proper system into operation ? Is there any likelyhood that hundreds of perfectly good organs get binned every day ?
the British Organ Donor Society ( yes, I did notice the acronym ) has info
on how to register as a donor. http://users.argonet.co.uk/body/
Mystery sparrow conundrum continuum.
There is still no answer as to why the common house-sparrow isn’t common anymore. In certain areas of the UK, numbers have fallen by 90% in ten years or so. The decline has been particularly noticeable in inner-city areas like central London, where the cheeky chirp of the sparrow has all but disappeared. There are several theories as to why this should be – but none of them quite stacks up.
Here’s a few:
1) ‘Because of increased pesticide use, there is a severe decline
in the number of food insects that the sparrows eat.’
– Can’t be right. The bird’s decrease is most pronounced in
urban areas. Anyway, house sparrows eat all kinds of stuff, seeds, plants, scraps,
not just insects.
2) ‘They have succumbed to a mystery virus’
- Possibly. But there are plenty of other birds thriving in and around cities,
it would have to be a very, very, specific virus only to affect sparrows.
Also, despite constant recent research, no plausible candidate virus has
been found in any dead sparrows.
3) ‘They are especially sensitive to the new ‘anti-knock’ chemicals,
like MTBE, added to ‘green’ petrol since lead-based additives
were phased out’
-Possibly again, this would account for their more rapid decline in urban areas,
- but, if so, why aren’t other birds affected ? Also, the numbers started
declining *before* the introduction of the new additives.
4) The UK government website ( http://www.defra.org ) helpfully offers other possible causes such as ‘an increased number of sparrow-hawks’ and , believe it or not, ‘ ‘increased incidence of traffic fatalities’ .
Purleese.
The RSPB still have no idea what the problem is, despite an extensive public-assisted survey. The British Trust for Ornithology has no clue either. But their website does have some interesting data on the numbers across the UK. Although the decline in the southeast is dramatic, the numbers in Wales have *increased* by a huge 63% in eight years ! . . .
Perhaps the sparrows have collectively decided to ‘downsize’. They’ve moved from Knightsbridge for a quieter life on smallholdings in Llanidloes.
p.s. The Independent Newspaper still has an as yet unclaimed £5000 prize for anyone coming up with a convincing and provable explanation.
Serious play.
PaPeRo™ is NEC’s ‘Partner-type – Personal – Robot’ . It understands the Japanese for ‘Sweet Potato’ ‘Give me a tongue twister’ and ‘Dance!’ amongst other things, and is able to recognise faces . It can also check your e-mail, tune the TV to your favourite channel, and pirouette with your children. It particularly likes to be patted on the ‘head’.
NEC is one of the companies in the gargantuan 400 year old Sumitomo group. An organisation which has interests in electronics, glass, cement, timber, insurance, warehousing – you name it. They decided to produce the robot as a research tool ( and PR exercise of course ) with regard to human / computer interaction. It’s very refreshing the way that giant Japanese companies (e.g. NEC, Honda, Seiko, Sony etc etc ) ‘go for it’ robot-wise. They don’t seem prone to the slight tinges of embarrassment which Western companies have regarding ‘cute robots’ . . .
Despite NEC’s publicity drive, and the fact that it’s been under development for several years now, it’s still not available for sale to the public – which I think probably means a) it’s not finished yet , or b) it doesn’t work properly yet, or c) it’s too darned expensive, or d) the lawyers are worried for some reason.
You can see one ( it ? ) at various exhibitions though, and the company has a special website ( link below ) where you can learn how to interact with it . The site might possibly benefit from hiring the services of an agency specialising in the way phrases translate into foreign languages . .
Hang on a minute, what am I saying ! NEC can hire *me* if they
want to - for a reasonable consultancy fee of course – I’ll even
pat them on the head if they like.
http://www.incx.nec.co.jp/robot/tech/index_e.html
global luke-warming
Oh dear. In think Russia is morphing into America. It looks like they won’t sign off on the Kyoto protocol after all. After six years of effort from more than one hundred countries - it’s pretty much a crispy duck. As reported here on 1st Oct , there is more than a little confusion regarding the reasons why they won’t be signing. The CO2 emissions from Russia are on an upward trend again, but they’re still low enough for them to be able to earn billions of dollars by selling their ‘carbon credits’. Evidently this is not enough to offset whatever other motives which they have for not signing.
There is one obvious reason though . . . “So, the world warms up a bit? So what ? Do you think we worry about that here in Irkutsk ?”
Current Conditions
Updated: 5:00 AM IRKT on December 03, 2003
Observed at Irkutsk, Russia
Temperature
-24 °F / -31 °C
comment : July 2004. They still haven't decided one way or the other. The current distilled media projection is that they will sign.
Vertically Challenged
It was back in September that the manufactures of the Segway™ self-balancing personal transporter issued a recall notice for some 6000 or so machines. Some of the ‘empowered pedestrians’ as the company’s website charmingly describes them, had been having problems. The problem, summed up, was ‘ battery level depleted = self-balancing errors’, or perhaps more succinctly ‘run down = fall down’
The ‘Human Transporter ™’ relies completely on an electronic device known as a VSG, which is in essence a micro miniature solid-state gyroscope. It’s so sensitive, and so accurate, that it can provide more than enough data for an onboard computer to subtly alter the power to the ‘scooter’s’ wheels in real-time, and so keep it upright. ( unless the batteries get too low of course , Doh ! ).
Why mention it now ? Because it’s an excellent example of the ‘trickledown
effect’ recently featured here. ( see 26th Nov ) The crucial
gyro device which the Segway™’ uses, is a product
of our old chums, the UK’s BAE systems ! ( World-ranking
#4 arms maker , see 28th Nov ) .
Their main website proudly describes the device as being ‘Gun Hard’ ,
in other words, it’s so robust ( unlike any other form of gyro ) that
it can literally be fired from a gun and continue functioning. According to
their blurb, this allows - “Cruise missile level accuracy to artillery
shells for the first time.” - Which is nice.
Of course, like very many military-electronic devices, it’s ended up trickling down for commercial use, and millions of the sensors have now been manufactured for use in all kinds of products from cars and trucks to, er . . Segways™ .
Here’s the last curious twist. The manufactures website goes to great lengths to emphasise that the device should *not* be used in any machinery where a failure “ could create a situation where personal injury or death may occur. “ . er . . . what , like artillery shells for example ?
See the full amusing disclaimer at ( if you can get the site to work, I
think their batteries must be a bit flat )
http://www.siliconsensing.com
then check
http://www.baesystems.com/newsroom/
very soft ware
Yesterday, I was trying to install half-baked-piece-of-old-cack #214 on my computer.
Funnily enough, it didn’t work as it should have done, so I decided to uninstall it – as you do. During the process, I happened to glimpse an on-screen progress-report which said that the programme was ‘unpublishing registry entries’
Unpublishing ? Is there such a word? Well, I guess there is now – because people are using it. It’s a very odd word though, because it has a kind of self-puncturing internal logic. As far as I know, to ‘Publish’ comes from the same root as ‘public’ - in other words, it puts something into the public domain. Once something has become public, how can it be made ‘unpublic’?
I’ve come up with a couple more such unlikely words – unliquidise (as in a milkshake ) , and unpop ( as in a balloon ). Both of them defy the second law of thermodynamics, as does ‘Unpublish’.
Perhaps the programmer who was responsible for posting that particular message had a highly tuned sense of humour, choosing to use ‘unpublish’ instead or ‘remove’ or ‘erase’ – or perhaps he/she is a couple of coupons short of a pop-up-toaster . Judging from the way the bloatware behaved when it was ‘working’, I wouldn’t be surprised if the latter is the most likely explanation.
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