Nuclear Nations

Was reading an article about how Iran is a couple of years away from creating a nuclear weapon.

There seems to be large amounts of contradictory information about Nuclear Weapons. If a 'rogue state' is involved, the sources talk about how difficult it is to make a nuclear weapon - they seem to need to build nuclear power plants first.

When they're talking about terrorism, it suddenly becomes very easy. There's this article from the BBC telling us that basically anyone can make a nuclear bomb, with a couple of important caveats.

Which one is true? How can Iran be two - three years away from a nuclear weapon if all someone needs is a bit of nuclear waste and a bit of chemistry training?

Personally I think the danger from nuclear weapons is exaggerated. If we set off many across the world, there would be a huge disaster. However, one or two bombs wouldn't cause much damage (on a global scale).

Also, why bother keeping them. It may all be a cunning trick. As the important people tell us, we need nuclear weapons so that we can credibly threaen to use them. In order to acheive this goal, all we need to do is convince people we have a nuclear weapon. Convincing people we have a nuclear weapon would be a good use of £10bn...

Heat - George Monbiot's New Book

I do hate George Monbiot on many levels. He has a very strong 'holier than thou' attitude to almost all of his campaigning issues. He very rarely gives people credit for trying. "You may have saved one million dolphins, but you still don't pay your migrant workers a living wage".

This book is a vision of how to deliver an almost Carbon Neutral Britain (and world) by 2050. It's very ambitious and very interesting. Once you get past his first two chapters, it's quite a good read. It should be used as a model for people wishing to make a point about anything campaigny. Everything he refers to is sourced, he talks through his calculations and he is good at actually using decent numbers.

Overall, there were some interesting ideas which I'm going to have to check out:

• DC Power Lines (a new, more efficient way of moving large amounts of electricity around)
• Passive Houses (extremely well insulated houses which don't need heat)
• Peer to Peer National Grid

The Peer to Peer National Grid sounds the most promising. The majority of energy inefficiency in electricity generation is due to heat escaping. This could be harnessed by putting small scale generators in each home. THe power transmission lines would then allow energy exchanges between households.

My main problems with his book is that the assumptions used to postulate that we need to reduce a carbon emissions by 90% seem slightly ropey. He goes out of his way to criticise a group of people for not being fully trained in science, but then talks about a wonderful paper by someone who wasn't trained in science (one page later!?).

To be fair though, this is a good effort and worth a read or two.


Here

Social Suicide Suits

I love my industry. Selling things to people who don't need them.

What's a good example?


This link.

I would love to go into a shop and try and get someone to sell this product to me.

Why is this man now Minister for Science?

'pioneering work on hypothermia, Old and Cold: hypothermia and social policy'

Now that sounds like good science.

Admittedly Lord Sainsbury wasn't much better, but at least he'd been in a position before government to appreciate how important Science is to modern life.

I don't believe a sociology lecturer is the right person to be in charge of Britain's research budget.

New degree reflects music's digital direction

Coventry University is setting up an 'e-music degree' - a degree in how to distribute and promote music online.

How can you do a degree in how to upload stuff to MySpace?

Where do the teachers come from - the internet has been a mainstream medium for around six years, maximum. Who can claim to know more than the people who have grown up through the system?

I doubt the contacts that Coventry University offer their prospective students are very strong - MySpace UK has about thirty staff, up from one at the beginning of the year.

Looks to me like a waste of time for whoever does it. Their best option is to ignore the course and use the student loan to fund their time making music.

The internet is a good distribution option for good music . Student's time would be best spent learning how to make good music rather than learning how to distribute the end product. I also think it will be tough for any university or teacher to show people how to make good music. If you're composing, you've either got it or you don't (in my opinion)

Now that's just silly

Now that's just silly
Originally uploaded by mild_swearwords.

Some people get into the christmas spirit.

Others put a couple of decorations up around the house.

The REALLY committed can't bear to not have Christmas imprinted on every single thing they do. This means they have to involve Christmas at their most intimate moments.

Morrissons have bravely stepped up to the challenge and provided what we've always wanted - christmas themed loo roll.

Idiots. Anyone who buys this deserves to have their money stolen.


Might make cheap wrapping paper though!!