In Louisiana, they’re rebuilding old oil rigs as platforms for an offshore wind farm. This is about the coolest thing I’ve heard in years. When do we start doing this in the North Sea? It’s not like we haven’t got enough dead shipyards. On a related issue, Lotus seems to be enjoying a new flush…
Read More Oilrigs to turbinesThe immeasurable SpyBlog has been doing fine work reducing the bamboozlement certain bloggers have been propagating regarding government e-mail addresses and the cash-for-peerages inquiry. (Shorter: “x.gsi.gov.uk” domains denote the top level of network security, not TEH SEKRIT EMAILS!!) But the Spy has found something, though – as well as the netblocks assigned to Energis and…
Read More Wardriving TonyWell, Mick Smith quotes the Parachute Regiment’s journal as saying that Brigadier Butler was forced into going along with Operation MOUNTAIN THRUST, the offensive the US command in Afghanistan initiated the month before General Richards arrived in Afghanistan. Read the whole thing. This is much as I thought at the time – essentially, neither the…
Read More Here we go again, again, againOK, so this guy’s designed a little program that is intended to provide access to pay-for-play wireless LANs. The idea is simple – one host actually pays up, and connects to the WLAN, and then acts as a proxy for other users, who treat the “WiFi Liberator” as a WLAN router. My initial thought was…
Read More This is Radio Clash on pirate WLANJamie K, hence the Madchester title, takes issue with a Johann Hari column arguing in favour of National Service on the grounds that it will make politicians less likely to go to war. Two points: first, as a commenter points out, making the army less efficient as a way of preventing war is stupid. It’s…
Read More why not just bounce it and see just what goes wellOK, Slugger O’Toole quotes the complete lobby briefing by PM’s Spokesman Tom “Walter Mitty figure” Kelly. What struck me is not just that the Big Kahuna moving through the joint is a cop these days. That was obvious enough, ever since Angus McNeil and Norman Baker punched through the crust of elite consensus. No-one had…
Read More Sheena’s party, that’s a case in pointDoes the idea of “embodied energy” convey any useful information whatsoever in the vast majority of its applications? I ask because I recently read about the difficulties faced in calculating this metric. For the uninitiated, it means the energy consumed in creating one unit of product X. People concerned about climate change and the supply…
Read More Useless metric of the decadeWell, I haven’t read the IPCC report yet, but I can report that I got my hands on an advance copy of Tim Worstall’s reaction to it. Here goes: Those scientist chappies are awfully clever. But what about this tangential issue? Here’s what the MSM isn’t telling you: if you make entirely different assumptions that…
Read More IPCC: First ReactionThings I haven’t listened to for ages…but did today. Propellerheads’ Decksanddrumsandrockandroll album. On a similar theme, Delroy Wilson does “Conquer Me” live…
Read More the tape recorder, for special musicJohn Reid, we hardly knew you.. It’s not looking good for him, is it? His strategy, on taking over the Home Office, appears to have been one of pre-emptive disclosure, trying to get the toxic waste out in the open as quickly as possible and get it over with. You poor fool! Wait until you…
Read More The politics of permanent crisis