Monthly archives: March 2005

Can't get there from here

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on by

Ever since Sept. 11, 2001, the federal government has advised airplane pilots against flying near 100 nuclear power plants around the country or they will be forced down by fighter jets. But pilots say there�s a hitch in the instructions: aviation security officials refuse to disclose the precise location of the plants because they consider that �SSI� � Sensitive Security Information.

�The message is; �please don�t fly there, but we can�t tell you where there is,� � says Melissa Rudinger of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, a trade group representing 60% of American pilots

(Can’t Get There From Here- REM)

Technorati tag: ,

God's own country

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on by

Yorkshire could be the site of a Christian theme park.

The �144m park “where Disney meets the Bible” will feature a holy roller-coaster based on the story of Jonah and the whale, a Garden of Eden bio-dome (with prelapsarian nudity?) and a recreation of the parting of the Red Sea.

At its heart will be a Noah’s ark, although whether it will be built of gopher wood as specified in Genesis is unclear. But it could well be correct in size, the length of it “300 cubits, the breadth of it 50 cubits, and the height of it 30 cubits”.

Wasn’t this in an episode of The Simpsons, where Ned Flanders had a similar plan and everyone started having visions because of escaping gas?

Technorati tag: ,

I-401

This entry was posted in Canal Russia Submarine World War 2 on by

A large World War two Japanese submarine has been found on the sea bed off Oahu. The sub was captured at the end of the war whilst on a mission to drop germ bombs on US cities, or bomb the Panama Canal, using the folding wing bombers it could carry in its hold. When Russia wanted to inspect I-401 it was scuttled to keep the secrets of the largest pre nuclear submarine from them.

Technorati tag: ,

Green, White and Blue

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on by

Over half of US conservatives surveyed, and 67% of NASCAR fans, now consider it patriotic to buy a more fuel efficient car. The numbers come from a survey carried out for lobbying group 40mpg.org, which exists to convince the country’s law- and car-makers that they should aim for a mandatory fuel consumption average of 40mpg. If, as the survey suggests, half of all car owners are already switching or contemplating switching to more efficient transport, the good old market economy may force the change for them.

via Jalopnik

Technorati tag: ,

Armchair Ecowarrior

This entry was posted in Solar Power on by

What’s a part time ecowarrior to do? More importantly, for an election blog, how should they vote?

Tony Blair recently unveiled plans for sustainable development. A key part of the plan seems to be a call to make overseas governmental trips carbon neutral, investing in renewable energy and energy efficiency projects to offset the air travel. Is there something we’re not being told about ministerial travel?

More substantially, there’s going to be a “national task force on sustainable public procurement”. This is more like it, but what will it apply to? Purchasing? Light and power? New buildings? The place to go to find out has to be the Labour Party website. Type “Sustainable development” or “environment” into the search engine and you get……..?

Not quite nothing, but really this tells me nothing. Are new hospitals going to get solar water heating? Could city academies be as radical in their low impact design as their educational ethos? I’ll never know if I look here.

Try the same search at the Conservative or Lib Dem sites and you find substance, such as recent speeches by Tim Yeo and Charles Kennedy. Finding that Tory central office is carbon neutral was a pleasant surprise, and both parties say they’ll do something to make aviation pay its environmental dues. In terms of detailed plans Yeo wins over Kennedy. Hoever, the latter is proposing a dedicated Department of Environment, Energy and Transport. I could argue with aspects of either speech, but at least they’ve been presented so I can argue them.

Labour has a nice picture of a field with bales in it. (Square bales, mind. All the farmers where I used to live had switched over to round bales before I went to University over a decade ago. Are the publicity photos even up to date?)

Maybe when the phoney war ends and we enter the election campaign proper Labour will start telling us more, in greater detail, about what they’ll do if given another four years. Or they may carry on saying nice things illustrated with pretty pictures and hope we’ll be fooled again.

I wrote this last week when asked to produce an example blog for the Today programme, which is recruiting bloggers to cover the election. Wish me luck.

Technorati tag:

Gone Fishin'

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on by

This one’s not for sale, it was my Dad’s birthday present. I did some minor modifications to a Harburn Hobbies fishing boat. Nothing major, just some painting and two pairs of tyre bumpers for when it pulls up to the harbour wall.

Before

The wheelhouse roof

The wheelhouse as a whole

The bumpers

After

I didn’t do any weathering, I need to practice that a bit more before attempting it on anything so expensive. There’s also no load, because I didn’t get the time to make anything I could take moulds from, and no crew also because of a lack of time.

Pedal Power

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on by

New uses for the good old bicycle dynamo. The Pedal & Power system takes any car charging adapter and can be used to recharge mobile phones, GPS and perhaps even laptops as you cycle. I’d love to be able to bike out to somewhere leafy, do some writing and then come home, maybe even emailing it straight to Spinneyhead before I return.

covered in more depth by Treehugger.

Technorati tag: ,